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Mr. Baltimore,
To search the THRUTH, I have followed your own advice and I have read the biography of Marilyn Horne called "MY LIFE" (New York, 1983). In this book relating the faboulous career of a great MEZZO SOPRANO in our time, I have awared of the fact that Ms. Horne has consacrated her career in the only mezzo soprano roles only from the end on the 1970's (toward her fourthy years old and also when she was at the very zenith of her powers). In 1955, already identified as a mezzo, Marilyn Horne ghosted Dorothy Dandridge's voice to make a Carmen Jones in the film soundtrack recording, curiosely a voice for a "soprano lyrico" (if you look at the score). Between 1957 and 1960, she sang, at the Opera of Gelsenkirchen in West Germany, quantity of soprano roles: Mimi in La Boheme, Minni in La Fanciulla del West, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Titania in Eugene Oneguine, Marie in Wozzeck... DID MARILYN HORNE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MEZZO??? You have owershadowed (or deliberately hidded) a big part in the career of Ms. Horne? It is true that Cecilia Bartoli has a slightly higher voice than Marilyn Horne and I don't want to argue about this. Cecilia Bartoli has already responsed about it, she qualifies herself as a light coloratura mezzo soprano. But are you more flexible and less tended to catalogue the voice of Marilyn Horne that you are with Cecilia Bartoli? Ms. Bartoli concentrates herself on the music who is good for her voice and this attitude is essential for a career longevity!!! Did Marilyn Horne interpretated roles being not suitable for her range? These kind of comments are ridiculous if we don't forget the story of the voice. When the category "mezzo-soprano" was coined in the mid-ninetheenth century, it refered less to range than to dark vocal color, mellow and velvety qualities of a voice. In those days, all singers, not just women, were expected to have the flexibility for florid music. Once a vocal line was written out, singers were expected to add embellishments when the verse was repeated, to show their skills to best avantage. In those days, there was not much distinction between female voices. Instead to try to discover a little imperfection in Bartoli-land, may I suggest to perfect your own intellectual rigour and to put into practice what you reproach to Cecilia Bartoli for ALL singers if you want that we believe you. But is is hard for me to believe you because I haven't the same tendency to "TRAP" the voice with as much rigidity.
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Did Marilyn Horne has always been a MEZZO???? 
Ms. Bartoli's Met Debut or De Butt
(ron baltimore)
