Bass-baritone

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Voice Type (ranges)

Female voices Soprano Mezzo-soprano Contralto Male voices Countertenor Tenor Baritone Bass-baritone Bass Related concepts Coloratura Chest register Falsetto Head register Sprechgesang edit this - view history

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A bass-baritone is a singing voice that shares certain qualities of both the baritone and the bass. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: Dutchman (in Der fliegende Holländer), Wotan (in the Ring Cycle) and Hans Sachs (in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg). Wagner wrote those roles for what he called Hoher Bass ("high bass," this is explained in more detail at fach).

The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. It must also, however, have the resonant lower range typically associated with the bass. For example, the role of Wotan in Die Walküre covers the range from the F# above middle C to the F below the bass clef but only infrequently descends beyond the C below middle C.

[edit] Bass-baritone roles in opera

• Boris Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky
• Don Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini
• Don Pizarro Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven
• Duke Bluebeard Bluebeard's Castle by Bartok
• Escamillo Carmen by Georges Bizet
• Figaro The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart
• Francis Saint-François d'Assise by Olivier Messiaen
• Golaud Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy
• Vodnik Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák
• Wotan Der Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner
• Zaccaria Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi

[edit] Bass-baritone roles in operetta

Common vocal ranges represented on a musical keyboard

Image:Range of soprano voice marked on keyboard.svg Soprano Image:Range of alto voice marked on keyboard.svg Alto Image:Range of tenor voice marked on keyboard.svg Tenor Image:Range of bass voice marked on keyboard.svg Bass

All of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas have at least one bass-baritone character. Bass-baritones famous for singing these roles included Richard Temple, Darrell Fancourt and Donald Adams.

[edit] Prominent bass-baritones

Friedrich Schorr Anton van Rooy Theo Adam Walter Berry Justino Diaz Stefan Dimitrov Simon Estes Sir Geraint Evans Andrew Foster-Williams

Daniel Hambly Hans Hotter George London James Morris Thomas Quasthoff Ruggero Raimondi Samuel Ramey John Relyea

Paul Robeson Laurentiu Rotaru Bryn Terfel Norman Treigle Willard White José Van Dam Ian Curtis

ca:Baix-baríton

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