Spinto

Appearance move to sidebar hide

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Spinto" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Spinto (Italian for "pushed") is a vocal term used to characterize a soprano or tenor voice of a weight between lyric and dramatic that is capable of handling large musical climaxes in opera at moderate intervals. (Sometimes the terms lirico-spinto or jugendlich-dramatisch are used to denote this category of voice.)

The spinto voice type is recognisable by its tonal "slice" or squillo. This enables the singer to cut through the wall of sound produced by a full Romantic orchestra in a wide variety of roles, excluding only the most taxing ones written by the likes of Richard Wagner (such as Brünhilde, Isolde, Tristan and Siegfried), Giacomo Meyerbeer (John of Leyden), Verdi (Otello), Puccini (Turandot, Calaf) and Richard Strauss (Elektra).

• Spinto soprano: a fundamentally lyric soprano with a fair amount of extra "pulp" in her tone and a distinct thrust in her vocal attack. As they possess both a lyric and a dramatic quality, spinto sopranos are suitable for a broad spectrum of roles, ranging from genuine lyric parts such as Micaela in Carmen and Mimì in La bohème through to histrionically demanding Verdi heroines such as Leonora (in Il trovatore and La forza del destino) and Aida, not to mention Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Tosca. Lighter Wagnerian roles such as Elsa in Lohengrin or Elisabeth in Tannhäuser also fall within their domain. Elisabeth Rethberg is a famous example of a soprano who sang exactly this kind of mixed Italian and German repertoire.
• Tenore spinto: the tenor equivalent of the above. He can convincingly sing roles as lyrical as Rodolfo in La bohème, the Duke in Rigoletto and Alfredo in La traviata, yet still excel in parts as heavy as Cavaradossi in Tosca, Don Jose in Carmen and Radames in Aïda. Canio, in Pagliacci, and Lohengrin are other well-known examples of spinto tenor roles.

See also

• Fach

References

1. ^ "Musical Giants of the 20th Century: Spinto Tenor". Interlude.hk. 2017-01-07. Retrieved 2019-10-14.

External links

• A recording of six different sopranos singing "Vissi d'arte", illustrating the sound of a spinto voice and how it differs from a lyric voice; hosted at parterre box. In order: 1) Lyric (Claudia Muzio); 2) Spinto (Leontyne Price); 3) Spinto (Renata Tebaldi); 4) Spinto (Zinka Milanov); 5) Lyric (Montserrat Caballé); 6) Spinto (Antonietta Stella)

v t e Opera terms by origin
English	Breeches role Chest voice Concert performance Duodrama Head voice Insertion aria Mad scene Melodrama Monodrama Number Opera house Patter song Prompter Sung-through Surtitles
French	Claque Coup de glotte Divertissement Encore Entr'acte Haute-contre Intermède Overture Répétiteur Roulade Timbre Tragédie en musique Travesti
German	Fach Gesamtkunstwerk Kammersänger Kapellmeister Leitmotif Literaturoper Regieoper Singspiel Sitzprobe Spieloper Sprechgesang
Italian	Aria Aria di sorbetto Arioso Banda Bel canto Bravura Brindisi Burletta Cabaletta Cadenza Cantabile Castrato Cavatina Chiaroscuro Coloratura Comprimario Contralto Convenienze Da capo aria Diva Falsetto Falsettone Fioritura Impresario Intermezzo Legato Libretto Licenza Maestro Melodramma Messa di voce Mezzo-soprano Musico Opera seria Ossia Passaggio Pasticcio Portamento Prima donna Recitative Ritornello Sinfonia Solita forma Soprano Soprano sfogato Spinto Squillo Stagione Stile rappresentativo Tenore contraltino Tenore di grazia Tessitura Verismo Vibrato
Other	Hovsångare

This article about an opera or opera-related subject is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e