The very first time mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe ever sang in an opera, she was a 17-year-old college freshman at Potsdam State University in New York. The opera was Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi,” and she sang the contralto role of the matronly aunt Zita.
“Gianni Schicchi” is a comic opera set in 13th-century Florence. When the family of the newly deceased Buoso Donati read his will and discover he left everything to the church, they enlist the clever but poor Gianni to disguise himself as Buoso and ask the town notary to change his will before he dies.
Abel said Puccini was remarkably gifted at composing music for the different worlds in which he set his operas. He created Chinese-sounding music for “Turandot,” Japanese-inspired themes for “Madama Butterfly” and a bold Roman sound for “Tosca.” Abel said that for “Suor Angelica,” Puccini wrote religious music infused with elements of Gregorian chant. And for “Gianni Schicchi,” he created light, bubbly music reminiscent of the comic second act of “La bohème.
Since the male castrati singers fell out of fashion in the 1800s, female mezzo-sopranos have sung the so-called “trouser” or “pants” roles of pubescent boys such as Cherubino in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” or Hansel in Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel.” But until now, male tenor and baritone roles have been off-limits.Back in the early 1900s, British contralto and recording artist Ruby Helder expressed a desire to sing operatic tenor roles.