Voice types
Composers
SOPRANO
Elisabeth Scwarzkopf (1915-2006)
Renata Tebaldi (1922-2004)
Maria Callas (1923-1977)
Joan Sutherland (1926-2010)
Montserrat Caballe (b. 1933)
Kiri Te Kanawa (b. 1944)
Renee Fleming (b. 1959)
Anna Netrebko (b. 1971)
MEZZO-SOPRANO
Cecilia Bartoli (b. 1966)
Joyce DiDonato (b. 1969)
CONTRALTO
Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Kathleen Ferrier (1912-1953)
COUNTERTENOR
Robort Crowe
TENOR
Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)
Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957)
Mario Del Monaco (1915-1982)
Mario Lanza (1921-1959)
Nicolai Gedda (1925-2017)
Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007)
Placido Domingo (b. 1941)
BARITONE
Titta Ruffo (1877-1953)
Dmitri Hvorostovsky (1962-2017)
Joseph Shore (b. 1948)
BASS
Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938)
The 3 tenors in concert 1994, Los Angeles
Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti
01. 0:00:18 Orchestra / The national anthem of the USA
02. 0:01:48 Orchestra / Candide Overture. Bernstein
03. 0:06:25 Jose Carreras / O Souverain, O Juge, O Pere
04. 0:11:38 Placido Domingo / Quando le sere al placido. Verdi
05. 0:16:59 Luciano Pavarotti / Pourquoi Me Reveiller. Massanet
06. 0:20:07 Jose Carreras / With A Song In My Heart. Rodgers
07. 0:23:53 Placido Domingo / Granada. Lara
08. 0:27:57 Luciano Pavarotti / Non Ti Scordar Di Me. De Curtis
09. 0:31:45 The 3 Tenors / My Way
10. 0:36:00 The 3 Tenors / Moon River
11. 0:37:39 The 3 Tenors / Because
12. 0:40:05 The 3 Tenors / Singin' in the Rain
13. 0:42:41 Orchestra / Marche Hongroise. Berlioz
14. 0:47:31 Jose Carreras / Tu, Ca Nun Chiagne. De Curtis
15. 0:50:42 Placido Domingo / Amor, vida de mi vida. Torroba
16. 0:54:44 Luciano Pavarotti / Ave Maria. Schubert
17. 0:58:59 Jose Carreras / E lucevan le stelle. Puccini
18. 1:02:07 Placido Domingo / Vesti la giubba. Leoncavallo
19. 1:05:09 Luciano Pavarotti / Nessun Dorma. Puccini
20. 1:09:10 The 3 Tenors / America
21. 1:10:09 The 3 Tenors / All I Ask Of You
22. 1:12:09 The 3 Tenors / Funiculi, Funicula
23. 1:13:29 The 3 Tenors / Sous Les Ponts De Paris
24. 1:15:31 The 3 Tenors / Brazil
25. 1:16:58 The 3 Tenors / Be My Love
26. 1:18:47 The 3 Tenors / Marechiare
27. 1:22:02 The 3 Tenors / Lippen Schweigen
28. 1:24:40 The 3 Tenors / Santa Lucia Luntana
29. 1:28:04 The 3 Tenors / Those Were The Days
30. 1:30:30 The 3 Tenors / Te Quiero Dijiste
31. 1:33:59 The 3 Tenors / Torna A Surriento
32. 1:37:57 The 3 Tenors / La Donna E Mobile
33. 1:40:20 The 3 Tenors / Libiamo Ne' Lieti Calici
Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón in Sommer Nachtmusik (Vienna 2008)
01 .Jules Massent - Le Cid: O souverain, o, juge, o pere (Domingo)
02. Amilcare Ponchielli - Ill figliuol prodigo: Il pader! - Tenda natal (Villazon)
03. Emerich Kalman -- Die Csardasfurstin: Heia in den Bergen (Netrebko)
04. Francesco Paolo Tosti - Ideale (Villazon)
05. Richard Wagner - De Walkure: Wintersturme wichen dem Wonnemond (Domingo)
06. Luigi Arditi - Il Bacio (Netrebko)
07. Giuseppe Verdi - Don Carlo: E lui! - Dio, die nell'alma infondere (Domingo, Villazon)
08. Franz Lehar - Gern hab ich die Frau'n gekusst (Domingo)
09. Franz Lehar - Land des Lachelns: Dein ist mein gnzes Hertz (Villazon)
10. Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov - Die Rose und die nachtigall (Netrebko)
.11. Franz Lehar - Die lustige Witwe: Lippen schweigen (Netrebko, Domingo)
12. Johan Strauss jr. - Unter Donner und Blitz
13. John Denver - Perhaps Love (Domingo, Villazon)
14. Leo Delibes - Les filles de Cadix (Netrebko)
15. Manuel Penella - El gato montes: Vaya una tarde bonita - Si! Torero queiro se (Netrebko, Villazon)
16. Rodolf Sieczynski - Wien, Wien, nur du allein (Netrebko, Domingo, Villazon)
17. Federico Moreno Torroba - Maravilla: Amor, vida de mi vida (Domingo)
18. R. Soutullo /J. Vert - La del soto del Parral: Ya mis boras felices (Villazon)
19. Richard Strauss - Cacilie (Netrebko)
20. Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata: Libiamo, ne lieti calici (Netrebko, Domingo, Villazon)
Maria Callas - 50 Most Beautiful Opera Arias
1 - 00:00 - Norma, Act I, Scene 4: "Casta diva... Fine al rito" (Norma, Coro)
2 - 10:50 - Carmen, Act I, Scene 5: "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" (Carmen)
3 - 14:50 - La traviata, Act I, Scene 2: "Libiam ne' lieti calici" (Alfredo, Violetta, Coro)
4 - 18:02 - La Wally, Act I: "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" (Wally)
5 - 22:51 - Gianni Schicchi, Act I: "O mio babbino caro" (Lauretta)
6 - 25:23 - Madama Butterfly, Act II: "Un bel dì, vedremo" (Madama Butterfly)
7 - 30:04 - Andrea Chénier, Act III: "La mamma morta" (Maddalena)
8 - 34:54 - La forza del destino, Act IV: "Pace, pace, mio Dio" (Leonora)
9 - 41:17 - Orfeo ed Euridice, Act III, Scene 1: "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice" (Orfeo)
10 - 45:37 - Alceste, Act I, Scene 5: "Divinités du Styx" (Alceste)
11 - 49:57 - Medea, Act I: "Taci, Giason" (Medea, Giasone)
12 - 52:24 - La vestale, Act II: "O nume tutelar" (Julia)
13 - 54:53 - The Barber of Seville, Act I, Scene 5: "Una voce poco fa" (Rosina)
14 - 01:01:12 - Anna Bolena, Act II, Scene 13: "Coppia iniqua"
15 - 01:04:14 - Lucia di Lammermoor, Act III, Scene 4: "Oh, giusto cielo!... Il dolce suono" (Coro, Lucia)
16 - 01:07:42 - Il pirata, Act II, Scene 12: "Qual suono ferale echeggia" & "Oh, sole! Ti vela di tenebre oscure"
17 - 01:11:57 - La sonnambula, Act I: "Care compagne" (Amina, Choeur)
18 - 01:14:08 - I puritani, Act II: "O rendetemi la speme... Qui la voce" (Elvira, Giorgio, Riccardo)
19 - 01:26:59 - Adriana Lecouvreur, Act I, Scene 2: "Ecco: respiro appena" (Adriana)
20 - 01:30:42 - Adriana Lecouvreur, Act IV, Scene 5: "Poveri fiori" (Adriana)
21 - 01:33:53 - Nabucco, Act II, Scene 1: "Ben io t'invenni - Anch'io dischiuso un giorno" (Abigaille)
22 - 01:43:01 - Ernani, Act I, Scene 3: "Surta è la notte" & Cavatina. "Ernani! Ernani, involami" (Elvira)
23 - 01:49:17 - Macbeth, Act II, Scene 1: "La luce langue" (Lady Macbeth)
24 - 01:53:25 - Rigoletto, Act I: "Gualtier Maldé" (Gilda)
25 - 02:00:53 - La traviata, Act I, Scene 5: "Ah, fors'è lui" (Violetta)
26 - 02:03:54 - La traviata, Act I, Scene 5: "Sempre libera degg'io" (Violetta, Alfredo)
27 - 02:07:50 - I vespri siciliani, Act V, Scene 2: "Mercé, dilette amiche" (Elena)
28 - 02:11:48 - Un ballo in maschera, Act II: "Ecco l'orrido campo" (Amelia)
29 - 02:18:32 - La forza del destino, Act II, Scene 10: "La Vergine degli angeli" (Coro, Leonora)
30 - 02:22:07 - Don Carlo, Act IV, Scene 2: "Tu che le vanità" (Elisabeth)
31 - 02:32:48 - Aida, Act I: "Ritorna vincitor" (Aida)
32 - 02:40:05 - Le pardon de Ploërmel, Act II, Scene 3: "Ombra leggera" (Dinorah)
33 - 02:45:44 - Mignon, Act II: "Ah, pour ce soir... Je suis Titania la blonde" (Philine)
34 - 02:50:51 - Hamlet, Act IV: "Et maintenant écoutez ma chanson" (Ophélie)
35 - 02:55:14 - Roméo et Juliette, Act I: "Ah! Je veux vivre dans ce rêve" (Juliette)
36 - 02:58:49 - Mefistofele, Act III: "L'altra notte in fondo al mare" (Margherita)
37 - 03:06:12 - Carmen, Act I, Scene 10: "Près des remparts de Séville" (Carmen)
38 - 03:08:12 - La Gioconda, Act I, Scene 3: "Madre adorata" (La Gioconda, Barnaba, La Cieca)
39 - 03:12:03 - Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, Act I, Scene 6: "Printemps qui commence" (Dalila)
40 - 03:17:15 - Lakmé, Act II: "Dov'è l'indiana bruna?" (Lakmé)
41 - 03:25:17 - Le Cid, Act III: "De cet affreux combat... Pleurez mes yeux" (Chimène)
42 - 03:31:20 - Pagliacci, Act I, Scene 2: "Qual fiamma avea nel guardo!" - "Stridono lassù" (Nedda)
43 - 03:35:59 - Louise, Act III, Scene 1: "Depuis le jour" (Louise)
44 - 03:40:42 - Manon Lescaut, Act IV: "Sola, perduta, abbandonata" (Manon)
45 - 03:46:32 - La bohème, Act I: "Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì" & "Ehi! Rodolfo!" (Mimi, Rodolfo, Schaunard, Colline, Marcello)
46 - 03:52:08 - La bohème, Act III: "Donde lieta uscì" (Mimì)
47 - 03:55:25 - Tosca, Act II, Scene 5: "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore" (Tosca)
48 - 03:58:40 - Madama Butterfly, Act I: "Vogliatemi bene" (Madama Butterfly, Pinkerton)
49 - 04:05:56 - Suor Angelica, Act I: "Senza mamma" (Suor Angelica)
50 - 04:11:28 - Turandot, Act I: "Signore, ascolta!" (Liù)
Montserrat Caballé: "The Ultimate Collection"
PUCCINI. La bohème: "Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì"
BELLINI. Norma: "Casta diva"
ROSSINI. Le siège de Corinthe (The Siege of Corinth) "Giusto ciel! In tal periglio"
GOUNOD. Sapho: "O ma lyre immortelle"
ROSSINI. Semiramide: "Serbami ognor...Alle più calde immagini"
VERDI. Otello: "Piangea cantando" (Willow Song) - Ave Maria"
MASSENET. Hérodiade: "Il est doux, il est bon"
DONIZETTI. Lucrezia Borgia: "Tranquillo ei posa...Com'è bello!"
PUCCINI. Suor Angelica: "Senza mamma"
VERDI. Rigoletto: "Caro nome"
BELLINI. La sonnambula: "Ah! non credea mirarti"
VERDI. La Traviata: "È strano, è strano!" - "Follie! Follie!" - "Sempre libera"
PUCCINI. Tosca; "Vissi d'arte"
VERDI. Il Corsaro: "Egli non riede ancora!" - "Non so le tetre immagini"
ROSSINI. Armida: "D'amore al dolce impero"
LEONCAVALLO. Pagliacci; "Qual fiamma avea nel guardo!"
DONIZETTI. Roberto Devereux (Il Conte di Essex): "E Sara in questi orribili momenti...Vivi, ingrato"
VERDI. Il Trovatore: "D'amor sull'ali rosee"
ROSSINI. "Inflammatus et accensus"
CILEA. Adriana Lecouvreur: "Io son l'umile ancella"
DONIZETTI. Anna Bolena: "Al dolce guidami"
BELLINI. Adelson e Salvini: "Dopo l'oscuro nembo"
VERDI. I Vespri siciliani (Les vêpres siciliennes) "Arrigo! Ah, parli a un core"
MONTSERRAT CABALLE - BEL CANTO LIVE ARIAS
Arias from Lucrezia Borgia - 1965
Roberto Devereux - 1965
Il Pirata -1966
Ana Bolena - 1982
Maria Stuarda 1967
Kiri Te Kanawa - 'Kiri Sings Mozart'
Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera,
Charles Mackerras / conductor, Cardiff, UK, 1990.
Kiri Te Kanawa ‘A Celebration’ Live at the Royal Albert Hall London Symphony Orchestra, Stephen Barl
A voice type is a particular human singing voice identified as having certain qualities or characteristics of vocal range, vocal weight, tessitura, vocal timbre, and vocal transition points (passaggio), such as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal register. A singer's voice type is identified by a process known as voice classification, by which the human voice is evaluated and thereby designated into a particular voice type. The discipline of voice classification developed within European classical music and is not generally applicable to other forms of singing. Voice classification is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. Several different voice classification systems are available to identify voice types, including the German Fach system and the choral music system among many others; no system is universally applied or accepted.
Voice classification is a tool for singers, composers, venues, and listeners to categorize vocal properties and to associate roles with voices. While useful, voice classification systems have been used too rigidly, i.e. a house assigning a singer to a specific type and only casting him or her in roles they consider belonging to this category. While choral singers are classified into voice parts based on their vocal range, solo singers are classified into voice types based more on their tessitura – where their voice feels most comfortable for the majority of the time.
A singer will ultimately choose a repertoire that suits his or her instrument. Some singers such as Enrico Caruso, Rosa Ponselle, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas, Ewa Podleś, or Plácido Domingo have voices that allow them to sing roles from a wide variety of types; some singers such as Shirley Verrett or Grace Bumbry change type and even voice part over their careers; and some singers such as Leonie Rysanek have voices that lower with age, causing them to cycle through types over their careers. Some roles as well are hard to classify, having very unusual vocal requirements; Mozart wrote many of his roles for specific singers who often had remarkable voices, and some of Verdi's early works make extreme demands on his singers.
Number of voice types
Many different voice types are used in vocal pedagogy in a variety of voice classification systems. Most of these types, however, are grouped into seven major voice categories that are, for the most part, acknowledged across the major voice classification systems. Women are typically divided into three groups: soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto. Men are usually divided into four groups: countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass. Some women fall into the tenor or baritone groups, while men identified as countertenors can be grouped as contralto, mezzo-soprano, or soprano. When considering the pre-pubescent voice, an eighth term, treble, is applied. Within each of these major categories, subcategories identify specific vocal qualities such as coloratura facility and vocal weight to differentiate between voices. The vocal range of classical performance covers about five octaves, from a low G1 (in scientific pitch notation) to a high G6. Any individual's voice can perform over a range of one and a half to more than two octaves. Vocal ranges are grouped into overlapping types that each span about two octaves. Many singers fall between groups and can perform some parts in either type.
Classifying singers
Vocal pedagogues generally consider four main qualities of a human voice when attempting to classify it: vocal range, tessitura, timbre, and vocal transition points known as passaggio. However, teachers may also consider physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and other factors such as vocal register. Voice classification into the correct voice type is important for vocal pedagogues and singers as a guiding tool for the development of the voice.
Misclassification of a singer's voice type is dangerous. It can damage the vocal cords, shorten a singing career, and lead to the loss of both vocal beauty and free vocal production. Some of these dangers are not immediate ones; the human voice is quite resilient, especially in early adulthood, and the damage may not make its appearance for months or even years. Unfortunately, this lack of apparent immediate harm can cause singers to develop bad habits that will over time cause irreparable damage to the voice. Singing outside the natural vocal range imposes a serious strain upon the voice. Clinical evidence indicates that singing at a pitch level that is either too high or too low creates vocal pathology. According to vocal pedagogue Margaret Greene, "The need for choosing the correct natural range of the voice is of great importance in singing since the outer ends of the singing range need very careful production and should not be overworked, even in trained voices." Singing at either extreme of the range may be damaging, but the possibility of damage seems to be much more prevalent in too high a classification. A number of medical authorities have indicated that singing at too high a pitch level may contribute to certain vocal disorders. Medical evidence indicates that singing at too high of a pitch level may lead to the development of vocal nodules. Increasing tension on the vocal cords is one of the means of raising pitch. Singing above an individual's best tessitura keeps the vocal cords under a great deal of unnecessary tension for long periods of time, and the possibility of vocal abuse is greatly increased. Singing at too low a pitch level is not as likely to be damaging unless a singer tries to force the voice down.
Dangers of quick identification
Many vocal pedagogues warn of the dangers of quick identification. Premature concern with classification can result in misclassification, with all its attendant dangers. Notable vocal pedagogue William Vennard has stated, "I never feel any urgency about classifying a beginning student. So many premature diagnoses have been proved wrong, and it can be harmful to the student and embarrassing to the teacher to keep striving for an ill-chosen goal. It is best to begin in the middle part of the voice and work upward and downward until the voice classifies itself." Most vocal pedagogues believe that it is essential to establish good vocal habits within a limited and comfortable range before attempting to classify the voice. When techniques of posture, breathing, phonation, resonation, and articulation have become established in this comfortable area, the true quality of the voice will emerge and the upper and lower limits of the range can be explored safely. Only then can a tentative classification be arrived at, and it may be adjusted as the voice continues to develop. Many vocal pedagogues suggest that teachers begin by assuming that a voice is of a medium classification until it proves otherwise. The reason for this is that the majority of individuals possess medium voices and therefore this approach is less likely to misclassify or damage the voice.
Choral music classification
Unlike other classification systems, choral music divides voices solely on the basis of vocal range. Choral music most commonly divides vocal parts into high and low voices within each sex: soprano and alto vocal ranges for females, tenor and bass vocal ranges for males (SATB), and occasionally treble for children. As a result, the typical chorus affords many opportunities for misclassification to occur. Since most people have medium voices, they are often assigned a part that is either too high or too low for them; the mezzo-soprano must sing soprano or alto and the baritone must sing tenor or bass. Either option can present problems for the singer, but for most singers there are fewer dangers in singing too low, than in singing too high
Vocal register
A vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds. These registers include modal voice (or normal voice), vocal fry, falsetto, and the whistle register. Registers originate in laryngeal function. They occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds.
In speech pathology, the vocal register has three components: a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, and a certain type of sound. Although this view is also adopted by many vocal pedagogists, others define vocal registration more loosely than in the sciences, using the term to denote various theories of how the human voice changes, both subjectively and objectively, as it moves through its pitch range. There are many divergent theories on vocal registers within vocal pedagogy, making the term somewhat confusing and at times controversial within the field of singing. Vocal pedagogists may use the term vocal register to refer to any of the following:
A labeled anatomical diagram of the vocal folds or cords.
A particular part of the vocal range such as the upper, middle, or lower registers.
A resonance area such as chest voice or head voice.
A phonatory process
A certain vocal timbre
A region of the voice which is defined or delimited by vocal breaks.
The number of vocal registers
Vocal registers arise from different vibratory patterns produced by the vocal cords. Research by speech pathologists and some vocal pedagogists has revealed that the vocal cords are capable of producing at least four distinct vibratory forms, although not all persons can produce all of them. The first of these vibratory forms is known as natural or normal voice; another name for it is modal voice, a term currently widely used in both speech pathology and vocal pedagogy publications. In this usage, modal refers to the natural disposition or manner of action of the vocal cords. The other three vibratory forms are known as vocal fry, falsetto, and whistle. Each of these four registers has its own vibratory pattern, its own pitch area (although there is some overlapping), and its own characteristic sound. Arranged by the pitch areas covered, vocal fry is the lowest register, modal voice is next, then falsetto, and finally the whistle register.
While speech pathologists and scholars of phonetics consistently divide the voice into these four registers, vocal pedagogists are divided on this issue. Indiscriminate use of the word register has led to much confusion and controversy about the number of registers in the human voice within vocal pedagogical circles. This controversy does not exist within speech pathology and the other sciences, because vocal registers are viewed from a purely physiological standpoint that is concerned with laryngeal function. Various writers concerned with the art of singing state that there are anywhere from one to seven registers present. The diversity of opinion in this area is quite wide and there is no one consensus or point of view.
One prevailing practice within vocal pedagogy is to divide both men and women's voices into three registers. Men's voices are designated "chest", "head", and "falsetto" and women's voices are "chest", "middle", and "head". This way of classifying registers, however, is not universally accepted. Many vocal pedagogists partially blame this confusion on the incorrect use of the terms "chest register" and "head register". These professionals argue that, since all registers originate in laryngeal function, it is meaningless to speak of registers being produced in the chest or head. The vibratory sensations which are felt in these areas are resonance phenomena and should be described in terms related to resonance, not to registers. These vocal pedagogists prefer the terms "chest voice" and "head voice" over the term register. Many of the problems which people identify as register problems are really problems of resonance adjustment. This helps to explain the multiplicity of registers which some vocal pedagogists advocate. For the purposes of this article, resonance problems are relegated to their own area since their usage here is controversial and without an overall supporting consensus. For more information on resonance see Vocal resonation.
The confusion which exists concerning what a register is, and how many registers there are, is due in part to what takes place in the modal register when a person sings from the lowest pitches of that register to the highest pitches. The frequency of vibration of the vocal folds is determined by their length, tension, and mass. As pitch rises, the vocal folds are lengthened, tension increases, and their thickness decreases. In other words, all three of these factors are in a state of flux in the transition from the lowest to the highest tones.
If a singer holds any of these factors constant and interferes with their progressive state of change, his laryngeal function tends to become static and eventually breaks occur, with obvious changes of tone quality. These breaks are often identified as register boundaries or as transition areas between registers. The distinct change or break between registers is called a passaggio or a ponticello. Vocal pedagogists teach that, with study, a singer can move effortlessly from one register to the other with ease and consistent tone. Registers can even overlap while singing. Teachers who like to use this theory of "blending registers" usually help students through the "passage" from one register to another by hiding their "lift" (where the voice changes).
However, many pedagogists disagree with this distinction of boundaries blaming such breaks on vocal problems which have been created by a static laryngeal adjustment that does not permit the necessary changes to take place. This difference of opinion has affected the different views on vocal registration.
Vocal fry register
The vocal fry register is the lowest vocal register and is produced through a loose glottal closure which will permit air to bubble through with a popping or rattling sound of a very low frequency. The chief use of vocal fry in singing is to obtain pitches of very low frequency which are not available in modal voice. This register may be used therapeutically to improve the lower part of the modal register. This register is not used often in singing, but male quartet pieces, and certain styles of folk music for both men and women have been known to do so.
Modal voice register
The modal voice is the usual register for speaking and singing, and the vast majority of both are done in this register. As pitch rises in this register, the vocal folds are lengthened, tension increases, and their edges become thinner. A well-trained singer or speaker can phonate two octaves or more in the modal register with consistent production, beauty of tone, dynamic variety, and vocal freedom. This is possible only if the singer or speaker avoids static laryngeal adjustments and allows the progression from the bottom to the top of the register to be a carefully graduated continuum of readjustments.
Falsetto register
The falsetto register lies above the modal voice register and overlaps the modal register by approximately one octave. The characteristic sound of falsetto is inherently breathy and flute-like with few overtones present. Both men and women can phonate in the falsetto register. The essential difference between the modal and falsetto registers lies in the amount and type of vocal cord involvement. The falsetto voice is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal cords, in whole or in part, and the main body of the fold is more or less relaxed. In contrast, the modal voice involves the whole vocal cord with the glottis opening at the bottom first and then at the top. The falsetto voice is also more limited in dynamic variation and tone quality than the modal voice.
Whistle register
The whistle register is the highest register of the human voice. The whistle register is so called because the timbre of the notes that are produced from this register are similar to that of a whistle or the upper notes of a flute, whereas the modal register tends to have a warmer, less shrill timbre. Women of all voice types can use the whistle register. With proper vocal training, it is possible for most women to develop this part of the voice, but some women are unable to do so. Men within the Countertenor and Tenor voice types can develop this part of the voice as well with a proper vocal training, and children can also phonate in the whistle register.
Bel canto
Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", pronounced [bɛl ˈkanto]), along with a number of similar constructions ("bellezze del canto"/"bell'arte del canto"), is a term relating to Italian singing. It has several different meanings and is subject to a wide variety of interpretations.
The words were not associated with a "school" of singing until the middle of the 19th century, when writers in the early 1860s used it nostalgically to describe a manner of singing that had begun to wane around 1830. Nonetheless, "neither musical nor general dictionaries saw fit to attempt [a] definition [of bel canto] until after 1900". The term remains vague and ambiguous in the 21st century and is often used to evoke a lost singing tradition.
Bel canto in the 18th and early 19th centuries
Since the bel canto style flourished in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the music of Handel and his contemporaries, as well as that of Mozart and Rossini, benefits from an application of bel canto principles. Operas received the most dramatic use of the techniques, but the bel canto style applies equally to oratorio, though in a somewhat less flamboyant way. The da capo arias these works contained provided challenges for singers, as the repeat of the opening section prevented the story line from progressing. Nonetheless, singers needed to keep the emotional drama moving forward, and so they used the principles of bel canto to help them render the repeated material in a new emotional guise. They also incorporated embellishments of all sorts (Domenico Corri said da capo arias were invented for that purpose), but not every singer was equipped to do this, some writers, notably Domenico Corri himself, suggesting that singing without ornamentation was an acceptable practice. Singers regularly embellished both arias and recitatives, but did so by tailoring their embellishments to the prevailing sentiments of the piece.
Two famous 18th-century teachers of the style were Antonio Bernacchi (1685–1756) and Nicola Porpora (1686–1768), but many others existed. A number of these teachers were castrati. Singer/author John Potter declares in his book Tenor: History of a Voice that:
For much of the 18th century castrati defined the art of singing; it was the loss of their irrecoverable skills that in time created the myth of bel canto, a way of singing and conceptualizing singing that was entirely different from anything that the world had heard before or would hear again.
Bel canto in 19th-century Italy and France
In another application, the term bel canto is sometimes attached to Italian operas written by Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) and Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848). These composers wrote bravura works for the stage during what musicologists sometimes call the "bel canto era". But the style of singing had started to change around 1830, Michael Balfe writing of the new method of teaching that was required for the music of Bellini and Donizetti (A New Universal Method of Singing, 1857, p. iii), and so the operas of Bellini and Donizetti actually were the vehicles for a new era of singing. The last important opera role for a castrato was written in 1824 by Giacomo Meyerbeer [1791–1864].
The phrase "bel canto" was not commonly used until the latter part of the 19th century, when it was set in opposition to the development of a weightier, more powerful style of speech-inflected singing associated with German opera and, above all, Richard Wagner's revolutionary music dramas. Wagner (1813–1883) decried the Italian singing model, alleging that it was concerned merely with "whether that G or A will come out roundly". He advocated a new, Germanic school of singing which would draw "the spiritually energetic and profoundly passionate into the orbit of its matchless Expression".
Interestingly enough, French musicians and composers never embraced the more florid extremes of the 18th-century Italian bel canto style. They disliked the castrato voice and because they placed a premium on the clear enunciation of the texts of their vocal music, they objected to the sung word being obscured by excessive fioritura.
The popularity of the bel canto style as espoused by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini faded in Italy during the mid-19th century. It was overtaken by a heavier, more ardent, less embroidered approach to singing that was necessary in order to perform the innovative works of Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) with maximum dramatic impact. Tenors, for instance, began to inflate their tone and deliver the high C (and even the high D) directly from the chest rather than resorting to a suave head voice/falsetto as they had done previously—sacrificing vocal agility in the process. Sopranos and baritones reacted in a similar fashion to their tenor colleagues when confronted with Verdi's drama-filled compositions. They subjected the mechanics of their voice production to greater pressures and cultivated the exciting upper part of their respective ranges at the expense of their mellow but less penetrant lower notes. Initially at least, the singing techniques of 19th-century contraltos and basses were less affected by the musical innovations of Verdi, which were built upon by his successors Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886) and Arrigo Boito (1842–1918).
Bel canto and its detractors
One reason for the eclipse of the old Italian singing model was the growing influence within the music world of bel canto's detractors, who considered it to be outmoded and condemned it as vocalization devoid of content. To others, however, bel canto became the vanished art of elegant, refined, sweet-toned musical utterance. Rossini lamented in a conversation that took place in Paris in 1858 that: "Alas for us, we have lost our bel canto". Similarly, the so-called German style was as derided as much as it was heralded. In the introduction to a collection of songs by Italian masters published in 1887 in Berlin under the title Il bel canto, Franz Sieber wrote: "In our time, when the most offensive shrieking under the extenuating device of 'dramatic singing' has spread everywhere, when the ignorant masses appear much more interested in how loud rather than how beautiful the singing is, a collection of songs will perhaps be welcome which – as the title purports – may assist in restoring bel canto to its rightful place."
In the late-19th century and early-20th century, the term "bel canto" was resurrected by Italy's singing teachers, among whom the retired Verdi baritone Antonio Cotogni (1831–1918) was perhaps the pre-eminent figure. Cotogni and his followers invoked it against an unprecedentedly vehement, unsubtle and vibrato-laden style of vocalism which was being adopted by more and more post-1890 singers in order to cope with the impassioned demands of the stream of verismo operas that were flowing from the pens of Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919), Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945) and Umberto Giordano (1867–1948); and the auditory challenges posed by the non-Italianate stage works of Richard Strauss (1864–1949) and other late-romantic/early modern era composers, with their strenuous and angular vocal lines and often thick orchestral textures.
To make the situation worse, during the 1890s, the directors of the Bayreuth Festival began propagating a particularly forceful style of Wagnerian singing that placed such an undue emphasis on the articulation of the individual words of the composer's libretti, the all-important musical component of his operas was compromised. Called "Sprechgesang" by its proponents and the "Bayreuth bark" by its opponents, this hectoring, text-based, anti-legato approach to vocalism spread across the German-speaking parts of Europe prior to World War I. It was totally at odds with the Italian ideals of "beautiful singing".
As a result of these many factors, the concept of bel canto became shrouded in mystique and confused by a plethora of individual notions and interpretations. To complicate matters further, German musicology in the early 20th century invented its own historical application for "bel canto", using the term to denote the simple lyricism that came to the fore in Venetian opera and the Roman cantata during the 1630s and '40s (the era of composers Antonio Cesti, Giacomo Carissimi and Luigi Rossi) as a reaction against the earlier, text-dominated "stilo rappresentativo". Unfortunately, this anachronistic use of the term bel canto was given wide circulation in Robert Haas's Die Musik des Barocks and, later, in Manfred Bukofzer's Music in the Baroque Era. Since the singing style of later 17th-century Italy did not differ in any marked way from that of the 18th century and early 19th century, a connection can be drawn; but, according to Jander, most musicologists agree that the term is best limited to its mid-19th-century use, designating a style of singing that emphasized beauty of tone and technical expertise in the delivery of music that was either highly florid or featured long, flowing and difficult-to-sustain passages of cantilena.
The bel canto revival
In the 1950s, the phrase "bel canto revival" was coined to refer to a renewed interest in the operas of Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini. These composers had begun to go out of fashion during the latter years of the 19th century and their works, while never completely disappearing from the performance repertoire, were staged infrequently during the first half of the 20th century, when the operas of Wagner, Verdi and Puccini held sway. That situation changed significantly after World War II with the advent of a group of enterprising orchestral conductors and the emergence of a fresh generation of singers such as Montserrat Caballé, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, and Marilyn Horne, who had acquired bel canto techniques. These artists breathed new life into Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini's stage compositions, treating them seriously as music and re-popularizing them throughout Europe and America. Today, some of the world's most frequently performed operas, such as Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, are from the bel canto era.
Not coincidentally, the 18th-century operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), which require adroit bel canto skills if they are to be performed well, also experienced a post-war revival that shows no sign of abating, while the florid operas composed by Mozart's predecessor Handel have undergone a similar surge in popularity during recent decades. "I should think that performances of Handel operas now outnumber all others" avers classical music commentator Simon Callow in the April 2010 issue of Gramophone magazine.
The bel canto teaching legacy
Musicologists occasionally apply the label "bel canto technique" to the arsenal of virtuosic vocal accomplishments and concepts imparted by singing teachers to their students during the late 18th century and the early 19th century. Many of these teachers were castrati.
"All [their] pedagogical works follow the same structure, beginning with exercises on single notes and eventually progressing to scales and improvised embellishments" writes Potter who continues, "The really creative ornamentation required for cadenzas, involving models and formulae that could generate newly improvised material, came towards the end of the process."
Today's pervasive idea that singers should refrain from improvising and always adhere strictly to the letter of a composer's published score is a comparatively recent phenomenon, promulgated during the first decades of the 20th century by dictatorial conductors such as Arturo Toscanini [1867–1957], who championed the dramatic operas of Verdi and Wagner and believed in keeping performers on a tight interpretive leash. This is noted by both Potter (page 77) and Michael Scott
Potter notes, however, that as the 19th century unfurled:
The general tendency ... was for singers not to have been taught by castrati (there were few of them left) and for serious study to start later, often at one of the new conservatories rather than with a private teacher. The traditional techniques and pedagogy were still acknowledged, but the teaching was generally in the hands of tenors and baritones who were by then at least once removed from the tradition itself.
Early 19th-century teachers described the voice as being made up of three registers. The chest register was the lowest of the three and the head register the highest, with the passaggio in between. These registers needed to be smoothly blended and fully equalized before a trainee singer could acquire total command of his or her natural instrument, and the surest way to achieve this outcome was for the trainee to practise vocal exercises assiduously. Bel canto-era teachers were great believers in the benefits of vocalise and solfeggio. They strove to strengthen the respiratory muscles of their pupils and equip them with such time-honoured vocal attributes as "purity of tone, perfection of legato, phrasing informed by eloquent portamento, and exquisitely turned ornaments", as noted in the introduction to Volume 2 of Scott's The Record of Singing.
Major refinements occurred to the existing system of voice classification during the 19th century as the international operatic repertoire diversified, split into distinctive nationalist schools and expanded in size. Whole new categories of singers such as mezzo-soprano and Wagnerian bass-baritone arose towards the end of the 19th century, as did such new sub-categories as lyric coloratura soprano, dramatic soprano and spinto soprano, and various grades of tenor, stretching from lyric through spinto to heroic. These classificatory changes have had a lasting effect on the way singing teachers designate voices and the way in which opera house managements cast their productions.
It would be wrong, however, to think that there was across-the-board uniformity among 19th-century bel canto adherents when it came to passing on their knowledge and instructing students. Each of them had their own training regimes and pet notions; but, fundamentally, they all subscribed to the same set of bel canto precepts, and the exercises that they devised in order to enhance their students' breath support, dexterity, range and technical control remain valuable and, indeed, are still employed by some teachers.
Manuel García (1805–1906), author of the influential treatise L'Art du Chant, was the most prominent of the group of pedagogues that perpetuated bel-canto principles in their teachings and writings during the second half of the 19th century. His like-minded younger sister, Pauline Viardot (1821–1910), was also an important teacher of voice, as were Viardot's contemporaries Mathilde Marchesi, Camille Everardi, Julius Stockhausen, Carlo Pedrotti, Venceslao Persichini, Giovanni Sbriglia, Melchiorre Vidal and Francesco Lamperti (together with Francesco's son Giovanni Battista Lamperti). The voices of a number of their former students can be heard on acoustic recordings made in the first two decades of the 20th century and re-issued since on LP and CD.
Some examples on disc of historically and artistically significant 19th-century singers whose bel canto-infused vocal styles and techniques pre-date the "Bayreuth bark" and the dramatic excesses of verismo opera are:
Sir Charles Santley (born 1834), Gustav Walter (born 1834), Adelina Patti (born 1843), Marianne Brandt (born 1842), Lilli Lehmann (born 1848), Jean Lassalle (born 1847), Victor Maurel (born 1848), Marcella Sembrich (born 1858), Lillian Nordica (born 1857), Emma Calvé (born 1858), Nellie Melba (born 1861), Francesco Tamagno (born 1850), Francesco Marconi (born 1853), Léon Escalais (born 1859), Mattia Battistini (born 1856), Mario Ancona (born 1860), Pol Plançon (born 1851), and Antonio Magini-Coletti and Francesco Navarini (both born 1855).
Voice types
Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón - Paris Concert 2007
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
1. Romeo & Juliette "Ouverture" (Orchestre National de Belgique)
2. Romeo & Juliette "Je veux vivre" (Anna Netrebko)
3. Polyeucte "Source delicieuse" (Rolando Villazón)
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
4. Manon "Toi! Vous!" (Saint Sulpice) (Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
5. Eugene Oneguin "Polonaise" (Orchestre National de Belgique)
6. Eugene Oneguin "Kuda, Kuda" (Rolando Villazón)
7. Iolanta "Tvajo malchan'je nepan'atna" (Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón)
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
8. Carmen "Prelude de l'acte IV" (Orchestre National de Belgique)
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
9. La Traviata "E strano... Ah! Fors'e lui... Sempre libera" (Anna Netrebko)
Reveriano Soutullo (1880-1932) & Juan Vert (1890-1931)
10. La del soto del Parral "Ya mis horas felices" (Rolando Villazón)
Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982)
11. Luisa Fernanda "Callate, Corrazon" (Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón)
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
12. Cavalleria Rusticana "Intermezzo" (Orchestre National de Belgique)
Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886)
13. II Figliuol Prodigo "II Padre!... Tenda Natal" (Rolando Villazón)
Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893)
14. La Wally "Ebben, ne andro lontana" (Anna Netrebko)
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
15. La Bohème "O soave fanciulla" (Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón)
Manuel Penella Moreno (1880-1939)
16. El Gato Montés "Si torero quiero si..." (Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazón)
Anna Netrebko, soprano
Rolando Villazón, tenor
National Orchestra of Belgium
Μουσική διεύθυνση (Conductor): Emmanuel Villaume
Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, March 28, 2007
Soprano
Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, DBE (9 December 1915 – 3 August 2006) was a German-born Austro-British soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and was renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the operas of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally. She is considered one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Richard Strauss - FOUR LAST SONGS:
Spring.
September.
Going to Sleep (Poems by Hermann Hesse).
In the Glow of Evening (Poem by Joseph von Eichendorff).
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.
George Szell.
Renata Tebaldi (1 February 1922 – 19 December 2004) was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period. Among the most beloved opera singers, she has been said to have possessed one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century which was focused primarily on the verismo roles of the lyric and dramatic repertoires.
Renata Tebaldi
1 Le Nozze Di Figaro: Act II - Porgi Amor
2 Faust: Act V - Margherita...Ah, la sua voce sento anco
3 La Traviata: Act III - Addio del passato
4 Madama Butterfly: Act I -Viene la sera
5 Giovanna D'Arco: O ben s'addice questo torbido...Sempre all'alba
6 Andrea Chénier: Perdonate al dir mio
7 Andrea Chénier: Guardate là, un'ombra...Eravate possente...Ora soave
8 Madama Butterfly: Act I - Viene la sera
9 Madama Butterfly: Act II - Un bel di vedremo
11Madama Butterfly: Act II - Tu, tu, tu, piccolo Iddio
12 Tosca: Act II - Vissi d'arte
13 Tosca: Act II - Vissi d'arte
14 Tosca: Act II - Finale
15 Tosca: Act III - Franchigia a Floria Tosca...O dolci mani
16 Tosca: Act III - Senti l'ora è vicina
17 Tosca: Act III - E non giungon...Come è lunga l'attesa
18 Manon Lescaut: Act II - In quelle trine morbide
19 La Bohème: Act I - Si, Mi chiamano Mimì
20 La Bohème: Act III - Donde lieta uscì
Maria Callas, Commendatore OMRI (December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was a New York-born Greek soprano, one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.
Born in New York City and raised by an overbearing mother who had wanted a son, she received her musical education in Greece and established her career in Italy. Forced to deal with the exigencies of wartime poverty and with near-sightedness that left her nearly blind onstage, she endured struggles and scandal over the course of her career. She turned herself from a heavy woman into a svelte and glamorous one after a mid-career weight loss, which might have contributed to her vocal decline and the premature end of her career.
The press exulted in publicizing Callas's temperamental behavior, her supposed rivalry with Renata Tebaldi and her love affair with Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Although her dramatic life and personal tragedy have often overshadowed Callas the artist in the popular press, her artistic achievements were such that Leonard Bernstein called her "the Bible of opera" and her influence so enduring that, in 2006, Opera News wrote of her: "Nearly thirty years after her death, she's still the definition of the diva as artist—and still one of classical music's best-selling vocalists."
Maria Callas - The Very Best 1
01. Puccini: Tosca - Vissi D'Arte 3:21
02. Puccini: Madama Butterfly - Un Bel Dì Vedremo 4:45
03. Giordano: Andrea Chénier - La Mamma Morta 4:53
04. Rossini: The Barber Of Seville - Una Voce Poco Fa 6:53
05. Bellini: La Sonnambula - Compagne, Teneri Amici ... Come Per Me Sereno 5:48
06. Verdi: Rigoletto - Gualtier Maldè!... Caro Nome 7:36
07. Verdi: La Traviata - Ah, Fors' E Lui 3:22
08. Puccini: Manon Lescaut - In Quelle Trine Morbide 2:34
09. Puccini: La Bohème - Si. Mi Chiamano Mimi 4:51
10. Puccini: La Bohème - Donde Lieta Uscì 3:22
11. Puccini: Gianni Schicchi - O Mio Babbino Caro 2:36
12. Catalani: La Wally - Ebben? Ne Andrò Lontana 4:51
13. Meyerbeer: Dinorah - Ombra Leggiera 5:43
14. Puccini: Turandot - Signore, Ascolta! 2:31
15. Puccini: Turandot - In Questa Reggia 6:26
16. Puccini: Madama Butterfly - Vogliatemi Bene, Un Bene Piccolino 7:19
Maria Callas - The Very Best 2
01. Bizet: Carmen - L'Amour Est Un Oiseau Rebelle 4:05
02. Bizet: Carmen - Chanson Bohème; Les Tringles Des Sistres Tintaient 4:22
03. Saint-Saëns: Samson Et Dalila - Printemps Qui Commence 5:17
04. Saint-Saëns: Samson Et Dalila - Mon Coeur S'Ouvre À Ta Voix 5:19
05. Gounod: Roméo Et Juliette - Je Veux Vivre 3:39
06. Massenet: Manon - Je Ne Suis Que Faiblesse...Adieu, Notre Petite Table 3:21
07. Gluck: Orphée Et Eurydice - J'Ai Perdu Mon Eurydice 4:24
08. Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro, K 492 - Porgi, Amor 4:13
09. Bellini: Norma - Casta Diva 5:38
10. Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor - Regnava Nel Silenzio...Quando Rapito In Estasi 8:05
11. Donizetti: Anna Bolena - Al Dolce Guidami Castel Natio 3:54
12. Verdi: Macbeth - Nel Dì Della Vittoria...Vienil T'Affretta 7:47
13. Verdi: Aida - Ritorna Vincitor 7:05
14. Ponchielli: La Gioconda - Suicidio! 4:38
15. Verdi: Otello - Ave Maria 4:31
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice audience in 1960 after a performance of the title role in Handel's Alcina.
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland - LA STUPENDA
01-Massenet: Esclarmonde - Esprits de l'air, esprits de l'onde 0:00
02-Bellini: Norma - Vanne, si: mi lascia, indegno 1:50
03-Bellini: Norma - Gia mi paso ne' tuoi sguardi 4:44
04-Bellini: La Sonnambula - Sopra il sen la man mi posa 7:17
05-Bellini: La Sonnambula - Ah! non giunge uman pensiero 11:32
06-Bellini: I Puritani - Son vergin vezzosa 15:25
07-Bellini: I Puritani - Vien, diletto, è in ciel la luna! 18:31
08-Verdi: Il Trovatore - Di tale amor, che dirsi 23:03
09-Verdi: Il Trovatore - D'amor sull'ali rosee 26:07
10-Verdi: Rigoletto - Gaultier Maldè.... Caro nome 29:56
11-Verdi: La Traviata - E'strano... Ah fors'e lui... Sempre libera 36:16
12-Rossini: Semiramide - Dolce pensiero 42:59
13-Offenbach: Tales of Hoffmann - Les oiseaux dans la charmille 45:50
14-Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots - O beau pays de la Touraine! 50:37
15-Gounod: O Divine Redeemer 56:23
16-Puccini: Turandot - In questa reggia 1:02:19
17-Donizetti: Linda di Chamounix - O luce di quest'anima 1:08:52
18-Donizetti: La Fille du Régiment - Salut a la France! 1:12:38
19-Donizetti: Maria Stuarda - Da tutti abbandonata 1:17:28
20-Donizetti: Maria Stuarda - Ah! se un giorno da queste ritorte 1:24:34
21-Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia - Era desso il figlio mio 1:29:20
22-Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor - Regnava nel silenzo 1:34:19
23-Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor - Quando, rapito in estasi 1:38:11
24-Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor - Spargi d'amaro pianto 1:42:38
25-Bonus track: 1969, Sempre libera (Tetrazzini version) 1:46:50
26-Bonus track: 1955, Mozart K.419 1:50:22
27-Bonus track: 1963, Norma, Vancouver 1:54:33
28-Bonus track: Il dolce suono, conclusion 1:56:21
29-Bonus track: Interview 1:56:39
A soprano is a type of classical female singing voice and is the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation where middle C is written as "C4") is from approximately middle C (C4) to "high A" (A5) in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody. For other styles of singing see voice classification in non-classical music.
Typically, the term "soprano" refers to female singers but at times the term "male soprano" has been used by men who sing in the soprano vocal range using falsetto vocal production instead of the modal voice. This practice is most commonly found in the context of choral music in England. However, these men are more commonly referred to as countertenors or sopranists. The practice of referring to countertenors as "male sopranos" is somewhat controversial within vocal pedagogical circles as these men do not produce sound in the same physiological way that female sopranos do. Michael Maniaci is able sing the modal voice like a woman because his larynx didn't fully develop during puberty. Radu Marian is also able to sing in the modal voice because he never went through puberty, and is considered to be a "natural" castrato. In choral music, the term soprano refers to a vocal part or line and not a voice type. Male singers whose voices have not yet changed and are singing the soprano line are technically known as "trebles". The term "boy soprano" is often used as well, but this is just a colloquialism and not the correct term.
Historically, women were not allowed to sing in the Church so the soprano roles were given to young boys and later to castrati—men whose larynges had been fixed in a pre-adolescent state through the process of castration.
The term soprano may also be used to refer to a member of an instrumental family with the highest range such as the soprano saxophone.
Types and roles in opera
In opera, the tessitura, vocal weight, and timbre of soprano voices, and the roles they sing, are commonly categorized into voice types, often called fächer (sg. fach, from German Fach or Stimmfach, "vocal category"). A singer's tessitura is where the voice has the best timbre, easy volume, and most comfort. For instance a soprano and a mezzo-soprano may have a similar range, but their tessituras will lie in different parts of that range.
The low extreme for sopranos is roughly A3 or B♭3 (just below middle C). Within opera, the lowest demanded note for sopranos is G♭3 (from Richard Strauss' Salome (opera)). Often low notes in higher voices will project less, lack timbre, and tend to "count less" in roles (although some Verdi, Strauss and Wagner roles call for stronger singing below the staff). However, rarely is a soprano simply unable to sing a low note in a song within a soprano role.
The high extreme, at a minimum, for non-coloratura sopranos is "soprano C" (C6 two octaves above middle C), and many roles in the standard repertoire call for C♯6 or D6. A couple of roles have optional E♭6’s, as well. In the coloratura repertoire several roles call for E♭6 on up to F6. In rare cases, some coloratura roles go as high as G6 or G♯6, such as Mozart's concert aria "Popoli di Tessaglia", or the title role of Jules Massenet's opera Esclarmonde. While not necessarily within the tessitura, a good soprano will be able to sing her top notes full-throated, with timbre and dynamic control.
The following are the operatic soprano classifications:
Coloratura soprano
Lyric coloratura soprano—A very agile light voice with a high upper extension, capable of fast vocal coloratura. Light coloraturas have a range of approximately middle C (C4) to "high F" (F6) with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing somewhat higher or lower.
Dramatic coloratura soprano—A coloratura soprano with great flexibility in high-lying velocity passages, yet with great sustaining power comparable to that of a full spinto or dramatic soprano. Dramatic coloraturas have a range of approximately "low B" (B3) to "high F" (F6) with some coloratura sopranos being able to sing somewhat higher or lower.
Lyric coloratura soprano
A very agile light voice with a high upper extension, capable of fast vocal coloratura. Lyric coloraturas have a range of approximately middle C (C4) to "high F" (F6). Such a soprano is sometimes referred to as a soprano leggero if her vocal timbre has a slightly warmer quality. The soprano leggero also typically does not go as high as other coloraturas, peaking at a "high E" (E6). Bel canto roles were typically written for this voice, and a wide variety of other composers have also written coloratura parts. Baroque music, early music and baroque opera also have many roles for this voice.
Lyric coloratura soprano roles:
Adele, Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss)
Adina, L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti)
Agrippina, Agrippina (Handel)
Alcina, Alcina (Handel)
Almirena, Rinaldo (Handel)
Alzira, Alzira (Verdi)
Amenaide, Tancredi (Rossini)
Amina, La sonnambula (Bellini)
Angelica, Orlando (Handel)
Ariel, The Tempest (Thomas Adès)
Aspasia, Mitridate, re di Ponto (Mozart)
Bianca, Bianca e Fernando (Bellini)
Blonde, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Mozart)
Bystrouška, The Cunning Little Vixen (Janáček)
Carolina, Il matrimonio segreto (Cimarosa)
Celia, Lucio Silla (Mozart)
Cleopatra, Giulio Cesare (George Frideric Handel)
La Comtesse Adèle, Le comte Ory (Rossini)
Cunegonde, Candide (Bernstein)
Dalinda, Ariodante (Handel)
Dinorah, Le pardon de Ploërmel (Giacomo Meyerbeer)
Dorinda, Orlando (Handel)
Elisa, Il re pastore (Mozart)
Elizabeth Doe, The Ballad of Baby Doe (Douglas Moore)
Elvira, I puritani (Bellini)
Elvira, L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini)
Le feu/La princesse/Le rossignol, L'enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel)
Fiakermilli, Arabella (Richard Strauss)
Gilda, Rigoletto (Verdi)
Giulietta, I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini)
Ilia, Idomeneo (Mozart)
Inès, L'Africaine (Giacomo Meyerbeer)
Ismene, Mitridate, re di Ponto (Mozart)
Isotta, Die schweigsame Frau (Richard Strauss)
Juliette, Roméo et Juliette (Gounod)
Lakmé, Lakmé (Delibes)
Léïla, Les pêcheurs de perles (Bizet)
Linda di Chamounix, Linda di Chamounix (Donizetti)
Lisa, La sonnambula (Bellini)
Lucy, The Telephone (Menotti)
Madame Herz, Der Schauspieldirektor (Mozart)
Madame Mao, Nixon in China (John Adams)
Marguérite, Faust (Charles Gounod)
Marie, La fille du régiment (Donizetti)
Dramatic coloratura soprano
A coloratura soprano with great flexibility in high-lying velocity passages, yet with great sustaining power comparable to that of a full spinto or dramatic soprano. Dramatic coloraturas have a range of approximately "low B" (B3) to "high F" (F6). Various dramatic coloratura roles have different vocal demands for the singer – for instance, the voice that can sing Abigail (Nabucco, Verdi) is unlikely to also sing Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor, Donizetti), but a factor in common is that the voice must be able to convey dramatic intensity as well as flexibility. Roles written specifically for this kind of voice include the more dramatic Mozart and bel canto female roles and early Verdi. This is a rare vocal fach, as thick vocal cords are needed to produce the large, dramatic notes, which usually lessens the flexibility and acrobatic abilities of the voice.
Dramatic coloratura soprano roles:
Abigaille, Nabucco (Giuseppe Verdi)
Alaide, La straniera (Vincenzo Bellini)
Amalia, I masnadieri (Giuseppe Verdi)
Aminta, Die schweigsame Frau (Richard Strauss)
Anne, The Rake's Progress (Igor Stravinsky)
Anna Bolena, Anna Bolena (Gaetano Donizetti)
Armida, Rinaldo (George Frideric Handel)
Armida, Armida (Gioachino Rossini)
Donna Anna, Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Elettra, Idomeneo (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Elena, La donna del lago (Gioachino Rossini)
Elisabetta, Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereux (Gaetano Donizetti)
Elvira, Ernani (Giuseppe Verdi)
Esclarmonde, Esclarmonde (Jules Massenet)
Europa, Europa riconosciuta (Antonio Salieri)
Fauno, Ascanio in Alba (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Giovanna, Giovanna d'Arco (Giuseppe Verdi)
Giulietta,I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Vincenzo Bellini)
Giunia, Lucio Silla (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Hélène, Jérusalem (Giuseppe Verdi)
Imogene, Il pirata (Vincenzo Bellini)
Königin der Nacht, The Magic Flute (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Konstanze, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (W. A. Mozart)
Lady Macbeth, Macbeth (Giuseppe Verdi)
Leonora, Il trovatore (Giuseppe Verdi)
Lida, La battaglia di Legnano (Giuseppe Verdi)
Lina, Stiffelio (Giuseppe Verdi)
Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti)
Lucrezia, Lucrezia Borgia (Gaetano Donizetti)
Lucrezia, "I due Foscari" (Giuseppe Verdi)
Luisa Miller, Luisa Miller (Giuseppe Verdi)
Marchesa del Poggio, Un giorno di regno (Giuseppe Verdi)
Marguérite de Valois, Les Huguenots (Giacomo Meyerbeer)
Maria Stuarda, Maria Stuarda (Gaetano Donizetti)
Mathilde, William Tell (Gioachino Rossini)
Medora, Il corsaro (Giuseppe Verdi)
Norma, Norma (Vincenzo Bellini)
Odabella, Attila (Giuseppe Verdi)
Rodelinda, Rodelinda (George Frederic Handel)
Rosalinde, Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss)
Semiramide, Semiramide (Gioachino Rossini)
Thaïs, Thaïs (Jules Massenet)
Violetta, La traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)
Soubrette
In classical music and opera, the term soubrette refers to both a voice type and a particular type of opera role. A soubrette voice is light with a bright, sweet timbre, a tessitura in the mid-range, and with no extensive coloratura. The soubrette voice is not a weak voice for it must carry over an orchestra without a microphone like all voices in opera. The voice however has a lighter vocal weight than other soprano voices with a brighter timbre. Many young singers start out as soubrettes but as they grow older and the voice matures more physically they may be reclassified as another voice type, usually either a light lyric soprano, a lyric coloratura soprano, or a coloratura mezzo-soprano. Rarely does a singer remain a soubrette throughout her entire career. A soubrette's range extends approximately from middle C (C4) to "high D" (D6). The tessitura of the soubrette tends to lie a bit lower than the lyric soprano and spinto soprano.
Roles in opera and operettas:
Adele, Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss II)
Alison, The Wandering Scholar (Holst)
Amor, Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck)
Ännchen, Der Freischütz (von Weber)
Ann Page, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Nicolai)
Auretta, L'oca del Cairo (Mozart)
Barbarina, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)
Bastienne, Bastien und Bastienne (Mozart)
Belinda, Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)
Berta, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Gioachino Rossini)
Lyric soprano
A warm voice with a bright, full timbre, which can be heard over a big orchestra. It generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have a range from approximately below middle C (C4) to "high D" (D6). There is a tendency to divide lyric sopranos into two groups:
Light lyric soprano—A light-lyric soprano has a bigger voice than a soubrette but still possesses a youthful quality.
Full lyric soprano —A full-lyric soprano has a more mature sound than a light-lyric soprano and can be heard over a bigger orchestra.
Lyric soprano roles:
Alice, Le comte Ory (Gioachino Rossini)
Ännchen, Der Freischütz (Carl Maria von Weber)
Annina, La traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)
Antonia, The Tales of Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach)
Clorinda, La Cenerentola (Gioachino Rossini)
Despina, Così fan tutte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Euridice, Orfeo ed Euridice (Christoph Willibald Gluck)
Gretel, Hänsel und Gretel (Engelbert Humperdinck)
Juliette, Roméo et Juliette (Charles Gounod)
Laurie Moss, The Tender Land (Aaron Copland)
Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi (Giacomo Puccini)
Marzelline, Fidelio (Ludwig van Beethoven)
Manon, Manon (Jules Massenet)
Musetta, La bohème (Puccini)
Spinto soprano
Also lirico-spinto, Italian for "pushed lyric". This voice has the brightness and height of a lyric soprano, but can be "pushed" to dramatic climaxes without strain, and may have a somewhat darker timbre. Spinto sopranos have a range from approximately from B (B3) to "high D" (D6).
Spinto roles:
Aïda, Aïda (Verdi)
Alice Ford, Falstaff (Verdi)
Amanda/Clitoria, Le Grand Macabre (Ligeti)
Cio-Cio San, Madama Butterfly (Puccini)
Desdemona, Otello (Verdi)
Elisabetta, Don Carlos (Verdi)
Leonora, La forza del destino (Verdi)
Leonora, Il Trovatore (Verdi)
Liza, The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky)
Manon, Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Margherita, Mefistofele (Boito)
Maria/Amelia, Simon Boccanegra (Verdi)
The Marschallin, Der Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss)
Nedda, Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo)
Rusalka, Rusalka (Dvořák)
Floria Tosca, Tosca (Puccini)
Santuzza, Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni)
Tatyana, Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano (or soprano robusto) has a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over a full orchestra. Usually (but not always) this voice has a lower tessitura than other sopranos, and a darker timbre. Dramatic sopranos have a range from approximately from A (A3) to "high C" (C6).
Some dramatic sopranos, known as Wagnerian sopranos, have a very big voice that can assert itself over an exceptionally large orchestra (over eighty pieces). These voices are substantial and very powerful and ideally even throughout the registers.
Dramatic roles:
Abigaille, Nabucco (Verdi)
Amelia, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)
Arabella, Arabella (Richard Strauss)
Ariadne, Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss)
Cassandre, Les Troyens (Berlioz)
Chrysothemis, Elektra (Richard Strauss)
Elisabeth, Tannhäuser (Wagner)
Elsa, Lohengrin (Wagner)
Gioconda, La Gioconda (Ponchielli)
Helena, Die ägyptische Helena (Richard Strauss)
Die Kaiserin, Die Frau ohne Schatten (Richard Strauss)
Leonore/Fidelio, Fidelio (Beethoven)
Maddalena, Andrea Chénier (Giordano)
Marie, Wozzeck (Alban Berg)
Minnie, La fanciulla del West (Puccini)
Odabella, Attila (Verdi)
Salome, Salome (Richard Strauss)
Santuzza, Cavalleria rusticana (Mascagni)
Sélika, L'Africaine (Giacomo Meyerbeer)
Sieglinde, Die Walküre (Wagner)
Valentine, Les Huguenots (Giacomo Meyerbeer)
Montserrat Caballé (born 12 April 1933) is a Spanish operatic soprano. She has sung a wide variety of roles, but Caballé is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.
MONTSERRAT CABALLÉ. Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi & Bellini
Miguel Zanetti, piano.
Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa ONZ DBE AC (born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand soprano. She has a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced".
Kiri Te Kanawa - Montreal Concert 1986
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Dutoit. Arias by Handel, Mozart, Bellini, Gounod, Boito, Puccini and Charpentier,
The Best Of Anna Netrebko -I
The Best Of Anna Netrebko II
Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American opera soprano. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice. She has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She has also sung chansons, jazz and indie rock. She speaks fluent German and French, along with limited Italian. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, the title role in Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, the title role in Richard Strauss's Arabella, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and the Countess in Capriccio.
Renee Fleming - Mexico City Recital - 2 Hour Stream
Part 1
1. "Porgi, amor" Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart)
2. "Bel piacere" Agrippina (Handel)
3. "V'adoro pupille" Gulio Cesare (Handel)
4. "C'est Thaïs, l'idole fragile" Thaïs (Massenet)
5. "Adieu, Notre Petite Table" Manon (Massenet)
6. "Velada en el mar" Saint-Seans
7. "Je t'aime quand meme" (Oscar Straus)
Part 2
1. "O dolgo budu ya" (Rachmaninov)
2. "Ne poi, Krasavitsa, primne" (Rachmaninov)
3. "Rechnaya Liliya" (Rachmaninov)
4. "Sumerki" (Rachmaninov)
5. "Vesenniye void" (Rachmaninov)
6. "O del mio amato ben" (Donaudy)
7. "Aprile" (Tosti)
8. "L'altra note in fondo al mare" Mefistofeles (Boito)
9. "Mattinata" (Leoncavallo)
10. "Estrellita" (Ponce)
11. "La morena de mi copla" (Gomez)
12. "Summertime" Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
13. "I Could Have Danced All Night" My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe)
14. "Song To The Moon" Rusalka (Dvorak)
Anna Yuryevna Netrebko (born 18 September 1971) is a Russian operatic soprano.
Mezzo-soprano
Cecilia Bartoli, Cavaliere OMRI (born 4 June 1966) is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best known for her interpretations of the music of Bellini, Mozart and Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and classical music.
"Viva Vivaldi!" - Cecilia Bartoli & "Il Giardino Armonico".
Cecilia Bartoli & Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Live in Concert - W. A. Mozart
Joyce DiDonato (born February 13, 1969) is an American operatic lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano notable for her interpretations of the works of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini.
She has performed with many of the world's leading opera companies and orchestras, and in 2012 and 2016 won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo.
Joyce DiDonato with Tivoli Copenhagen Phil
01:35 BELLINI: Norma, Ouverture
08:30 PACINI: Ove t’aggiri o barbaro (Stella di Napoli)
13:40 BELLINI: Se Romeo t’uccise un figlio (I Capuleti e I Montecchi)
20:40 PUCCINI: Intermezzo (Manon Lescaut)
26:00 MASCAGNI: Ave Maria (Cavaleria Rusticana)
30:00 ROSSINI: Tanti affetti (La donna del lago)
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (English pronunciation: /ˈmɛtsoʊ/, /ˈmɛzoʊ/; Italian: [ˈmɛdzo] meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3–A5 in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C4). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F3) and as high as "high C" (C6).
Mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos. The mezzo-soprano voice resonates in a higher range than that of a contralto. The terms Dugazon and Galli-Marié are sometimes used to refer to light mezzo-sopranos, after the names of famous singers. A castrato with a vocal range equivalent to a mezzo-soprano's range is referred to as a mezzo-soprano castrato or mezzista. Today, however, only women should be referred to as mezzo-sopranos; men singing within the female range are called countertenors. In current operatic practice, female singers with very low tessituras are often included among mezzo-sopranos, because singers in both ranges are able to cover the other, and true operatic contraltos are very rare.
While mezzo-sopranos typically sing secondary roles in operas, notable exceptions include the title role in Bizet's Carmen, Angelina (Cinderella) in Rossini's La Cenerentola, and Rosina in Rossini's Barber of Seville (all of which are also sung by sopranos). Many 19th-century French-language operas give the leading female role to mezzos, including Béatrice et Bénédict, La damnation de Faust, Don Quichotte, La favorite, Mignon, Samson et Dalila, Les Troyens, and Werther, as well as Carmen.
Typical roles for mezzo-sopranos include the stereotypical triad associated with contraltos of "witches, bitches, and britches": witches, nurses, and wise women, such as Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore; villains and seductresses such as Amneris in Verdi's Aida; and "breeches roles" (male characters played by female singers) such as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Mezzo-sopranos are well represented in baroque music, early music, and baroque opera. Some roles designated for lighter soubrette sopranos are sung by mezzo sopranos, who often provide a fuller, more dramatic quality. Such roles include Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte and Zerlina in his Don Giovanni. Mezzos sometimes play dramatic soprano roles such as Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth, and Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal.
Coloratura mezzo-soprano
A coloratura mezzo-soprano has a warm lower register and an agile high register. The roles they sing often demand not only the use of the lower register but also leaps into the upper tessitura with highly ornamented, rapid passages. They have a range from approximately the G below middle C (G3) to the B two octaves above middle C (B5). Some coloratura mezzo-sopranos can sing up to high C (C6) or high D (D6), but this is very rare. What distinguishes these voices from being called sopranos is their extension into the lower register and warmer vocal quality. Although coloratura mezzo-sopranos have impressive and at times thrilling high notes, they are most comfortable singing in the middle of their range, rather than the top.
Many of the hero roles in the operas of Handel and Monteverdi, originally sung by male castrati, can be successfully sung today by coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Rossini demanded similar qualities for his comic heroines, and Vivaldi wrote roles frequently for this voice as well. Coloratura mezzo-sopranos also often sing lyric-mezzo soprano roles or soubrette roles.
Coloratura mezzo-soprano roles in opera and operettas
Angelina (Cenerentola), La Cenerentola (Rossini)
Ariodante, Ariodante (Handel)
Baba the Turk, The Rake's Progress (Stravinsky)
Griselda, Griselda (Vivaldi)
Isabella, L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini)
Isolier, Le comte Ory (Rossini)
Julius Caesar, Giulio Cesare (Handel)
Orsini, Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti)
Ruggiero, Alcina (Handel)
Rosina, The Barber of Seville (Rossini)
Serse, Serse (Handel)
Tancredi, Tancredi (Rossini)
Lyric mezzo-soprano
The lyric mezzo-soprano has a range from approximately the G below middle C (G3) to the B two octaves above middle C (B5). This voice has a very smooth, sensitive and at times lachrymose quality. Lyric mezzo-sopranos do not have the vocal agility of the coloratura mezzo-soprano or the size of the dramatic mezzo-soprano. The lyric mezzo-soprano is ideal for most trouser roles.
Lyric mezzo-soprano roles in opera and operettas
Annio, La clemenza di Tito (Mozart)
Carmen, Carmen (Bizet)
Charlotte, Werther (Massenet)
Cherubino, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)
The Composer, Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss)
Dido, Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)
Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni (Mozart)
Dorabella, Così fan tutte (Mozart)
Dramatic mezzo-soprano
A dramatic mezzo-soprano has a strong medium register, a warm high register and a voice that is broader and more powerful than the lyric and coloratura mezzo-sopranos. This voice has less vocal facility than the coloratura mezzo-soprano. The range of the dramatic mezzo-soprano is from approximately the F below middle C to the G two octaves above middle C. The dramatic mezzo-soprano can sing over an orchestra and chorus with ease and was often used in the 19th century opera, to portray older women, mothers, witches and evil characters. Verdi wrote many roles for this voice in the Italian repertoire and there are also a few good roles in the French Literature. The majority of these roles, however, are within the German Romantic repertoire of composers like Wagner and Richard Strauss. Like coloratura mezzos, dramatic mezzos are also often cast in lyric mezzo-soprano roles.
Dramatic mezzo-soprano roles in opera and operettas
Azucena, Il trovatore (Verdi)
Amneris, Aida (Verdi)
Adelaide, Arabella (Richard Strauss)
Brangäne, Tristan und Isolde (Wagner)
The Gingerbread Witch, Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck)
The Countess, The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky)
Dalila, Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saëns)
Dido, Les Troyens (Berlioz)
Mezzosoprano Arias
1.- Serena I Vaghi... Bel Raggio Lusinghier - Joyce DiDonato 00:00
2.- L'amour Est Un Oiseau Rebelle - Elina Garanca 10:46
3.- Il Segreto Per Esser Felici - Vivica Genaux 15:29
4.- Voi Lo Sapete, o Mamma - Elena Obraztsova 18:47
5.- Una Voce Poco Fa - Cecilia Bartoli 22:44
6.- Cruda Sorte! Amor Tiranno! - Marina Domashenko 28:30
7.- Nacqui All'affanno... Non Piu Mesta - Teresa Berganza 33:00
8.- Divinites Du Styx - Marylin Horne 40:06
9.- Tanti Affetti... Fra Il Padre - Vesselina Kasarova 44:43
10.- Acerba Voluta - Dolora Zajick 52:36
11.- Werther! Werther! Qui M'aurait - Shirley Verret 56:50
12.- La Luce Langue - Agnes Baltsa 01:04:24
Contralto
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an American singer. Anderson was one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan Blyth said: "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty." Most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and with famous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925 and 1965. Although offered roles with many important European opera companies, Anderson declined, as she had no training in acting. She preferred to perform in concert and recital only. She did, however, perform opera arias within her concerts and recitals.
Marion Anderson with Orchestral accomp. cond. by Lawrance Collingwood Softly Awakes My Heart, from Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saens), 1935
Kathleen Mary Ferrier, (22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953) was an English contralto singer who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the classical works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar. Her death from cancer, at the height of her fame, was a shock to the musical world and particularly to the general public, which was kept in ignorance of the nature of her illness until after her death.
Kathleen Ferrier - Gluck - Orfeo ed Euridice
A contralto is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type, with the lowest tessitura. The contralto's vocal range falls between tenor and mezzo-soprano; typically between the F below middle C (F3 in scientific pitch notation) to the second G above middle C (G5), although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C (E3) or the second B♭ above middle C (B♭5).
Terminology
"Contralto" is meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other genres lack a system of vocal categorization comparable to that generally accepted in the classical context. Even within current operatic practice, contraltos are often classed as mezzo-sopranos, because singers in each range can cover for those in the other. When appearing separately, the term "contralto" applies only to female singers; men whose voices fall in the same range or higher are known as "countertenors." The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, the latter technically denoting a specific vocal range in choral singing without regard to factors like tessitura, vocal timbre, vocal facility, and vocal weight.
Within the category of contraltos are three generally recognized subcategories—coloratura contralto, lyric contralto, and dramatic contralto—that usefully describe the voice type in general terms. Note, however, that they do not always apply with precision to individual singers; some exceptional dramatic contraltos, such as Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Sigrid Onégin, were technically equipped to perform not only heavy, dramatic music by the likes of Wagner but also florid compositions by Donizetti.
Coloratura contralto
Coloratura contraltos—who have light, agile voices ranging very high for the classification and atypically extensive coloratura and high sustaining notes—specialize in florid passages and leaps. Given its deviations from the classification's norms, this voice type is quite rare.
Lyric contralto
A lyric contralto voice is lighter than a dramatic contralto but not capable of the ornamentation and leaps of a coloratura contralto. This class of contralto, lighter in timbre than the others, is the most common today and usually ranges from the E below middle C (E3) to the second G above middle C (G5).
Dramatic contralto
The dramatic contralto is the deepest, darkest, and heaviest contralto voice, usually having a heavier tone and more power than the others. Singers in this class, like the coloratura contraltos, are rare. They typically sing in a range from the G below middle C (G3) to the second A above middle C (A 5).
Contralto roles in opera
True operatic contraltos are rare, and the operatic literature contains few roles written specifically for them. Contraltos sometimes are assigned feminine roles like Angelina in La Cenerentola, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri, and Olga in Eugene Onegin, but more frequently they play female villains or assume trouser roles originally written for castrati. A common saying among contraltos is that they may play only "witches, bitches, or britches."
Examples of contralto roles in the standard operatic repertoire include the following:
Examples of contralto roles in the standard operatic repertoire include the following:
Angelina, La Cenerentola (Rossini)
Art Banker, Facing Goya (Michael Nyman)
Auntie, landlady of The Boar, Peter Grimes (Britten)
Azucena, Il trovatore (Verdi)
Fides, Le prophète (Giacomo Meyerbeer)
Florence, Albert Herring (Britten)
Isabella, L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini)
Katisha, The Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan)
Maddalena, Rigoletto (Verdi)
Magdelone, Maskarade (Nielsen)
Mama Lucia, Cavalleria rusticana (Mascagni)
Malcolm, La donna del lago (Rossini)
Margret, Wozzeck (Berg)
Maria, Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
The Marquise of Birkenfeld, La fille du régiment (Donizetti)
Orfeo, Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck)
Orsini, Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti)
Pauline, The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky)
La Principessa, Suor Angelica (Puccini)
Rosina, The Barber of Seville (Rossini)
Tancredi, Tancredi (Rossini)
Ulrica, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)
Countertenor
Described by the New York Times as „a male soprano of staggering gifts“, is Robert Crowe a member of perhaps the world’s smallest vocal category. His education was completed at the Manhattan School of Music, after receiving a master of music from Boston University School for the Arts and a bachelor of music, magna cum laude from Millsaps College. In 1995 he was only the second countertenor (and first male soprano) to be a National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition – ha- ving his professional debut as „Cherubino“ at the Des Moines Metro Opera in summer of that year.
Robert Crowe (contrtenor) - Aria 'Lascia ch'io pianga' (from 'Rinaldo', HWV 7) G. F. Händel
A countertenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto and mezzo-soprano voice types.
The term first came into use in England during the mid 17th century, and was in wide use by the late 17th century. However, the use of adult male falsettos in polyphony, commonly in the alto range, was common in all-male sacred choirs for some decades previous, as early as the mid-16th century, and modern-day ensembles such as the Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen maintain the use of male altos in period works. During the Romantic period, the popularity of the countertenor voice waned and few compositions were written with that voice type in mind.
In the second half of the 20th century, the countertenor voice went through a massive resurgence in popularity, partly due to pioneers such as Alfred Deller, by the increased popularity of Baroque opera and the need of male singers to replace the castrati roles in such works. Although the voice has been considered largely an early music phenomenon, there is a growing modern repertoire.
The countertenor in history
In polyphonic compositions of the 14th and early 15th centuries, the contratenor was a voice part added to the basic two-part contrapuntal texture of discant (superius) and tenor (from the Latin tenere which means to hold, since this part "held" the music's melody, while the superius descanted upon it at a higher pitch). Though having approximately the same range as the tenor, it was generally of a much less melodic nature than either of these other two parts. With the introduction in about 1450 of four-part writing by composers like Ockeghem and Obrecht, the contratenor split into contratenor altus and contratenor bassus, which were respectively above and below the tenor. Later the term became obsolete: in Italy, contratenor altus became simply altus, in France, haute-contre, and in England, countertenor. Though originally these words were used to designate a vocal part, they are now used to describe singers of that part, whose vocal techniques may differ.
In the Catholic Church during the Renaissance, St Paul's admonition "mulieres in ecclesiis taceant" ("let the women keep silence in the churches" – I Corinthians 14:34) still prevailed, and so women were banned from singing in church services. Countertenors, though rarely described as such, therefore found a prominent part in liturgical music, whether singing a line alone or with boy trebles or altos; (in Spain there was a long tradition of male falsettists singing soprano lines). However, employment of countertenors never extended to early opera, the rise of which coincided with the arrival of a fashion for castrati, who took, for example, several roles in the first performance of Monteverdi's Orfeo (1607).
Castrati were already prominent by this date in Italian church choirs, replacing both falsettists and trebles; the last soprano falsettist singing in Rome, Juan [Johannes de] San[c]tos (a Spaniard), died in 1652. In Italian opera, by the late seventeenth century, castrati predominated, while in France, the modal high tenor, called the haute-contre, was established as the voice of choice for leading male roles. In England Purcell wrote significant music for a higher male voice that he called a "counter-tenor", for example, the roles of Secrecy and Summer in The Fairy Queen (1692). "These lines have often challenged modern singers, who have been unsure whether they are high tenor parts or are meant for falsettists". In Purcell's choral music the situation is further complicated by the occasional appearance of more than one solo part designated "countertenor", but with a considerable difference in range and tessitura. Such is the case in Hail, bright Cecilia (The Ode on St Cecilia's Day 1692) in which the solo "'Tis Nature's Voice" has the range F3 to B♭4 (similar to those stage roles cited previously), whereas, in the duet "Hark each tree" the countertenor soloist sings from E4 to D5 (in the trio "With that sublime celestial lay". Later in the same work, Purcell's own manuscript designates the same singer, Mr Howel, described as "a High Contra tenor" to perform in the range G3 to C4; it is very likely that he took some of the lowest notes in a well-blended "chest voice").
"The Purcell counter-tenor 'tenor' did not flourish in England much beyond the early years of the [eighteenth] century; within twenty years of Purcell's death Handel had settled in London and opera seria, which was underpinned entirely by Italian singing, soon became entrenched in British theatres".[6] In parallel, by Handel's time, castrati had come to dominate the English operatic stage as much as that of Italy (and indeed most of Europe outside France). They also took part in several of Handel's oratorios, though countertenors, too, occasionally featured as soloists in the latter, the parts written for them being closer in compass to the higher ones of Purcell, with a usual range of A3 to E5. They also sang the alto parts in Handel's choruses, and it was as choral singers within the Anglican church tradition (as well as in the secular genre of the glee) that countertenors survived throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Otherwise they largely faded from public notice.
Tenor
Enrico Caruso (25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Caruso also made approximately 260 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920.
ENRICO CARUSO
1 Tosca: Aria from Act III, "E lucevan le stelle" 00:00
2 Germania: Aria from Act I, "No, non chiuder gli occhi vaghi" 2.44
3 Rigoletto: Aria from Act IV, "La donna è mobile" 5:52
4 Cavalleria Rusticana: Aria from Act I, "O Lola (Siciliana)" 8:21
5 Tosca: Aria from Act III, "E lucevan le stelle" 11:20
6 Gli Ugonotti: Aria from Act I, "Qui sotto il ciel" 13:48
7 Tosca: Aria from Act III, "E lucevan le stelle" 15:52
8 Iris: Aria from Act I, "Apri la tua finestra" 18:29
9 Aida: Aria from Act I, "Celeste Aida" 20:58
10 Aida: Aria from Act I, "Celeste Aida" 24:19
11 Germania: Aria from Act I, "No, non chiuder gli occhi vaghi" 26:55
12 Germania: Aria & Prologue, "Studenti udite" 29:40
13 Germania: Aria from Act II, "Cielo e mar" 31:35
14 La Gioconda: Aria from Act I, "O Lola (Siciliana)" 33:57
15 Adriana Lecouvreur: Aria from Act II, "No, più nobile" 36:21
16 Fedora: Aria from Act II, "Amor ti vieta" 38:54
17 Pagliacci: Aria from Act I, "Recitar…Vesti la giubba" 40:46
18 L'Elisir D'Amore: Aria from Act II, "Una furtiva lagrima" 42:58
19 Rigoletto: Aria from Act I, "Questa o quella" 46:29
20 Rigoletto: Aria from Act IV, "La donna è mobile" 48:35
21 L'Elisir D'Amore: Aria from Act II, "Una furtiva lagrima" 50:48
22 L'Elisir D'Amore: Aria from Act II (Part II), "Un solo istante" 53:13
23 Aida: Aria from Act I, "Celeste Aida" 56:14
24 Tosca: Aria from Act III, "E lucevan le stelle" 59:58
25 Rigoletto: Aria from Act I, "Questa o quella" 1:02:33
26 Manon: Aria from Act II, "Chiudo gli occhi (Il sogno)" 1:04:50
27 L'Elisir D'Amore: Aria from Act II, "Una furtiva lagrima" 1:07:31
28 Mefistofele: Aria & Epilogue, "Giunto sul passo estermo" 1:10:49
29 Mefistofele: Aria from Act I, "Dai campi, dai prati" 1:14:00
30 Mefistofele: Aria from Act I, "Dai campi, dai prati" 1:16:28
ENRICO CARUSO - Nessun Dorma - Turandot
Beniamino Gigli (20 March 1890 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian opera singer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tenors of his generation. Early in his career, Gigli possessed a beautiful, soft and honey-liked lyric voice, with incredible mezza-voice, allowed him to sing light, lyrical roles. As he grew older, his voice developed some dramatic qualities, enable him to sing more heavier roles like Aida and Tosca.
Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli
Concert in Berlin 1954
Beniamino Gigli accompaned by the RIAS-orchestra. Conductors: Enrico Silvieri and Zoltan Fekete. (RIAS : Radio In the American Sector).
Program:
Prince Igor (Borodin) Ouverture
L' Africaine (Meyerbeer) O Paradiso
La forza del destino (Verdi) Ouverture
Xerxes (Händel) Ombre mai fu
Don Giovanni (Mozart) Dalla suo pace
Song (Brahms) Guten abend, gute nacht
Song (Gastaldon) Musica proibita
Carmen (Bizet) Il fior che avevi a me ti dato
Aida (Verdi) Ouverture
Rigoletto (Verdi) La donna e mobile
I vespri Siciliani (Verdi) Ouverture
Manon (Massenet) Il sogno
La Boheme (Puccini) Che gelida manina
Symphonic poem (Alois Melichar) Mondnacht in Venedig
Song (Gounod) Ave Maria
La gazza ladra (Rossini) Ouverture
Song (Cecconi) Tre parole
Song (Cardillo) La mattinata
Tosca (Puccini) E lucevan le stelle
I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) Vesti la giubba
2 Napolitan songs: Toli.toli,tola and Oh, Mari
Mario Del Monaco (27 July 1915 – 16 October 1982) was an Italian operatic tenor who earned worldwide acclaim for his powerful voice.
Mario del Monaco "Galakonzert" München 1966
1. Verdi: I Vespri Siciliani - Overture -
2. Giordano: Andrea Chenier - ,,Si fui soldato"-
3. Puccini: La Fanciulla del West - ,,Ch'ella mi creda" -
4. Puccini: Manon Lescaut - Intermezzo -
5. Bellini: Norma - ,,Meco all'altar di Venere" -
6. Verdi: La Forza del Destino - Overture -
7. Wagner: Die Walküre - ,,Ein Schwert verhiess mir der Vater" -
8. Verdi: Otello - ,,Niun mi tema..." -
9. Rossini: Semiramide - Overture -
10.Rossini: II Barbiere di Sevilla - ,,Largo al factotum" -
11.Eduardo di Capua: "O sole mio" -
Mario Del Monaco
Alberto Erede: New Symphony Orchestra Of London
Ano de gravação: 1952
01. Verdi: Forse la soglia attinse... "Ma Se M'è Forza Perderti", Un Ballo In Maschera, Act 3 0:00
02. Giordano: "Amor Ti Vieta", Fedora, Act 2 4:56
03. Zandonai: Giulietta Son Io, Giulietta E Romeo, Act 3 6:46
04. Puccini: Addio Fiorito Asil, Madama Butterfly, Act 2 10:59
05. Massenet: "Ah! Tout Est Bien Fini! Ô Souverain, Ô Juge, Ô Père", Le Cid, Act 3 12:55
06. Bizet: "La Fleur Que Tu M'avais Jetée", Carmen, WD 31, Act 2 17:11
07. Verdi: Merse, dietti amice... "Come Rugiada Al Cespite", Ernani, Part 1 20:49
08. Meyerbeer: Mi batte il cor... O Paradiso (Sung In Italian), L'Africaine, Act 4 26:50
09. Catalani: M'hai salvato... O Come Furon Lunghi, La Wally, Act 4 30:09
10. Catalani: Quando A Sölden, La Wally, Act 4 33:50
11. Donizetti: "Tombe Degl'avi Miei" - "Fra Poco A Me Ricovero", Lucia Di Lammermoor, Act 3 35:31
12. Donizetti: "Tu Che A Dio Spiegasti L'ali", Lucia Di Lammermoor, Act 3 40:53
13. Verdi: Oh! frede negar potessi agli occhi miel! ... Quando Le Sere Al Placido Chiaror D'un Ciel Stellato, Luisa Miller, Act 2 43:11
14. Puccini: Ch'ella Mi Creda Libero E Lontano, La Fanciulla Del West, Act 3 47:58
15. Puccini: Ah! Guai A Chi La tocca... No! Pazzo Son! Guardate, Manon Lescaut, Act 3 50:20
16. Puccini: Non Piangere Liù , Turandot Completed By Franco Alfano, Act 1 53:38
17. Puccini: "Recondita Armonia", Tosca, Act 1 56:06
18. Puccini: "E Lucevan Le Stelle", Tosca, Act 3 58:54
19. Verdi: O figli, o figli miei ... Ah, La Paterna Mano, Macbeth, Act 4 1:01:41
20. Verdi: La Vita È Inferno, La Forza Del Destino, Act 3 1:04:53
21. Ponchielli: Cielo E Mar!, La Gioconda, Act 2 1:11:02
22. Halévy: "Rachel, Quand Du Seigneur La Grâce Tutélaire", La Juive, Act 4 1:16:35
Mario Lanza (born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor of Italian ancestry, and an actor and Hollywood film star of the late 1940s and the 1950s.
Mario Lanza
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is one of the highest of the male voice types. The tenor's vocal range (in choral music) lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, and (A4), the A above middle C. In solo work, this range extends up to (C5), or "tenor high C". The low extreme for tenors is roughly A♭2 (two A♭s below middle C). At the highest extreme, some tenors can sing up to two Fs above middle C (F5).
The term tenor is also applied to instruments, such as the tenor saxophone, to indicate their range in relation to other instruments of the same group.
Within opera, the lowest note in the standard tenor repertoire is A2 (Mime, Herod), but few roles fall below C3. The high extreme: a few tenor roles in the standard repertoire call for a "tenor C" (C5, one octave above middle C). Some (if not all) of the few top Cs in the standard operatic repertoire are either optional (such as in "Che gelida manina" in Puccini's La bohème) or interpolated (added) by tradition (such as in "Di quella pira" from Verdi's Il trovatore). However, the highest demanded note in the standard tenor operatic repertoire is D5 ("Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire", from Adolph Adams' Le postillon de Lonjumeau). Some operatic roles for tenors require a darker timbre and fewer high notes. In the leggero repertoire the highest note is F5 (Arturo in "Credeasi, misera" from Bellini's I puritani), therefore, very few tenors can, given the raising of concert pitch since its composition, have this role in their repertoire without transposition.
Within musical theatre, most tenor roles are written between B♭2 and A4, especially the romantic leads, although some fall as low as A♭2 and others as high as F5.
Origin of the term
The name "tenor" derives from the Latin word tenere, which means "to hold". In medieval and Renaissance polyphony between about 1250 and 1500,[citation needed] the tenor was the structurally fundamental (or 'holding') voice, vocal or instrumental. All other voices were normally calculated in relation to the tenor, which often proceeded in longer note values and carried a borrowed Cantus firmus melody. Until the late 16th century introduction of the contratenor singers, the tenor was usually the highest voice, assuming the role of providing a l foundation. It was also in the 18th century that "tenor" came to signify the male voice that sang such parts. Thus, for earlier repertoire, a line marked 'tenor' indicated the part's role, and not the required voice type. Indeed, even as late as the eighteenth century, partbooks labelled 'tenor' might contain parts for a range of voice types.
Tenor in choral music
In four-part mixed-sex choral music, the tenor is the second lowest voice, above the bass and below the soprano and alto. In men's choral music, the tenor is the highest voice. While certain choral music does require the first tenors to ascend the full tenor range, the majority of choral music places the tenors in the range from approximately B2 up to A4. The requirements of the tenor voice in choral music are also tied to the style of music most often performed by a given choir. Orchestra choruses require tenors with fully resonant voices, but chamber or a cappella choral music (sung with no instrumental accompaniment) can rely on light baritones singing in falsetto.
Even so, one nearly ubiquitous facet of choral singing is the shortage of tenor voices. Most men tend to have baritone voices and for this reason the majority of men tend to prefer singing in the bass section of a choir (however, true basses are even rarer than tenors). Some men are asked to sing tenor even if they lack the full range, and sometimes low altos are asked to sing the tenor part. The late 19th century saw the emergence of male choirs or TTBB (Tenor1, Tenor2, Bass1, Bass2). In the US these are sometimes called Glee Clubs. The Welsh choirs are examples of this type of choir. Male choirs sing specially written music for male choirs, music adapted from mixed sex choirs and in most genres including classical, sacred, popular and show. Male choirs differ from Barbershop choirs in that they are usually accompanied, often by but not restricted to a piano. Male choirs are often larger than the Barbershop style partly because the foundation of the Barbershop style is the solo quartet sound. In male choirs, tenors will often sing both in chest tone and falsetto. As a result, a male choir has a wider pitch range than one consisting only of females, sometimes stretching from the countertenor or male soprano voice type in the high extreme to basso profundo in the low extreme.
Other uses
There are four parts in Barbershop harmony: bass, baritone, lead, and tenor (lowest to highest), with "tenor" referring to the highest part. The tenor generally sings in falsetto voice, corresponding roughly to the countertenor in classical music, and harmonizes above the lead, who sings the melody. The barbershop tenor range is B♭-below-middle C (B♭3) to D-above-high C (D5), though it is written an octave lower. The "lead" in barbershop music is equivalent to the normal tenor range.
In bluegrass music, the melody line is called the lead. Tenor is sung an interval of a third above the lead. Baritone is the fifth of the scale that has the lead as a tonic, and may be sung below the lead, or even above the lead (and the tenor), in which case it is called "high baritone."
Though strictly not musical, the Muslim call to prayer (azan) is always chanted by tenors, possibly due to the highly placed resonance of the tenor voice which allows it to be heard from a longer distance than baritones or basses during pre-amplification times. Some such chanters (termed bilals) may modulate up to E3 in certain passages, while incorporating a distinctive Middle-Eastern coloratura run.
Tenor voice classification
Within choral and pop music, singers are classified into voice parts based almost solely on vocal range with little consideration for other qualities in the voice. Within classical solo singing, however, a person is classified as a tenor through the identification of several vocal traits, including range, vocal timbre, vocal weight, vocal tessitura, vocal resonance, and vocal transition points (lifts or "passaggio") within the singer's voice. These different traits are used to identify different sub-types within the tenor voice sometimes referred to as fächer (sg. fach, from German Fach or Stimmfach, "vocal category"). Within opera, particular roles are written with specific kinds of tenor voices in mind, causing certain roles to be associated with certain kinds of voices.
Here follows the operatic tenor fächer, with examples of the roles from the standard repertory that they commonly sing. It should be noted that there is considerable overlap between the various categories of role and of voice-type; and that some singers have begun with lyric voices but have transformed with time into spinto or even dramatic tenors; Enrico Caruso is a prime example of this kind of vocal development. It must be said that in the operatic canon the highest top note generally written by composers is B. Top Cs are rare (they are either given as oppure that is, up to the singer to interpolate or are traditional additions). An ability to sing C and above, therefore, is musically superfluous. Indeed, many famous tenors never even attempted C, at least on record; for example, in Caruso's 1906 recording of "Che gelida manina", the whole aria is transposed to avoid the oppure top C.
Leggero tenor
Also known as the "tenore di grazia", the leggero tenor is essentially the male equivalent of a lyric coloratura. This voice is light, agile, and capable of executing difficult passages of fioritura. The typical leggero tenor possesses a range spanning from approximately C3 to Eb5, with a few being able to sing up to F5 or higher in full voice. In some cases, the chest register of the leggero tenor may extend below C3. Voices of this type are utilized frequently in the operas of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and in music dating from the Baroque period.
Leggero tenor roles in operas:
Arnold, William Tell (Rossini)
Arturo, I puritani (Bellini)
Count Almaviva, The Barber of Seville (Rossini)
Count Ory, Le comte Ory (Rossini)
Ernesto, Don Pasquale (Donizetti)
Elvino, La sonnambula (Bellini)
Henry Morosus, Die schweigsame Frau (Strauss)
Lindoro, L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini)
Don Ramiro, La Cenerentola (Rossini)
Tonio, La fille du régiment (Donizetti)
Lyric tenor
A warm graceful voice with a bright, full timbre that is strong but not heavy and can be heard over an orchestra. Lyric tenors have a range from approximately the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the D one octave above middle C (D5). Similarly, their lower range may extend a few notes below the C3. There are many vocal shades to the lyric tenor group, repertoire should be selected according to the weight, colors, and abilities of the voice.
Lyric tenor roles in operas:
Alfredo, La traviata (Verdi)
Chevalier, Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc)
David, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner)
Il Duca di Mantova, Rigoletto (Verdi)
Edgardo, Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti)
Faust, Faust (Gounod)
Lensky, Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)
Oronte, I Lombardi alla prima crociata (Verdi)
Paris, La belle Hélène (Offenbach)
Pinkerton, Madama Butterfly (Puccini)
Rinuccio, Gianni Schicchi (Puccini)
Rodolfo, La bohème (Puccini)
Roméo, Roméo et Juliette (Gounod)
Spinto tenor
This voice has the brightness and height of a lyric tenor, but with a heavier vocal weight enabling the voice to be "pushed" to dramatic climaxes with less strain than the lighter-voice counterparts. Spinto tenors have a darker timbre than a lyric tenor, without having a vocal color as dark as many (not all) dramatic tenors. The German equivalent of the Spinto fach is the Jugendlicher Heldentenor and encompasses many of the Dramatic tenor roles as well as some Wagner roles such as Lohengrin and Stolzing. The difference is often the depth and metal in the voice where some lyric tenors age or push their way into singing as a Spinto giving them a lighter tone and Jugendlicher Heldentenors tend to be either young heldentenors or true lyric spinto voices giving them a dark dramatic tenor like tone. Spinto tenors have a range from approximately the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the C one octave above middle C (C5).
Spinto tenor roles in operas:
Andrea Chénier, Andrea Chénier (Giordano)
Calaf, Turandot (Puccini)
Canio, Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)
Des Grieux, Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Don Carlo, Don Carlos (Verdi)
Don José, Carmen (Bizet)
Erik, Der Fliegende Holländer (Wagner)
Ernani, Ernani (Verdi)
Pollione Norma (Bellini)
Radames Aida (Verdi)
Stiffelio Stiffelio (Verdi)
Gustavo, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)
Dramatic tenor
Also "tenore di forza" or "robusto" – an emotive, ringing and very powerful, clarion, heroic tenor sound. The dramatic tenor has an approximate range from the B one octave below middle C (B2) to the B one octave above middle C (B4) with some able to sing up to the C one octave above middle C (C5).[3] Many successful dramatic tenors though have historically avoided the coveted high C in performance. Their lower range tends to extend into the baritone tessitura or, a few notes below the C3, even down to A♭2. Some dramatic tenors have a rich and dark tonal colour to their voice (such as the mature Enrico Caruso) while others (like Francesco Tamagno) possess a bright, steely timbre.
Dramatic tenor roles in operas:
Canio, Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)
Dick Johnson, La fanciulla del West (Puccini)
Don Alvaro, La forza del destino (Verdi)
Florestan, Fidelio (Beethoven)
Enée, Les Troyens (Berlioz)
Otello, Otello (Verdi)
Peter Grimes, Peter Grimes (Britten)
Samson, Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns)
Heldentenor
A rich, dark, powerful and dramatic voice. As its name implies, the Heldentenor (English: heroic tenor) vocal fach features in the German romantic operatic repertoire. The Heldentenor is the German equivalent of the tenore drammatico, however with a more baritonal quality: the typical Wagnerian protagonist. The keystone of the heldentenor's repertoire is arguably Wagner's Siegfried, an extremely demanding role requiring a wide vocal range and great power, plus tremendous stamina and acting ability. Often the heldentenor is a baritone who has transitioned to this fach or tenors who have been misidentified as baritones. Therefore the heldentenor voice might or might not have facility up to high B or C. The repertoire, however, rarely calls for such high notes.
Heldentenor roles in operas:
Florestan, Fidelio (Beethoven)
Tannhäuser, Tannhäuser (Wagner)
Lohengrin, Lohengrin (Wagner)
Loge, Das Rheingold (Wagner)
Siegmund, Die Walküre (Wagner)
Siegfried, Siegfried (Wagner)
Siegfried, Götterdämmerung (Wagner)
Walther von Stolzing, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner)
Tristan, Tristan und Isolde (Wagner)
Parsifal, Parsifal (Wagner)
Mozart tenor
In Mozart singing, the most important element is the instrumental approach of the vocal sound which implies: flawless and slender emission of sound, perfect intonation, legato, diction and phrasing, capability to cope with the dynamic requirements of the score, beauty of timbre, secure line of singing through perfect support and absolute breath control, musical intelligence, body discipline, elegance, nobility, agility and, most importantly, ability for dramatic expressiveness within the narrow borders imposed by the strict Mozartian style.
The German Mozart tenor tradition goes back to end of the 1920s when Mozart tenors started making use of Caruso's technique (a tenor who rarely sang Mozart) to achieve and improve the required dynamics and dramatic expressiveness.
Mozart tenor roles in Mozart Operas:
Spirit of Christianity, Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots
Oebalus, Apollo et Hyacinthus
Bastien, Bastien und Bastienne
Fracasso, La finta semplice
Mitridate, Mitridate, re di Ponto
Aceste, Ascanio in Alba
Scipione, Il sogno di Scipione
Lucio Silla, Lucio Silla
Don Anchise, La finta giardiniera
Alessandro, Il re pastore
Idomeneo, Idamante, Idomeneo
Belmonte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni
Ferrando, Così fan tutte
Tito, La clemenza di Tito
Tamino, The Magic Flute
Tenor buffo or Spieltenor
A tenor with good acting ability, and the ability to create distinct voices for his characters. This voice specializes in smaller comic roles. The range of the tenor buffo is from the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the C one octave above middle C (C5). The tessitura of these parts lies lower than the other tenor roles. These parts are often played by younger tenors who have not yet reached their full vocal potential or older tenors who are beyond their prime singing years. Only rarely will a singer specialize in these roles for an entire career. In French opéra comique, supporting roles requiring a thin voice but good acting are sometimes described as 'trial', after the singer Antoine Trial (1737–1795), examples being in the operas of Ravel and in The Tales of Hoffmann.
Tenor buffo or Spieltenor roles in operas:
Count Danilo Danilovitsch, The Merry Widow (Lehár)
Don Basilio, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)
Mime, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Wagner)
Don Anchise/ Il Podestà, La finta giardiniera (Mozart)
Monostatos, The Magic Flute (Mozart)
Pedrillo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Mozart)
Slender, The Merry Wives of Windsor (opera) (Nicolai)
John Styx, Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach)
Prince Paul, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (Offenbach)
Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, known professionally as Nicolai Gedda (11 July 1925 – 8 January 2017), was a Swedish operatic tenor. Debuting in 1951, Gedda had a long and successful career in opera until the age of 77 in June 2003, when he made his final operatic recording. Skilled at languages, he performed operas in French, Russian, German, Italian, English, Czech, and Swedish, as well as one in Latin. In January 1958, he created the part of Anatol in the world premiere of the American opera Vanessa at the Metropolitan Opera. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is one of the most widely recorded opera singers in history. His singing is best known for its beauty of tone, vocal control, and musical perception.
Nicolai Gedda recital 1953
Tchaikovsky.- Eugene Onegin - Lenski's Aria
Massenet - Werther - Pourquoi me réveiller
Bizet - Les pecheurs des perles - Je crois entendre encore
Massenet - Manon - La reve
Auber - La muette de Portici - Du pauvre seul
Gounod - Roméo et Juliette - Ah! Lève-toi, soleil
Ponchielli - La gioconda - Cielo e mar!
Verdi - Rigoletto - Parmi veder le lagrime
Flotow - Martha - Ach so fromm
Donizetti - L'elisir d'amore - Una furtiva lagrima
Donizetti - La favorita - Spirito gentil
Cilea - L'Arlesiana - È la solita storia
Luciano Pavarotti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (12 October 1935 – 6 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for the quality of his tone, and eventually established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century.
Luciano Pavarotti
Live at Champ de Mars (Paris), 1993
01 Tosca: E Lucevan le Stelle (Puccini) 00:00
02 Pagliacci: Vesti la Giubba (Ridi, Pagliaccio) (Leoncavallo) 02:37
03 Luisa Miller: Quando le Sere al Placido (Verdi) 05:13
04 I Lombardi: La Mia Letizia Infondere (Verdi) 10:34
05 Manon Lescaut: Donna Non Vidi Mai (Puccini) 12:44
06 Tosca: Recondita Armonia (Puccini) 15:04
07 O’ Sole Mio 17:35
08 Manon Lescaut: Tra Voi Belle, Brune e Bionde (Puccini) 20:14
09 Werther: Pourquoi Me Reveiller (Massenet) 21:47
10 Turandot: Nessun Dorma (Puccini) 24:19
Orchestre de Paris conducted by Leone Megiera
José Plácido Domingo Embil, KBE (born 21 January 1941), known as Plácido Domingo, is a Spanish tenor, conductor and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English and Russian in the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Although primarily a lirico-spinto tenor for most of his career, especially popular for his Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José, and Canio, he quickly moved into more dramatic roles, becoming the most acclaimed Otello of his generation. In the early 2010s, he transitioned from the tenor repertory into almost exclusively baritone parts, most notably Simon Boccanegra. He has performed 147 different roles.
Plácido Domingo and Deborah Polaski in Concert (Wagner), 1993, Berlin. (Barenboim)
Plácido Domingo - Mozart
1. La finta giardiniera K196: Aria: Che beltà, che leggiadria (Act 1)
2. Idomeneo K366, Atto Secondo/Act Two/Zweiter Akt/Deuxième Acte, Scene 3:: Recitativo: Qual Mi Conturba I Sensi Equivoca Favella ...
3. Idomeneo K366, Atto Secondo/Act Two/Zweiter Akt/Deuxième Acte, Scene 3: No. 12 Aria: Fuor Del Mar
4. Don Giovanni K527, Atto Primo, Scena Prima: Recitativo & Duetto
5. Don Giovanni K527, Atto Primo, Scena Terza, Recitativo & Aria: Come Mai Creder Deggio
6. Don Giovanni K527, Atto Primo, Scena Terza, Recitativo & Aria: Dalla Sua Pace
7. Don Giovanni: Recitative: Amici miei ...
8. Don Giovanni: Aria: Il mio tesoro intanto (Act 2)
9. Die Entführung aus dem Serail K384: Recitative: Konstanze! ... Aria: O wie ängstlich (Act1)
10. La clemenza di Tito K621: Aria: Ah, se fosse intorno al trono (Act 1)
11. Davidde penitente K469: A te, fra tanti affanni
12. Die Zauberflöte K620: Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön
13. Le Nozze di Figaro K492: Recitative: Quel che siffrono ...
14. Le Nozze di Figaro K492: Aria: In quegl' anni (Act 4)
15. Così fan tutte K588: Un' aura amorosa (Act 1)
16. Così fan tutte K588: In qual fiero contrasto ... (Act 2)
17. Così fan tutte K588: Tradito, schernito dal perfido cor (act 2)
18. Così Fan Tutte K588, Atto Secondo/Act Two/Zweiter Akt/Deuxième Acte, Scena Terza/Scene Three/Dritte Szene/Troisième Scène: No. 29 Duetto: Fra Gli Amplessi In Pochi Istanti (Fiordiligi/Ferrando)
19. Die Entführung aus dem Serail K384, ACT 1: Frisch zum Kampfe!
Baritone
Titta Ruffo (9 June 1877 - 5 July 1953), born as Ruffo Titta Cafiero, was an Italian operatic baritone who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" ("voice of the lion"), he was greatly admired, even by rival baritones, such as Giuseppe De Luca, who said of Ruffo: "His was not a voice, it was a miracle" (although not often published is the second part of De Luca's conclusion "...which he [Ruffo] bawled away..."), and Victor Maurel, the creator of Verdi's Iago and Falstaff. Maurel said that the notes of Ruffo's upper register were the most glorious baritone sounds he had ever heard (see Pleasants, cited below). Indeed Walter Legge, the prominent classical record producer, went so far as to call Ruffo "a genius".
Titta Ruffo - Di Provenza (1907)
TITTA RUFFO - Ernani "Gran Dio... Oh, de' verd'anni miei" (1921)
Dmitri Aleksandrovich Hvorostovsky (16 October 1962 – 22 November 2017) was a Russian operatic baritone.
In June 2015 Hvorostovsky announced that he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and cancelled all his performances through August. Family representatives said that he would be treated at London's cancer hospital Royal Marsden. In spite of his illness, Hvorostovky returned to the stage at the Metropolitan Opera in September as Count di Luna in Il trovatore for a run of three performances opposite Anna Netrebko. He received strong reviews from both critics and audiences for his performance.
Hvorostovsky died on 22 November 2017 in London after a two-and-a-half-year battle with brain cancer. A service was held in Moscow on November 27. Hvorostovsky was cremated and some of his ashes were buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, and the rest in his hometown of Krasnoyarsk.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky - Concert Edinburgh 1990
Joseph Shore (born 16 April 1948) is a retired American operatic baritone and voice teacher. He has excelled particularly in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi.
The Verdi Baritone Voice - Joseph Shore
1. Pari Siamo (Rigoletto)
2. Pieta, Rispetto, Amore (Macbeth)
3. Ehi Paggio (Falstaff)
4. Si Puo, si puo (Pagliacci, Leoncavallo)
5.Cortigiani scene (Rigoletto)
6. Rigoletto ending (with Nicholas Greenbury and Gillian Sullivan)
7.Minnie dalla mia casa son partitio (Fanciulla, Puccini)
8.Dagl'immortali vertici...E gettata la mia sorte (Attila)
9. Macbeth Act 1 with Donna McRae
10. Ella giammai m'amo (Don Carlo)
11. Nessun Dorma (Turandot, Puccini)
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek βαρύτονος (barýtonos), meaning deep (or heavy) sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2–F#4) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A2 to A4) in operatic music, but can be extended at either end.
History
The first use of the term "baritone" emerged as baritonans late in the 15th century, usually in French sacred polyphonic music. At this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices (including the bass), but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the average male choral voice.
Baritones took roughly the range we know today at the beginning of the 18th century, but they were still lumped in with their bass colleagues until well into the 19th century. Indeed, many operatic works of the 18th century have roles marked as bass that in reality are low baritone roles (or bass-baritone parts in modern parlance). Examples of this are to be found, for instance, in the operas and oratorios of George Frideric Handel. The greatest and most enduring parts for baritones in 18th-century operatic music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. They include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute and the Don in Don Giovanni.
The principal composers of bel canto opera are considered to be:
Gioachino Rossini (The Barber of Seville, William Tell);
Gaetano Donizetti (Don Pasquale, L'elisir d'amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, La favorite);
Vincenzo Bellini (I puritani, Norma);
Giacomo Meyerbeer (Les Huguenots); and
the young Giuseppe Verdi (Nabucco, Ernani, Macbeth, Rigoletto, La traviata, Il trovatore).
Classification
The operatic baritone voice type is classified according to vocal range and weight into the following subtypes.
Bariton/Baryton-Martin
Common Range: From the low C to the B above middle C (C3 to B4)
Description: The Baryton-Martin (sometimes referred to as Light Baritone) lacks the lower G2–B2 range a heavier baritone is capable of, and has a lighter, almost tenor-like quality. Generally seen only in French repertoire, this fach was named after the French singer Jean-Blaise Martin. Associated with the rise of the baritone in the 19th century, Martin was well known for his fondness for falsetto singing, and the designation 'Baryton Martin' has been used (Faure, 1886) to separate his voice from the 'Verdi Baritone', which carried the chest register further into the upper range. It is important to note that this voice type shares the primo passaggio and secondo passaggio with the Dramatic Tenor and Heldentenor (C4 and F4 respectively), and hence could be trained as a tenor.
Roles:
Pelléas, Pelléas et Mélisande (Claude Debussy)
L'Horloge Comtoise, L'enfant et les sortilèges (Maurice Ravel)
Orfeo, L'Orfeo (Claudio Monteverdi)
Ramiro, L'heure espagnole (Maurice Ravel)
Aeneas, Dido and Aeneas (Henry Purcell)
Lyric baritone
Common Range: From the A below low C to the B♭ or B above middle C (A2 to B♭4).
Description: A sweeter, milder sounding baritone voice, lacking in harshness; lighter and perhaps mellower than the dramatic baritone with a higher tessitura. It is typically assigned to comic roles.
Roles:
Count Almaviva, The Marriage of Figaro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Guglielmo, Così fan tutte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Don Giovanni, Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Papageno, The Magic Flute (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Prospero, The Tempest (Thomas Adés)
Marcello, La bohème (Giacomo Puccini)
Figaro, The Barber of Seville (Gioachino Rossini)
Morales, Carmen (Georges Bizet)
The kavalierbariton
Common Range: From the A below low C to the G above middle C (A2 to G4).
Description: A metallic voice, that can sing both lyric and dramatic phrases, a manly noble baritonal color, with good looks. Not quite as powerful as the Verdi baritone who is expected to have a powerful appearance on stage, perhaps muscular or physically large.
Roles:
Don Giovanni, Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Count, Capriccio (Richard Strauss)
Giorgio Germont, La traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)
Verdi baritone
Common Range: From the G below low C to the B4♭ above middle C (G2 to B♭4).
Description: A more specialized voice category and a subset of the Dramatic Baritone, a Verdi baritone refers to a voice capable of singing consistently and with ease in the highest part of the baritone range, sometimes extending up to the C above middle C, or "High C." The Verdi baritone will generally have a lot of squillo, or "ping"
Roles:
Amonasro, Aida
Carlo, Ernani
Conte di Luna, Il trovatore
Don Carlo di Vargas, La forza del destino
Falstaff, Falstaff
Ford, Falstaff
Germont, La traviata
Macbeth, Macbeth
Dramatic baritone
Common Range: From the G half an octave below low C to the G above middle C (G2 to A4).
Description: A voice that is richer and fuller, and sometimes harsher, than a lyric baritone and with a darker quality. This category corresponds roughly to the Heldenbariton in the German fach system except that some Verdi baritone roles are not included. The primo passaggio and secondo passaggio of both the Verdi and Dramatic Baritone are at Bb and Eb respectively, hence the differentiation is based more heavily on timbre and tessitura. Accordingly, roles that fall into this category tend to have a slightly lower tessitura than typical Verdi baritone roles, only rising above an F at the moments of greatest intensity. Many of the Puccini roles fall into this category. However, it is important to note, that for all intents and purposes, a Verdi Baritone is simply a Dramatic Baritone with greater ease in the upper tessitura (Verdi Baritone roles center approximately a minor third higher). Because the Verdi Baritone is sometimes seen as subset of the Dramatic Baritone, some singers perform roles from both sets of repertoire. Similarly, the lower tessitura of these roles allow them frequently to be sung by bass-baritones.
Roles:
Jack Rance, La fanciulla del West (Giacomo Puccini)
Scarpia, Tosca (Giacomo Puccini)
Nabucco, Nabucco (Giuseppe Verdi)
Iago, Otello (Giuseppe Verdi)
Escamillo, Carmen (Georges Bizet)
Lyric Low Baritone/Lyric Bass-baritone
Common Range: From about the F below low C to the F♯ above middle C (F2 to F#4)
Some bass-baritones are baritones, like Friedrich Schorr, George London, James Morris and Bryn Terfel. The following are more often done by lower baritones as opposed to high basses.
Roles:
Don Pizarro, Fidelio (Ludwig van Beethoven)
Golaud, Pelléas et Mélisande (Claude Debussy)
Méphistophélès, Faust (Charles Gounod)
Don Alfonso, Così fan tutte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Figaro, The Marriage of Figaro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Dramatic Bass-baritone/Low Baritone/Heldenbariton
Common Range: From about the F below low C to the F♯ above middle C (F2 to F#4)
Roles:
Aleko, Aleko (Sergei Rachmaninoff)
Igor, Prince Igor (Alexander Borodin)
Dutchman, The Flying Dutchman by (Richard Wagner)
Hans Sachs, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Richard Wagner)
Wotan, Der Ring des Nibelungen (Richard Wagner)
Amfortas, Parsifal (Richard Wagner)
Baryton-noble
Description: French for noble baritone and describes a part that requires a noble bearing, smooth vocalisation and forceful declamation, all in perfect balance. This category originated in the Paris Opera, but it greatly influenced Verdi (Don Carlo in Ernani and La forza del destino; Count Luna in Il trovatore; Simon Boccanegra) and Wagner as well (Wotan; Amfortas). Similar to the Kavalierbariton.
Baritone opera pieces, part I
10-Sacra la scelta è d'un consorte, from Verdi's Luisa Miller, sung by Leo Nucci;
9-Cruda funesta smania (aria & cabaletta), from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, sung by Claudio Sgura;
8-Il balen del suo sorriso (aria & cabaletta), from Verdi's Il trovatore, sung by Piero Cappuccilli;
7-Dagli immortali vertici (aria & cabaletta), from Verdi's Attila, sung by Sherrill Milnes;
6-Alla vita che t'arride, from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, sung by Ettore Bastianini;
5-Eri tu, from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, sung by Titta Ruffo;
4-Nemico della Patria, from Giordano's Andrea Chénier, sung by Giorgio Zancanaro;
3-Tre sbirri, una carrozza (Scarpia's te Deum), from Puccini's Tosca, sung by George London;
2-O du mein holder Abendstern, from Wagner's Tannhäuser, sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau;
1-Nulla, silenzio, finale from Puccini's Il tabarro, sung by Tito Gobbi
Baritone opera pieces, part II
10-Sacra la scelta è d'un consorte, from Verdi's Luisa Miller, sung by Leo Nucci;
9-Cruda funesta smania (aria & cabaletta), from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, sung by Claudio Sgura;
8-Il balen del suo sorriso (aria & cabaletta), from Verdi's Il trovatore, sung by Piero Cappuccilli;
7-Dagli immortali vertici (aria & cabaletta), from Verdi's Attila, sung by Sherrill Milnes;
6-Alla vita che t'arride, from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, sung by Ettore Bastianini;
5-Eri tu, from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, sung by Titta Ruffo;
4-Nemico della Patria, from Giordano's Andrea Chénier, sung by Giorgio Zancanaro;
3-Tre sbirri, una carrozza (Scarpia's te Deum), from Puccini's Tosca, sung by George London;
2-O du mein holder Abendstern, from Wagner's Tannhäuser, sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau;
1-Nulla, silenzio, finale from Puccini's Il tabarro, sung by Tito Gobbi
Bass
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (February13, 1873 – April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.
Feodor Chaliapin sings the Catalogue aria ("Madamina, il catalogo e questo")
from Mozart's "Don Giovanni." 1923
Great arias for basses - 1/5
1 / 5.10.La Calumnia, Il Barbiero di Seviglia by Adamo Didur
9.Mentre gionfarsi lánima, Act I. Attila, by Agostino Ferrin.
2/ 5 8 Ecco the sconsolata, Incoronazione di Poppea by Giorgio Tadeo.
7.Il lacerato Spirito, Simon Bocanegra by Jose Mardones.
3/ 5 6 Cinta di Fiori I Puritani by Ezio Pinza.
5.Si la rigeur, La Juive by Ezio Pinza.
4/5 4 Sperate o Figli, Nabuco, by Nazzareno De Angelis.
3.Ella giammai m'amo, Don Carlo, Marcel Journet.
5/5 2. Ha! Wie will ich triumphieren (How may I triunph?) The abduction of the Seraglio by Martti Talvela.
1 O Isis und Osiris, The Magic Flaute by Kurt Moll
Great arias for basses - 2/5
Great arias for basses - 3/5
Great arias for basses - 4/5
Great arias for basses - 6/5
A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E2–E4). Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. The bass voice type is generally divided into the basso cantante (singing bass), hoher bass (high bass), jugendlicher bass (juvenile bass), basso buffo ("funny" bass), Schwerer Spielbass (dramatic bass), lyric bass, and dramatic basso profondo (low bass).
History
Cultural influence and individual variation create a wide variation in range and quality of bass singers. Parts for basses have included notes as low as the B-flat two octaves and a tone below middle C (B♭1), for example in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and the Rachmaninov Vespers, A below that in Frederik Magle's symphonic suite Cantabile, G below that (e.g. Measure 76 of Ne otverzhi mene by Pavel Chesnokov) or F below those in Kheruvimskaya pesn (Song of Cherubim) by Krzysztof Penderecki. Many basso profondos have trouble reaching those notes, and the use of them in works by Slavic composers has led to the colloquial term "Russian bass" for an exceptionally deep-ranged basso profondo who can easily sing these notes. Some traditional Russian religious music calls for A2 (110 Hz) drone singing, which is doubled by A1 (55 Hz) in the rare occasion that a choir includes exceptionally gifted singers who can produce this very low human voice pitch.
Many British composers such as Benjamin Britten have written parts for bass (such as the first movement of his choral work Rejoice in the Lamb) that center far higher than the bass tessitura as implied by the clef. The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the range as being from the E below low C to middle C (i.e. E2–C4).
Voice type
The bass has the lowest vocal range of all voice types, with the lowest tessitura. The low extreme for basses is generally C2 (two Cs below middle C). However, several extreme bass singers, referred to as basso profondos and oktavists, are able to reach much lower than this.
Within opera, the lowest note in the standard bass repertoire is D2, sung by the character Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, but few roles fall below F2. Although Osmin's note is the lowest 'demanded' in the operatic repertoire, lower notes are heard, both written and unwritten: for example, it is traditional for basses to interpolate a low C in the duet "Ich gehe doch rathe ich dir" in the same opera; in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, Baron Ochs has an optional C2 ("Mein lieber Hippolyte"). The high extreme: a few bass roles in the standard repertoire call for a high F♯ or G (F♯4 and G4, the one above middle C), but few roles go over F4. In the operatic bass repertoire, the highest notes are a G♯4 (The Barber in The Nose by Shostakovich) and, in the aria "Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori" in Handel's serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, Polifemo reaches an A4.
Subtypes and roles in opera
Within the bass voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories: basso cantante (singing bass), hoher bass (high bass), jugendlicher bass (juvenile bass), basso buffo ("funny" base), Schwerer Spielbass (dramatic bass), lyric bass, and dramatic basso profondo (low bass)
Basso cantante/lyric high bass/lyric bass-baritone
Basso cantante means "singing bass". Basso cantante is a higher, more lyrical voice. It is produced using a more Italianate vocal production, and possesses a faster vibrato, than its closest Germanic/Anglo-Saxon equivalent, the bass-baritone.
Max, Le chalet by Adolphe Adam
Duke Bluebeard Bluebeard's Castle by Béla Bartók
Don Pizarro, Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven
Count Rodolfo, La sonnambula by Bellini
Blitch, Susannah by Carlisle Floyd
Méphistophélès, Faust by Charles Gounod
The King of Scotland, Ariodante by George Frideric Handel
The Voice of the Oracle, Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Boris, Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky
Silva, Ernani by Giuseppe Verdi
Klingsor, Parsifal by Richard Wagner
Wotan Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner
Caspar, Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber
Banquo, Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi
Zaccaria, Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi
Jugendlicher Bass
Jugendlicher Bass (juvenile bass) denotes the role of a young man sung by a bass, regardless of the age of the singer.
Leporello, Masetto, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Colline, La bohème (Giacomo Puccini)
Basso buffo/bel canto/lyric buffo
Buffo, literally "funny", basses are lyrical roles that demand from their practitioners a solid coloratura technique, a capacity for patter singing and ripe tonal qualities if they are to be brought off to maximum effect. They are usually the blustering antagonist of the hero/heroine or the comic-relief fool in bel canto operas.
Don Pasquale, Don Pasquale (Gaetano Donizetti)
Dottor Dulcamara, L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti
Doctor Bartolo, The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini
Don Magnifico, La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini
Don Alfonso, Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Leporello, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Doctor, Wozzeck by Alban Berg
Ferrando, Il trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi
Daland, Der fliegende Holländer by Richard Wagner
Lyric basso profondo
Basso profondo (lyric low bass) is the lowest bass voice type. According to J. B. Steane in Voices, Singers & Critics, the basso profondo voice "derives from a method of tone-production that eliminates the more Italian quick vibrato. In its place is a kind of tonal solidity, a wall-like front, which may nevertheless prove susceptible to the other kind of vibrato, the slow beat or dreaded wobble."
Rocco, Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven
Osmin, Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sarastro, Die Zauberflöte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Pimen, Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky
Baron Ochs, Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss
Baldassarre, La favorite by Gaetano Donizetti
Dramatic basso profondo
English equivalent: dramatic low bass. Dramatic basso profondo is a powerful basso profondo voice.
Il Commendatore, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Hagen, Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner
Heinrich, Lohengrin by Richard Wagner
The Grand Inquisitor, Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi
Claggart, Billy Budd by Benjamin Britten