The complete idiot's guide to classical music by Robert Sherman, Philip Seldon, Naixin He Page A
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the immortal “Toreador Song,” grumbling “If they want rubbish, they shall get it.”
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Some Men Can Reach Those High Notes, Too
We were talking before about male altos. These days, they’re called countertenors (as opposed to P.D.Q. Bach’s “Bargain-Counter Tenor”), and whether they muster a full high voice, or use falsetto, they can stay right up there with the ladies. Occasionally a countertenor will be heard in one of the “trouser” roles (male parts traditionally taken by women), but most often he settles for madrigals, oratorio solos, and other early music performances.
The regular tenors—the guys who get all the high Cs and, in most operas, the girl—are the male counterparts of sopranos in range and, it is said, in egos. They divide up their tonal territory into roles for the dramatic tenor, ready to do heroic battle with gods or earthly demons, and the lyric tenor, whose preference is for lighter, more flexible undertakings. Among the famous tenors of the recent past are Jussi Bjorling, Mario Lanza, Jan Peerce, and Richard Tucker.
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Bet You Didn’t Know
Enrico Caruso was singing the part of the hero, Don Alvaro, in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino when his gun failed to go off in the climactic scene of the first act. It’s not clear whether the blanks didn’t work or the stagehand who was supposed to supply the shot had dozed off, but there was silence. The singers on stage looked at each other in panic until Caruso saved the day: “Bang!” he shouted.
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Those Fun-Loving but Tricky Baritones
Baritones strike the happy medium within the male voice range, singing lower than the tenors but higher than the basses. They make excellent drinking buddies (on stage) and often are cast as doting fathers, but they also portray some of the most mean and nasty villains, including the wormy Wurm (in Verdi’s Luisa Miller ) and the dapper Dappertutto (in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann ). Some famous baritones include Boris Christoff, Alexander Kipnis, Ezio Pinza, and Norman Treigle.
They’re Very Deep: Basses
Bassos (or in less fancy form, basses) are the lowest members of the singing family, taking over where the baritones poop out. Baritones with very low notes, or basses with nifty high ones, are often called bass-baritones. Like altos, they get some of the best character roles, sometimes comic (like Bartolo and Basilio in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville ), sometimes menacing (Mefistofele in Boito’s opera of that title, or if you refer to your devil as Mephistopheles, Gounod’s Faust ), and often very big (the giants Fafner and Fasolt in Wagner’s Das Rheingold ). Bassos also do well in the royalty department, among many other lofty posts, portraying Kings of Cornwall, Spain, and Egypt (respectively in Tristan, Don Carlos, and Aida ), not to mention Tsar Boris Godounov of Russia.
Group Efforts
When the monks in their cloistered cells sang their unison chants, they were definitely singing in a group. As classical music evolved to encompass several voices singing independent themes, the group scene expanded and developed in a number of intriguing directions.
Two by Two: Let’s Do a Duet
A vocal duet means that two voices are having at it. They can be focused in any way that the composer chooses. In a round, for instance, one voice begins, and when the second joins in, it echoes exactly the same tune. The voice parts in a duo can be of equal importance, or one can dominate, with the other adding harmonic color. They can be set in equal ranges (that is, for two sopranos or two tenors), or selected for contrast with one high voice and one low. In opera or musical theater, the libretto often dictates which voices are heard: If the hero and heroine are locked in a romantic embrace, we may assume an appropriate division of vocal activity. In other instances, the voices answer each other, as though in conversation; they may be heard a capella (that is, without accompaniment),
----
Some Men Can Reach Those High Notes, Too
We were talking before about male altos. These days, they’re called countertenors (as opposed to P.D.Q. Bach’s “Bargain-Counter Tenor”), and whether they muster a full high voice, or use falsetto, they can stay right up there with the ladies. Occasionally a countertenor will be heard in one of the “trouser” roles (male parts traditionally taken by women), but most often he settles for madrigals, oratorio solos, and other early music performances.
The regular tenors—the guys who get all the high Cs and, in most operas, the girl—are the male counterparts of sopranos in range and, it is said, in egos. They divide up their tonal territory into roles for the dramatic tenor, ready to do heroic battle with gods or earthly demons, and the lyric tenor, whose preference is for lighter, more flexible undertakings. Among the famous tenors of the recent past are Jussi Bjorling, Mario Lanza, Jan Peerce, and Richard Tucker.
----
Bet You Didn’t Know
Enrico Caruso was singing the part of the hero, Don Alvaro, in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino when his gun failed to go off in the climactic scene of the first act. It’s not clear whether the blanks didn’t work or the stagehand who was supposed to supply the shot had dozed off, but there was silence. The singers on stage looked at each other in panic until Caruso saved the day: “Bang!” he shouted.
----
Those Fun-Loving but Tricky Baritones
Baritones strike the happy medium within the male voice range, singing lower than the tenors but higher than the basses. They make excellent drinking buddies (on stage) and often are cast as doting fathers, but they also portray some of the most mean and nasty villains, including the wormy Wurm (in Verdi’s Luisa Miller ) and the dapper Dappertutto (in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann ). Some famous baritones include Boris Christoff, Alexander Kipnis, Ezio Pinza, and Norman Treigle.
They’re Very Deep: Basses
Bassos (or in less fancy form, basses) are the lowest members of the singing family, taking over where the baritones poop out. Baritones with very low notes, or basses with nifty high ones, are often called bass-baritones. Like altos, they get some of the best character roles, sometimes comic (like Bartolo and Basilio in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville ), sometimes menacing (Mefistofele in Boito’s opera of that title, or if you refer to your devil as Mephistopheles, Gounod’s Faust ), and often very big (the giants Fafner and Fasolt in Wagner’s Das Rheingold ). Bassos also do well in the royalty department, among many other lofty posts, portraying Kings of Cornwall, Spain, and Egypt (respectively in Tristan, Don Carlos, and Aida ), not to mention Tsar Boris Godounov of Russia.
Group Efforts
When the monks in their cloistered cells sang their unison chants, they were definitely singing in a group. As classical music evolved to encompass several voices singing independent themes, the group scene expanded and developed in a number of intriguing directions.
Two by Two: Let’s Do a Duet
A vocal duet means that two voices are having at it. They can be focused in any way that the composer chooses. In a round, for instance, one voice begins, and when the second joins in, it echoes exactly the same tune. The voice parts in a duo can be of equal importance, or one can dominate, with the other adding harmonic color. They can be set in equal ranges (that is, for two sopranos or two tenors), or selected for contrast with one high voice and one low. In opera or musical theater, the libretto often dictates which voices are heard: If the hero and heroine are locked in a romantic embrace, we may assume an appropriate division of vocal activity. In other instances, the voices answer each other, as though in conversation; they may be heard a capella (that is, without accompaniment),
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