I want to choose "Die Betrogene Welt" by Mozart, but it's a tenor piece...and I am a soprano..can I do that?
Thanks

According to the syllabus:

"All items may be sung by any voice and in any key, published or transposed, suited to the
compass of the candidate’s voice, except for those items from operas, operettas, oratorios,
cantatas and sacred works in Grades 6–8 (Lists A and D) where a particular voice and key
are specified (although original pitch may be adopted in Baroque pieces, if appropriate)."

this song contains very strong gender references, so imo, it doesn't come across great if sung by a woman (i am german however, so i would actually understand it word by word the moment you are singing it).

this doesn't mean however that it is impossible to do - there are women out there who have done 'winterreise' or 'dichterliebe' despite their male references.

then again, there are tons of mozart lieder more suitable for a woman.

I heard this song in a recital by a fabulous soprano recently, she sounded fantastic, really pulled it off and the audience seemed to like it! Go for it, it is a great song. Even if there are gender references in the text, its really about cheating/deceiving so I'd say the overall theme is pretty universal.

x Bass Clef

What! You mean that ladies cheat and deceive?

Erm... no, of course not. They have only second-hand experience of this.

The thing is, i have heard sopranos (Elly Ameling and Teresa Ringholz ) performing this song....

The lyrics are particularly gender conscious as someone said, esp. in the third verse...

What are 'winterreise' and 'dichterliebe' ????

They are two of the greatest song cycles ever written, m'dear! Winterreise, A Winter's Journey, is by Schubert and Dichterliebe by Schumann. Both contain songs that could be sung by a female but I can only ever listen to them when sung by a male singer.

(Pops head round corner of singing forum all intrigued...)

Mezzo, as a native German speaker, will give a much neater translation than I (my German being present but decidedly rusty) - but roughly, Dichterliebe means poet love (now, this is where Mezzo will be clearer, as I'm not sure if it means the love of a poet - ie his lady love, or poet's love, if you see what I mean? Translation can depend so much on context and understanding, nicht wahr?). Winterreise is a winter's journey or winter travel, exactly as Henry has said.

I'm working on our conductor's German accent, as we have two Grieg pieces to play this year (titles are in Norwegian but translated into German for some reason - none of us can pronounce the Norwegian, so German it is!) Fruhling (can't do an umlaut here) - obviously Spring - and Herzwunden, which I have translated as wounded heart. Mezzo, your guidance is appreciated - is the latter correct? (Googling it brought up some truly hilarious references, mostly to stab wounds and cardiac surgery. Makes it very hard to keep a straight face when the conductor announces that we are going to play it........bad, naughty cellist that I am...... )

Wolfnotes (who hopes she is not intruding)

They do not work fo me either when sung by a female voice, apart from "Ein Jungling liebt ein Madchen" (From Dichterliebe) which does. Mezzo will tell me if I am correct here, and forgive the lack of accents too. There are so many other songs for you to choose though. Please ask again if you need more suggestions.

"Dichterliebe" would closest translate to "(The) love of a poet" IMO, but even a German could see the word "Dichterliebe" with two different meanings, either referring to his love interest, or on a more abstract level. No easy solution to this one ...

"Winterreise" is definitely "(A) winter('s) journey", but again, it refers to both the wintery landscape and a deeper meaning (end of a love and even life).

"Herzwunden" means "(A) heart's wounds". "Wounded heart" is certainly not wrong, although a German would translate this back into "Verwundetes Herz" - see the fine differences? Lost in translation

The Umlaut problem is something I cannot get used to since I live in the UK and don't have a German keyboard anymore - I am too lazy to look up the ASCII-code every time to get it right. It would be grammatically/linguistically correct to change an Umlaut into an ae, oe or ue, like "Fruehling" or "Ein Juengling liebt ein Maedchen". It is "more right" to do it this way than to leave it out, but I always find it looks really strange
In whatever way you write it, it could be sung by either a man or a woman, since it is more narrative. I still find it weird though, but in general, I don't like songs to be taken out of a cycle anyway, it's like an opera aria without context. Sometimes okay, but always more difficult to get it right.

As for "Die betrogene Welt" - the first two verses would be okay, they could be sung by both a man and a woman. Not so the third - you don't just sing it to a woman explicitly, you also refer to yourself as being a "young man" (like the other suitors).

Still, other women have done it before, it is merely a matter of taste (not mine however )

GAH, just wanted to correct a typo - sorry, double post

On your home computer you could change the keyboard shortcut for the umlaut key to something easy (ie control + one other key) and then it is not too much bother to add them in. Unfortunately this won't work on anyone else's computer so I suppose it depends on how many different computers you use.

I think it is accepted in all quarters that putting in an 'e' after the vowel which would have otherwise had an umlaut is standard practice. Have the courage of your convictions, and go with it.