Strong, warm and rich singing voice moved me (and others) to tears

GRACE Nyandoro, a captivating and exuberant soprano, delighted the Opera Prelude audience at the latest lecture/recital.

The audience were charmed by the generous number of excellent musical examples she performed and was accompanied by Guy Murgatroyd, an empathetic and stylist pianist.

The theme of the morning had several strands which led to a lecture packed with lots of detailed information. There were also plenty of illustrative examples via both recordings from a wide range of singers, as well as illustrations sung by Grace.

She introduced herself as a lyrical soprano. She has rich lower tones and once warmed up, an impressive range. In her lecture, “The Voices of Angels: The evolution of soprano roles in opera”, she introduced us to five types of soprano following the Fach system. She covered the singing range and typical roles associated with each type and gave recorded or live examples.

All this information was put into a historical perspective. Lots of charts were used to summarise as we progressed through the lecture. There was a lot of information to take in.

The five types include the coloratura soprano, which is a light agile soprano voice capable of very high notes and very fast ornamentation; the lyric type, a warm bright voice; spinto soprano, a combination of lyrical and dramatic, among others. To illustrate her voice type, we were enchanted and moved by her excellent performance of Summertime from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess , a highlight.

Since the blossoming of opera in the 1600s, there have been changes in musical style, vocal techniques and type of story found in opera. Early opera favoured stories from myths, for example Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas , whereas opera of the 19th century, the Romantic era and the beginning of the 20th century started to portray real people. For example, Mimi, the seam mistress in Puccini’s La Bohème .

Grace’s thesis was that there was some change in the types of women’s roles across time, partly reflecting societal changes. Examples of different roles were given of the “innocent ingénue”, “the noble woman” and especially the “femme fatale”, which became popular in the Romantic era. We were treated to two stunning examples, Musetta’s flirty aria from La Bohème (Puccini) sung by Grace and Carmen’s seductive role by Bizet.

Grace’s strong, warm, vibrant voice was a delight to listen to. She could quickly assume a character and convey contrasting emotions from full exuberance to tenderness. I wasn’t the only one to be moved to tears when she sang the Gershwin lullaby.

Susan Edwards