The Aria Frequency List

Once again, Kim Witman's Wolf Trap 2006 blog has come up with some fascinating information, this time a list of the frequency of arias that have been offered for the Wolf Trap auditions, subdivided by voice type.

Here are the most offered arias from the list:

Soprano:
Ach, ich fuhl's

Mezzo-soprano:
Must the Winter Come so Soon
Sein wir wieder gut
Smanie implacabili
Va, laisse couler mes larmes

Tenor:
Dies Bildniss

Baritone:
Hai gia vinta la causa

Bass & Bass-Baritone
I'm a Lonely Man, Susannah
Aprite un po'
Madamina
O du mein holder Abenstern

Of course, merely offering the most popular of arias in an audition is no guarantee of success, nor is offering unknown arias. What lists cannot tell for individual singers is how appropriate certain arias can be for once's voice, temperament, age, and goals. Singers I have worked with have found audition success (or lack thereof) with both the most conservative of arias and with brilliant but unknown arias.

What I find most fascinating in the Aria Frequency List is looking down the list at the not-so-well-known arias, many of which will definitely be on my list of things to discover.

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Perhaps another type of list for someone to compile would be a list of arias offered by singers that actually are hired by companies, so that one can see which arias are the ones with the highest success rates.