The opera sky in new lighting

Edition Breitkopf has set out to reorganize the opera singer repertoire - what a laudable undertaking! The special feature: The arias have been selected according to vocal criteria, range, tessitura and role type, and this closes a major gap. Until now, when you bought an aria album, you usually had to deal with works across all disciplines, with perhaps five or six arias fitting your own profile ...

The aim of this collection of repertoire is to compile good sheet music, organize it clearly and present it in a user-friendly way. This is achieved by organizing it according to vocal subjects. This is interesting for university students and lecturers on the one hand, but also for singers who are already in professional life and want to expand their repertoire, are considering a change of subject or are preparing for theater auditions. The collection contains both popular audition arias for the respective vocal subject, but also integrates less well-known and less accessible material, for example from classical modernism.

The first two of four volumes for soprano have been published: Volume 1: Lyric coloratura and Volume 2: Lyric - subdivided into lyrically easy and lyrically difficult. According to the publisher, the volumes Dramatic Coloratura and Dramatic Soprano will follow at the end of 2017.

In this first volume for coloratura soprano we find a pleasingly broad and varied selection, ranging from Handel's Alcina to Mozart's Blondchen, via Lakmé, Juliette and Olympia to more modern roles such as Strauss's Zerbinetta and Cunegonde from Candide by Leonard Bernstein. This volume contains 27 arias and is supplemented by a CD-ROM with aria texts in the original language as well as German and English translations of the texts.

An appendix also contains individual comments on the arias: Range and playing time, their positioning in the context of the opera as well as their content, characterization of the figure and as icing on the cake, so to speak: methodical notes from the singer's point of view, singing technique and stylistic tips (in these commentaries you virtually "hear" an experienced singing teacher, as each of us has certainly had at one time or another - and even bilingually ...).

The series, which began with the two soprano volumes and three baritone volumes, is to be continued for alto, bass, mezzo and tenor and will conclude in 2019.

OperAria. Repertoire collection edited by Peter Anton Ling and Marina Sandel, € 29.80 each, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2017

Published so far:

Soprano:
lyrical - coloratura EB 8867
lyrical EB 8868

Baritone:
lyrical EB 8877
lyrical-dramatic EB 8878
dramatic 8879;