My voice is like a bank account - I have a limited number of Gs just above the staff in my account (3 maybe 4) and once I have sung those I am overdrawn. :-D I have a love-hate relationship with John Rutter's music because I love it but he writes all his alto parts TOO HIGH. Handel was kinder to altos - I've often wondered if he may have been married to one. All the women in our family are mezzo to alto - I have subbed in as a tenor in emergencies and can reach a solid D in the bass staff or maybe a C #. It's really more of a male voice, when I sing with the men's section it doesn't stick out, and when I'm up near (not IN) your territory I'm really in a falsetto.
ninenot, of course you're right, and I think we have some of both -- unpractised singers and older folks. I don't THINK there's any gross ignorance over on that side -- Fearless Leader wouldn't stand for it. (He throws pencils at offenders, which is better than the choirmaster in my LAST choir, who had a voodoo doll dressed in a choir robe perched on the music rack of the organ. Anybody made a mistake, he would jab a finger at them, grab a pin, and SHOVE it in the doll!) I'm not superannuated yet, but altos seem to last better than sopranos anyway. My mom is almost 80 and is still singing in her little church choir down in south GA, oddly enough her range has shifted upwards with age and she is now really a soprano. She was an alto in the St. Philip's Cathedral choir in Atlanta for 25 years or so. My dad won't sing any more - he was a bass soloist at St. Philip's and with Emory University, and a great perfectionist. He's lost about 1/3 of his range and simply quit. We keep pointing out to him that his current range is still better than any guy's in their little choir down home and they desperately need men . . . but so far no luck convincing him to suit up for the team.