Editing Giuditta Pasta (section)

==Pasta's voice==
[[File:Gioacchino Giuseppe Serangeli - La cantante Giuditta Pasta.jpg|thumb|Pasta in 1821 by [[Gioacchino Giuseppe Serangeli]]]]

Giuditta Pasta's voice was described by a ''[[New Monthly Magazine]]'' reviewer in 1824 as follows:

:It is a mezzo-soprano, somewhat similar to that of [[Lucia Elizabeth Vestris|Madame Vestris]], but clearer, more powerful, and of greater compass. She commands two octaves, but two or three of the highest notes of this range are forced, and not agreeable. Her middle tones are fine and full-bodied; but, occasionally, notes escape in the lowest half octave, which are husky and harsh. In point of cultivation and science, she possesses, first of all, the rare merit of a pure intonation. We have not heard her once out of tune.

Her voice type was what could be called a [[soprano sfogato]]. It was described by [[Stendhal]] as follows:
:She can achieve perfect resonance on a note as low as bottom A, and can rise as high as C{{music|#}}, or even to a slightly sharpened D; and she possesses the rare ability to be able to sing contralto as easily as she can sing soprano. I would suggest ... that the true designation of her voice is [[mezzo-soprano]], and any composer who writes for her should use the mezzo-soprano range for the thematic material of his music, while still exploiting, as it were incidentally and from time to time, notes which lie within the more peripheral areas of this remarkably rich voice. Many notes of this last category are not only extremely fine in themselves, but have the ability to produce a kind of resonant and magnetic vibration, which, through some still unexplained combination of physical phenomena, exercises an instantaneous and hypnotic effect upon the soul of the spectator.

:This leads to the consideration of one of the most uncommon features of Madame Pasta's voice: it is not all moulded from the same metallo, as it is said in Italy (which is to say that it possesses more than one timbre); and this fundamental variety of tone produced by a single voice affords one of the richest veins of musical expression which the artistry of a great cantatrice is able to exploit.<ref>Pleasants 1981, p. 374</ref>

In 1829 named ''cantante delle passioni'' by Carlo Ritorni, one of the most erudite critics of the period, he described her as such because her voice was directed "towards expressing the most intense passions, accompanying it with expressions of physical action, unknown before her in the lyric theatre".<ref>Carlo Ritorni, ''Annali del teatro della citta di Reggio'' (Bologna, 1829), p. 192 in Rutherford 2007, p. 112</ref>

In modern times Susan Rutherford has made a specific comparison with Callas:
: For the impact of corporeality on vocal timbre and delivery, and in the absence of Pasta's own explanations of its effect, we might turn to another distinctive ''attrice cantante'' (and one who sang much of Pasta's repertory) from a quite different period, Maria Callas. She also argued that gesture and facial expression must precede word in order to create the appropriate vehicle.<ref>Rutherford 2007, p. 117</ref>

:It isn't merely fame that makes Pasta interesting:... Pasta's singularity is measured rather by the tone and extent of the debates her celebrity provoked, by her influence on the operatic stage, and by the timing of her career at the transition from Rossinian opera to the works of Bellini and Donizetti (with all the stylistic ramifications this implied). No other singer during that period attracted as much intellectual discussion, or was regarded as of such significance in the articulation of theories around operatic practices. For such reasons alone, Pasta is deserving of critical attention.<ref>Rutherford 2007, p. 108</ref>
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