A bass-baritone is a high-lying

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

or low-lying "classical"

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three

Wagnerian Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

roles: the title role in '' Der fliegende Holländer'', Wotan/Der Wanderer in the '' Ring Cycle'' and Hans Sachs in ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

''. Wagner labelled these roles as ''Hoher Bass'' ("high bass")—see fach for more details. The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Secondly, however, it needs to have the ripely resonant lower range typically associated with the bass voice. For example, the role of Wotan in '' Die Walküre'' covers the range from F₂ (the F at the bottom of the bass clef) to F₄ (the F above middle C), but only infrequently descends beyond C₃ (the C below middle C). Bass-baritones are typically divided into two separate categories: lyric bass-baritone and dramatic bass-baritone. Bass-baritones should not be confused with their vocal cousin—the so-called Verdi baritone. This type of Italianate baritone voice has a brighter tone colour and sings at a slightly higher tessitura than that possessed by the bass-baritone. In addition to the operas of

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

, its natural home is to be found in operatic music composed after about 1830 by the likes of Donizetti, Ponchielli, Massenet, Puccini and the verismo composers. The term bass-baritone is roughly synonymous with the Italian vocal classification basso cantante; for example, in the Verdian repertoire, Philip II in '' Don Carlos'' is sung by a true bass, while Ferrando in '' Il trovatore'' is often taken by a bass - baritone, though the two roles' ranges are very similar. In Debussy's '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' the role of Golaud, created by Hector Dufranne, sits between Pelleas (high baritone) and Arkel (bass). Some of the classical

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

baritone roles such as Don Giovanni, Figaro and Gugliemo—composed before the term "baritone" gained currency—are occasionally played by a bass-baritone.

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

's Savoy operas usually featured a comic bass-baritone character, created to make use of D'Oyly Carte company member Richard Temple. In short: the ''bass-baritone'' is a voice that has the resonant low notes of the typical bass allied with the ability to sing in a baritonal tessitura. Colloquially, it refers to a voice with a range and tone somewhere between a

and a

. The bass-baritone's required range can vary tremendously based on the role, with some less demanding than others. Many bass-baritones have ventured into the baritone repertoire, including (among others)

Leopold Demuth Leopold Demuth (real name ''Leopold Pokorny'' (2 November 1861 in Brno – 4 March 1910 in Czernowitz) was a Moravian operatic baritone. He was celebrated in particular for his successful performances in works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giusepp ...

Georges Baklanoff Georgy Andreyevich Baklanoff, known as Georges Baklanoff (sometimes spelled Baklanov; 6 December 1938) was a Russian operatic baritone who had an active international career from 1903 until his death in 1938. Possessing a powerful and flexible v ...

, Rudolf Bockelmann, George London, Thomas Stewart, James Morris, and Bryn Terfel.

Repertoire

The following operatic parts are performed by bass-baritones but sometimes by high basses: * Don Pizarro, '' Fidelio'' by Ludwig van Beethoven * Golaud, '' Pelléas et Mélisande'' by

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

* Olin Blitch, ''

Susannah ''Susannah'' is an opera in two acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susanna (Book of D ...

'' by Carlisle Floyd * Méphistophélès, '' Faust'' by Charles Gounod * Leporello, ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart * Don Alfonso, ''

Così fan tutte (''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte w ...

'' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart * Figaro, ''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

'' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Core bass-baritone operatic parts: * Escamillo, ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'' by

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...

* Igor, '' Prince Igor'' by

Alexander Borodin Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin ( rus, link=no, Александр Порфирьевич Бородин, Aleksandr Porfir’yevich Borodin , p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr pɐrˈfʲi rʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈdʲin, a=RU-Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.ogg, ...

(also sung by 'standard' baritones) * Porgy, '' Porgy and Bess'' by George Gershwin * The 4 Villains, '' Les contes d'Hoffmann'' by Jacques Offenbach * Scarpia, '' Tosca'' by Giacomo Puccini (also sung by 'standard' baritones) * Dutchman '' The Flying Dutchman'' by

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

* Hans Sachs '' Die Meistersinger'' by

* Wotan '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' by

* Amfortas '' Parsifal'' by

Bass-baritone parts in Gilbert and Sullivan works: * '' Trial by Jury'': Usher * '' The Sorcerer'': Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre * '' H.M.S. Pinafore'': Dick Deadeye * '' The Pirates of Penzance'': The Pirate King * '' Patience'': Colonel Calverley * ''

Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...

'': Lord Mountararat * '' Princess Ida'': King Hildebrand * '' The Mikado'': The Mikado of Japan * '' Ruddigore'': Sir Roderic Murgatroyd * '' The Yeomen of the Guard'': Sergeant Meryll * '' The Gondoliers'': Don Alhambra del Bolero Other bass-baritone parts: * ''Roméo et Juliette'' by

Hector Berlioz In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

* Symphony No.15 by Rued Langgaard * ''Cantabile'', symphonic suite by Frederik Magle * '' Gurre-Lieder'' by

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass-Baritone Voice types Opera terminology Pitch (music)

Repertoire

See also

References