Lorelili's definitions
The medium female singing voice in opera and non-classical music (although in the choir, the mezzo-soprano and the contralto are lumped together as altos). The mezzo-soprano has a range of two octaves from A3 (below middle C) to A5 (just two notes short of high C). This is the most common female voice.
Situated between the soprano and contralto, the mezzo-soprano typically plays supporting roles (mothers, maidservants, friends of the heroine) as well as villainous women like the femme fatale (the saying among mezzo-sopranos and contraltos is that they play "witches, britches, and bitches").
Many pop singers are mezzo-sopranos, although the vocal subcategories used in opera are not applied to them. Examples include Madonna, Beyonce, Patti Lupone, Ethel Merman, Tori Amos, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Whitney Houston (since the mid-1990s), Enya, Janet Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah McLachlan.
Situated between the soprano and contralto, the mezzo-soprano typically plays supporting roles (mothers, maidservants, friends of the heroine) as well as villainous women like the femme fatale (the saying among mezzo-sopranos and contraltos is that they play "witches, britches, and bitches").
Many pop singers are mezzo-sopranos, although the vocal subcategories used in opera are not applied to them. Examples include Madonna, Beyonce, Patti Lupone, Ethel Merman, Tori Amos, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Whitney Houston (since the mid-1990s), Enya, Janet Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah McLachlan.
Based on vocal weight/voice type, mezzo-sopranos re divided into three subtypes:
Coloratura mezzo-soprano: Light, flexible, pure, very agile and sings very ornate passages (very rare voice). Examples include Cecilia Bartoli, Marilyn Horne, and Jennifer Larmore, and Vivica Genaux.
Lyric mezzo-soprano: Light, mellow, strong and often plays trouser roles (a woman who plays boys and adolescent males) as well as perfectly feminine characters. Examples include Frederica von Stade, Anne Sophie von Otter, Tatiana Troyanos, and Katherine Jenkins.
Dramatic mezzo-soprano: Powerful, rich, warm and with a stronger (and seductive) lower range than a soprano, she is reserved for the roles of villains (temptresses, femmes fatales, witches) as well as mothers and friends of the soprano. Examples include Grace Bumbry, Dolora Zajick, Denyce Graves, Olga Borodina, and Viorica Cortez.
Mezzo-sopranos can't sing high notes as easily as sopranos (they sound appropriately wild and crazed when they do), but they get their revenge by playing some of the spiciest roles ever.
Coloratura mezzo-soprano: Light, flexible, pure, very agile and sings very ornate passages (very rare voice). Examples include Cecilia Bartoli, Marilyn Horne, and Jennifer Larmore, and Vivica Genaux.
Lyric mezzo-soprano: Light, mellow, strong and often plays trouser roles (a woman who plays boys and adolescent males) as well as perfectly feminine characters. Examples include Frederica von Stade, Anne Sophie von Otter, Tatiana Troyanos, and Katherine Jenkins.
Dramatic mezzo-soprano: Powerful, rich, warm and with a stronger (and seductive) lower range than a soprano, she is reserved for the roles of villains (temptresses, femmes fatales, witches) as well as mothers and friends of the soprano. Examples include Grace Bumbry, Dolora Zajick, Denyce Graves, Olga Borodina, and Viorica Cortez.
Mezzo-sopranos can't sing high notes as easily as sopranos (they sound appropriately wild and crazed when they do), but they get their revenge by playing some of the spiciest roles ever.
by Lorelili July 7, 2011
Get the mezzo-soprano mug.The wealthy industrialist rolled his eyes in callous disdain as he brushed past a crying child begging for help.
The school bully callously humiliated a helpless newcomer.
The school bully callously humiliated a helpless newcomer.
by Lorelili November 19, 2012
Get the callous mug.The Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the "Hays Code" for Hollywood's chief censor at the time, William Hays, was the set of guidelines that governed how United States motion pictures were produced from 1935 to 1968. This system dictated what was acceptable for films.
Before 1935, Hollywood and the films that it produced were pretty raunchy and did not shy from some the grittier aspects of life (racism, references to sex, stereotypical depictions of gay men, drinking, drug use, etc) and several off-screen scandals sent the studios to seek someone to rehabilitate Hollywood's image, eventually picking the rat-faced Presbyterian elder Will H. Hays in 1922. His Code was rarely taken seriously by directors and actors, but when the Catholic Church and religious zealots in general threatened massive boycotts in the early 1930s, filmmakers were forced to play by the rules, despite their resentment of this censorship and of Hays and Joseph Breen, the all-powerful head of the Production Code.
It would not be until 1968 that the Hays Code, which was by then undermined by television and terribly weak, was abandoned in favor of the MPAA rating system.
Before 1935, Hollywood and the films that it produced were pretty raunchy and did not shy from some the grittier aspects of life (racism, references to sex, stereotypical depictions of gay men, drinking, drug use, etc) and several off-screen scandals sent the studios to seek someone to rehabilitate Hollywood's image, eventually picking the rat-faced Presbyterian elder Will H. Hays in 1922. His Code was rarely taken seriously by directors and actors, but when the Catholic Church and religious zealots in general threatened massive boycotts in the early 1930s, filmmakers were forced to play by the rules, despite their resentment of this censorship and of Hays and Joseph Breen, the all-powerful head of the Production Code.
It would not be until 1968 that the Hays Code, which was by then undermined by television and terribly weak, was abandoned in favor of the MPAA rating system.
The Hays Code forbade the following in films:
Open-mouthed kissing
Lustful embraces
"Sexual perversion" (which lumped the LGBT community and actual perverts together)
Sexual slavery or prostitution
Miscegenation (keeping with the racism of the time)
Seduction (wenchers seducing ingenues, temptresses seducing the boy next door, seduction of any kind)
Rape
Abortion
Nudity (no scenes of childbirth, sexual hygiene, nothing)
Obscenity
Profanity
no portrayal of political, legal, or religious figures as villains or buffoons; no sympathy afforded to criminals, regardless of circumstances; no explicit violence (crime, operations, or cruelty); no ethnic jokes or religious jokes; no depictions of sexuality, and especially if it's not a heterosexual married couple; no drug related material; no cursing or foul language... everything had to be squeaky-clean and family-friendly, where heroes always win and goodness conquers all, generally ignoring the complications of reality.
Gays and lesbians were portrayed as unflatteringly stereotypeed as bulldyke lotharios and asexual sissies before the Hays Code; after the Code, they were harder to find and usually made an appearance as cold-blooded villains or self-loathing wretches.
Open-mouthed kissing
Lustful embraces
"Sexual perversion" (which lumped the LGBT community and actual perverts together)
Sexual slavery or prostitution
Miscegenation (keeping with the racism of the time)
Seduction (wenchers seducing ingenues, temptresses seducing the boy next door, seduction of any kind)
Rape
Abortion
Nudity (no scenes of childbirth, sexual hygiene, nothing)
Obscenity
Profanity
no portrayal of political, legal, or religious figures as villains or buffoons; no sympathy afforded to criminals, regardless of circumstances; no explicit violence (crime, operations, or cruelty); no ethnic jokes or religious jokes; no depictions of sexuality, and especially if it's not a heterosexual married couple; no drug related material; no cursing or foul language... everything had to be squeaky-clean and family-friendly, where heroes always win and goodness conquers all, generally ignoring the complications of reality.
Gays and lesbians were portrayed as unflatteringly stereotypeed as bulldyke lotharios and asexual sissies before the Hays Code; after the Code, they were harder to find and usually made an appearance as cold-blooded villains or self-loathing wretches.
by Lorelili October 8, 2011
Get the Hays Code mug.In Greek and Roman mythology, a nymph is a nature spirit in the guise of an attractive maiden. Inhabiting forests, fields, caves, mountains, lakes, the sea, nymphs often suffered the attentions of men, notably those of the gods; the free-spirited Daphne turned herself into a laurel tree to avoid Apollo's amorous advances.
Today, "nymph(ette)" refers to a sultry but too-young girl or to a nymphomaniac, a woman who has an insatiable sexual appetite (i.e., a woman who has the sexual drive of a man).
Today, "nymph(ette)" refers to a sultry but too-young girl or to a nymphomaniac, a woman who has an insatiable sexual appetite (i.e., a woman who has the sexual drive of a man).
The nymph Calypso, selfishly thinking of her own desires, kept the miserable, long-suffering Odysseus on her island as a prisoner, hoping to win his love, ignoring that he wanted to return to his family.
by Lorelili November 10, 2006
Get the nymph mug.AKA. Oral, Rectal, and Vaginal Pear.
A torture device shaped like a pear; had four segments which opened and closed at the turn of a screw at the top, like a flower opening its petals.
This torture gadget was inserted into the mouths or heretics, blasphemers, disturbers of the peace...
Or into the rectums of people convicted of sodomy. Homosexual men were especially vulnerable to this...
Or into the vaginas of women convicted of adultery or "sexual realtionships with Satan".
Often, the ends of the pear's segments were fitted with sharp tines, designed to rip into the throat, intestines, or cervix.
What ever cavity that the pear entered would face a range of things, from a slight expansion of the pear's segments and discomfort for the victim, up to total expansion and unrepairable (and very painful) mutilation of the cavity.
A torture device shaped like a pear; had four segments which opened and closed at the turn of a screw at the top, like a flower opening its petals.
This torture gadget was inserted into the mouths or heretics, blasphemers, disturbers of the peace...
Or into the rectums of people convicted of sodomy. Homosexual men were especially vulnerable to this...
Or into the vaginas of women convicted of adultery or "sexual realtionships with Satan".
Often, the ends of the pear's segments were fitted with sharp tines, designed to rip into the throat, intestines, or cervix.
What ever cavity that the pear entered would face a range of things, from a slight expansion of the pear's segments and discomfort for the victim, up to total expansion and unrepairable (and very painful) mutilation of the cavity.
by Lorelili March 25, 2005
Get the Pear of Anguish mug."Art thou yet a wencher, my husband? Wherefore must thou surrender to such lust that thou shalt tumble in a stable with some flax-wench of a dairymaid and forget the wife that awaits thee?!"
"From the beginning, Frida knew that her husband would be a wencher."
"From the beginning, Frida knew that her husband would be a wencher."
by Lorelili January 18, 2008
Get the wencher mug.A tragic waste. She who thinks that she can sing act and dance while being unaware that she sucks big-time (at the three previous things, and on other certain things). She who dresses like a streetwalker, is a complete idiot, is a total hypocrite, has unnatural, silicone-filled breasts, bleached hair, has a fake body/personality/voice and sends out a bad message to children.
This repulsive beast apparently never took a singing lesson in her life and enjoys(enjoyed) drinking underage; doing drugs, smoking, and getting body piercings, breast implants, and tattoos when she said previously that she hated them; squawking like a cat on catnip to some inane, bland, badly-written song; sleeping around with any man that looks attractive to her (and putting down any man who she deems unattractive); and doing anything (from abuse of her fans, among others, to cancelling concerts or stripping at them, to becoming a homewrecker) for attention.
This creature also responds to whore, slut, bitch, tramp, harlot, cunt, the list goes on.
This repulsive beast apparently never took a singing lesson in her life and enjoys(enjoyed) drinking underage; doing drugs, smoking, and getting body piercings, breast implants, and tattoos when she said previously that she hated them; squawking like a cat on catnip to some inane, bland, badly-written song; sleeping around with any man that looks attractive to her (and putting down any man who she deems unattractive); and doing anything (from abuse of her fans, among others, to cancelling concerts or stripping at them, to becoming a homewrecker) for attention.
This creature also responds to whore, slut, bitch, tramp, harlot, cunt, the list goes on.
by Lorelili July 23, 2005
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