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Contralto

The lowest womon's singing voice; on her lowest notes, she sounds almost like a man, often leading to people mistaking them for men on the radio, telephone, or wherever.

The alto range, which is below soprano, is really a mish-mash of the mezzo-soprano range and the contralto range; the mezzo-soprano is the higher of the two.
The contralto voice is pretty rare since there is little work that was written specifically for them. Countertenors, mezzo-sopranos, and often tenors, baritones, and basses take the roles that were written for them.
by Sam October 28, 2004
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Baritone

Moi.

The medium male singing voice. Plays the nasties in opera and musical theater: cruel prison wardens and other villains.
It's a rather sensuous voice range... although the tenor range is quite sexy for moi... what does it matter?

Tenor, baritone, or bass, the male voice turns me on!
by Sam October 28, 2004
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Soprano

The highest womon's singing voice, usually limited to womyn and children.

Plays the heroine in opera and musicals...
Ranging from sweet, innocent little maidens, to long-suffering victim womyn and a few villains or semi-villains.
Sopranos... ranging from high, fluteish, tweety birds... to steely, powerful, DRAMATIC Wagner roles
by Sam October 28, 2004
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Sadism

From the Marquis de Sade, enjoying inclicting pain, fear, and/or general suffering

Witnessing
the same things inflicted on others.

Similar to schadenfreude, but sadism is often more sexual in nature.
What are you-?! Get that snake away from me! You know that I'm scared of them-! What did I tell you?! Stop it! You're so damn sadistic!
by Sam October 29, 2004
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Bass

The lowest male singing voice. In opera and musicals, they play buffoons, kings, priests, fathers, the Devil, and other miscellaneous parts. Male counterpart to the contralto, although much more common.
Whoa, now that's low! I like the bass! So majestic, so elegant... but it sounds kinda spooky.
by Sam October 29, 2004
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Countertenor

The highest male voice; in speaking and singing, countertenors have the normal range of a tenor, but are able, by singing in falsetto, to go higher, into the contralto/alto range, mezzo-soprano range, and, with the great ones, into the soprano range.

They are usually assigned roles written originally for the castratos, yanking those roles away from the contraltos.
Is that a female alto singing...? It sounds different... it's probably a countertenor.
by Sam October 29, 2004
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Castrato

In the early days of opera, womyn were not allowed to sing in public, not even in a chorus. How to fill in the female roles in opera? Pick a choir-boy with a great voice that has not yet deepened, by consent of their parents, perform a little operation on them, removing the testicles.

Results? Without the hormones needed for adulthood, their voices remained sopranos and altos while their chests and lungs matured regularly, their voices combined male power with female beauty. Now they were able to successfully pull off female roles onstage.

Today, this practice is illegal.
Farinelli was the most legendary castrato... history says these things, but can it make you believe them?
by Sam October 29, 2004
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