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When I was in Catania, I visited the Bellini museum. They have, there, the score for "La Sonnambula" as adapted by Bellini for Maria Malibran. Make no mistake about it, in modern terms, Malibran would be considered to be a mezzo. The basic tessitura of the role was moved downwards and there are various alterations in the musical line given to Amina. But Bellini's (and many Donizetti) operas tend to have rather low-lying tessitura. Indeed, consider also that orchestra pitch has risen steadily over the last two-hundred years, so that a "high" role that both a soprano and a mezzo might have shared has been made more distinctly "soprano-ish" by the rising pitch. Hence, when considering roles befoe 1850 (for example) a conductor's decision to return to a lower pitching of "C" could affect the availability of roles for a singer such as CB who, in fact, seems (in my opinion) to fall between the categories of mezzo and soprano. I hope that this was useful information. Ciao!
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Bellini's Mezzo Adaptation of the Role of Amina 
Which new roles?
Mia culpa! I was wrong...in part!
by dryden@chelsea.ios.com, 1996, Feb 20
You were right!
by christen@ikb.mavt.ethz.ch, 1996, Jun 10
