Beschreibung
The first of its kind, and the fifth entry in Nicole Elyse DiPaolo's Accessible Accompaniments series of aria reductions, this is a genuinely playable piano/vocal reduction of "Mab, la reine des mensonges," Mercutio's aria from Charles Gounod's 1867 opera Roméo et Juliette. Baritones who love this aria no longer need to fear bringing it in for auditions, last-minute performing engagements, or other situations in which the pianist may not be able to cope with the blazingly fast 16th-note passages, which render standard reductions of this aria as difficult as (or more so than) the thorniest etudes in the standard piano repertoire. Pianists with limited practice time (and most accompanists are rather limited in practice time!) may now enjoy playing this aria comfortably.
All Accessible Accompaniments, including this one, boast several unique features:
1. No reduction ever requires stretches of over an octave, not including bass notes meant to be held or “fudged” with the pedal (though octaves may also contain chord tones within them). This reduces the amount of rearranging that smaller-handed pianists must already do. Obviously, further reworkings are to be expected and pianists should feel free to add to or modify what I’ve provided.
2. I’ve included less essential, but potentially desirable additional voices/passages in cue-size noteheads so that pianists can easily see them, but know that they are not necessary in a “sink or swim” accompanying situation. Presenting less essential material in cue-size noteheads also reduces visual clutter on the page.
3. In addition to the composer’s markings, when needed, I have included hints on particular notes to bring out when the singer is likely to need them as a pitch anchor or when it is not obvious which line should be brought out within the texture.
4. All page turns have been carefully selected so as to result in the least possible disruption to the pianist when possible. When an inevitable page turn precedes a potentially surprising note or chord, I’ve included the next downbeat’s notes in cue-size stemless noteheads at the end of the preceding measure.
5. When known, I’ve noted alternate cuts that singers might like to take within certain arias.
6. In some cases I’ve modernized spelling conventions for easier readability (for example, by replacing “ß” with “ss” in German arias) and occasionally I've enharmonically respelled brief passages for greater clarity.