Talk:Ann Murray

Soprano or Mezzo-soprano?
Here it says mezzo, but how can it be? She is a soprano: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Murray-Ann.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.26.113.102 (talk) 20:45, 20 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Incorrect. It is bach-cantatas.com that has it wrong. Ann Murray is without doubt a mezzo-soprano. She has been cast predominantly in mezzo-soprano roles throughout her career. A quick glance at her discography confirms this fact. 69.38.199.154 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 05:25, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Spelling of Handel and Strauss's names
On this page, as well as others, I discovered that Handel's name was spelled as "Händel". I concede that this is the original spelling of his name, and provides better clues as to its proper pronunciation. Nonetheless, Handel changed his name upon settling in England, and so retaining the original spelling (as most Germans do, quite possibly for phonetic reasons) seems to me inappropriate for a reference work written in English, especially as no effort is made to restore the other parts of his name to the original German.

Less controversy can be made of correcting "Strauß," because this spelling is not correct even in German. The orthographical convention of denoting the diphthong "ss" with "ß" does not categorically apply to proper names. Strauss spelled his name "Strauss," and this is the spelling used in his native Germany. Anyone attempting a search on "Richard Strauß" in the German edition of Wikipedia will be lectured similarly:

''Der Duden sieht zwar, nach alter wie neuer Rechtschreibung, nach einem Diphthong die ß-Schreibweise vor, dies gilt aber nicht für Eigennamen. Richard Strauss selbst schrieb sich mit ss.''

Mdleonar 02:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC)


 * "Strauß" is used exclusively for members of the Vienna Strauß family (Johann Sr., Johann Jr., Eduard, and Joseph), in order to distinguish them from the not related Richard Strauss, who explicitly spelled his name that way. (And there is also Oscar Straus, who incidentaly wrote operettas, too, and changed his name's spelling in order to avoid confusion with the "dynasty"...) -- megA (talk) 08:17, 24 July 2008 (UTC)


 * This seems a bit far-fetched to me. Johann Strauß I went by "Strauß" throughout his life, and died 15 years before Richard Strauss was born. Richard Strauss's ancestors always spelled their name "Strauss." Differences in spelling were totally coincidental, and not part of some broader strategy to distinguish these unrelated composers. Oscar Straus is a different story.  He did, in fact, change his name. The change made sense from the standpoint of his having a career.  From the vantage point of history, it was probably unnecessary.  Strauß operettas can be distinguished from Straus operettas in purely musical terms. Mdleonar (talk) 18:49, 2 September 2011 (UTC)