High Life

108 品 斯图茨曼的多元才能及艺术成就固然引人注目，而且取得如此功绩的女低音 可是万中无一。简而言之，女低音是女声中最低的声部，在合唱音乐中占有举足 轻重的地位，至今仍在宗教音乐中扮演重要角色。格奥尔格·弗里德里希·亨德 尔、约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫、费利克斯·门德尔松和爱德华·埃尔加等人创作 的神剧，无不以女低音为基础。令人诧异的是，女低音在古典音乐领域不断被边 缘化的同时，在流行音乐中却大行其道，岂非他山之石，可以攻玉？ 女低音的名气远不及女中音，更遑论女高音。对广大古典乐迷而言，当世顶 级女低音伊娃·波德雷舒、萨拉·明加尔多、玛丽-妮可·勒缪、索尼娅·普里纳 和德尔菲娜·加卢等等，也不是家传户晓的名字，充其量只是小众市场。意大利 国宝级女中音西莉亚·芭托莉几年前接受英国《卫报》采访时，曾慨叹古典音乐 作曲家总是偏爱女高音，导致女中音缺乏经典咏叹调。平心而论，女中音至少可 以女扮男装，演唱假声男高音的咏叹调，效果往往出乎意料地好，但女低音却没 有这个机会。 Stutzmann’s enormous repertoire, multiple talents and musical achievements rightly set her apart as does her increasingly rare contralto voice. The contralto is, in a nutshell, a classical singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest among female voice types. In choral music, contralto – usually referred to as alto within this context – is an indispensable component and it remains the bedrock in religious music, for example oratorios by George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn and Edward Elgar. Contraltos are, however, a rare breed elsewhere and even the leading ones in the field such as Ewa Podleś, Sara Mingardo, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Sonia Prina and Delphine Galou cannot compare to mezzo-sopranos, let alone sopranos, in terms of fame. In an interview with The Guardian a few years ago, virtuoso mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli famously lamented that composers had tended to focus on the soprano voice, leaving mezzo-sopranos with few illustrious arias to sing. In all fairness, mezzo-sopranos can at least take up “trouser roles” and sing countertenor arias. The same is not true for contraltos.