Shirley Verrett sings FRENCH "FALCON" arias

French dramatic sopranos are often called Falcons, with a tessitura from mezzo to soprano, with a strong low register as well as good high notes up to C sharp, rarely D. The term "Falcon" was passed as a convenience to then label these female “in-between” voices, with sometimes a bit of incertainty at times. But for lovers of expertise, here is nevertheless what the very expert Rodolfo Celletti (1917-2004) wrote. “At the zenith of his brief career, he writes, Cornélie covered more than two octaves, from low B to high D, but it should not be deduced from this that she could approach the tessitura of Laure-Cinti Damoreau or that she found in virtuoso singing her favorite ground. In truth, the presence of the young Falcon on the bill of this Rossini headquarters, in a job that Beverly Sills will overload in our time with its extrapolations beyond the reach, this presence owes much to the fact that Adolphe Nourrit, her partner but especially her teacher, had enlisted her for the occasion. And Celletti to remind us that, judging from Rachel de La Juive and Valentine des Huguenots, two roles expressly conceived for her, in 1835 and 1836 respectively, the voice of the ardent Cornélie is most often requested in the midrange and bass, despite some escapes in the high C, while the declamation is vehement, particularly on the F, G and A high, without vocalization, by emphasizing the syllables. "