Before an all-Rossini recital in 2005, her response to the composer was a resounding, "Meh!" ("I'd seen quite a few boring productions by that time," she adds.) However, a Glenn Gould Studio recital in Toronto programmed by former CBC Senior Music Producer Neil Crory, which chiefly showcased the dramatic Rossini, proved a turning point for the contralto. It was when she first looked closely at Semiramide, Tancredi and L'Italiana, and "it's when I first realized I could sing Rossini."

The Foreign Affairs Recreation Association and the State of the Arts Cultural Series recently presented concerts featuring talent ranging from saxophonists and pianists to a contralto.

Headset (in memory of my mother) Rachmaninoff's Second is upon me;/ I conjure all the opera music you knew,//how lush your contralto heart, how fine your gloss/of Kansas City piano music; how swift your frock//at the Comus; I watch you cutting papa's/hair; there ain't no hair like his under those deft fingers.//"Write nothing down," you said;/no notes fine enough, not even ashes.

1620-c.1660), who created the prototype of the first operatic prima donna; Nancy Storace (1765-1817), Mozart's "Susanna" (in The Marriage of Figaro) who masterfully combined comedic talent and acting ability with singing; Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865), whose tremendous vocal and dramatic talents inspired Bellini's Norma and whose singing Chopin called "sublime"; Wilhelmine Schroder-Devrient (1804-1860), whose dramatic performance of Fidelio profoundly influenced Wagner's development of music dramas; Jenny Lind (1820-1887), the superstar who literally took America by storm; and Marian Anderson (1897-1993) whose determination and lovely contralto voice helped break down racial barriers.

Sterlin's rich contralto takes Holmes's voice to a higher and sometimes supercilious pitch than Mary Russell's and imbues all the characters with appropriate inflections and tones without troubling too much about getting accents exactly so.

Tafelmusic Baroque Orchestra, with Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto. Recorded in 2003, at Humbercrest United Church, Toronto.

CASSANDRA WILSON is back with a wonderful new recording, GLAMOURED (Blue Note), on which she continues to mesmerize listeners with her incredible sensual earthy contralto. She opens the 12-song set with her seductive take on Sting's "Fragile," accompanied by inspiring guitar from Fabrizio Sotti (who also produced the recording).

lThe Queen has her 14th success of the season as Contralto (William Hastings-Bass/Willie Carson) beats Chancery Bloom (Paul Cole/Geoff Baxter) in the nursery at Yarmouth.

The fashionable flash of generational mistrust and the basic narcissism of the age are somewhere in the subtext of her soft contralto. That I can run my affairs literally into the ground is oddly appealing.

Those with lower-pitched voices--baritone, bass, contralto, and mezzo-soprano-had longer vocal cords and wider vocal tracts than did those with higher pitched tenor and soprano voices.

Marian Anderson Vanessa Shaw Accompanist/Nazi guard/ Paul Robeson Ivan Thomas Kosti Vehanen/Sol Hurok/ Harold Ickes/Orpheus Fisher Mark Edward Lang Welcome Home, Marian Anderson" is not really a play and not quite a recital, yet as a work-in-progress the piece offers a great deal of valuable information about the celebrated contralto and concert artist, as well as some distinctive vocalizing.

"I am crossing a river so deep and wide / Lord, lead me on to the far side," Judy Kuhn's unaccompanied contralto keens.

After the Daughters of the American Revolution denied Marian Anderson the use of Constitution Hall for a concert because of her skin color, the famed contralto instead sang at the Lincoln Memorial before 75,000 people on Easter Sunday, 1939.