they are not entirely different species so, there is overlap. there are
some tenors who are tenors without any doubt (schipa, lemeshev, gedda,
pavarotti, etc.) and baritones who will never be anything else (merrill,
macneil, lisitsian, hampson, allen, etc.). then there are those who could
or, did go either way (vinay, domingo, prey, king, svanholm, etc.).
ultimately, it boils down to whether or not you can sing the role and
sound sensible doing so and, the catagories only matter in pieces where the
music is fixed (opera, for example, as opposed to song literature which is
often transposable). unfortunately, there is a culture that says a singer
must identify himself/herself as one thing or another, an arbitrary and
capricious practice.
mike
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