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From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Sat Jan 4, 2003  7:06 am
Subject:  Re: Mezzos and contraltos (was: Re: [vocalist] I Need To Be Enlightened On T...

On Sat, 4 Jan 2003 Greypins@a... wrote:

> lloyd,
>
> perhaps it is easier to distinguish between bass roles and baritone
> roles after verdi as the two seem to be more polarized. the lower male
> roles before verdi, for the most part, tended to be higher or tended to be
> lower with less of a distinction. even though i can't think of one at the
> moment, there were bass roles that did seem to demand more than the post
> verdian bass, both in range and flexibility but, i would guess that these
> were obviously for a special singer.

This viewpoint seems to be very circumscribed, i.e., Italo-centric. If you
look at Russian operatic repertoire, the bass and bass-baritone roles are
virtually always as if not more demanding than the baritone and tenor
roles (with notable exceptions in some Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev operas).

The same is true to some extent in French operas at the time of and after
Verdi. Consider bass-baritone roles like Escamillo in CARMEN, the villains
in LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN, Mephistopheles (both Gounod's and Berlioz's),
Golaud in PELLEAS ET MELISANDE, Saint Francois in Messaien's
opera, Lalo's Roi d'Ys, Pytheas in Gounod's SAPHO,
and the many bass-baritone and bass roles in Massenet's operas (Comte
Gormas and Don Diegue in LE CID, Phanuel in HERODIADE, Pandolfe in
CENDRILLON, Don Quichotte, Indra in LE ROI DE LAHORE, Phorcas in
ESCLARMONDE,

And what about the German operas - particularly in Wagner's operas, which
are the most important German operas of the late- and post-Verdi periods.
With the exception of LOHENGRIN and TANNHAUESER there are not important
baritones in Wagner's operas - only bass-baritones and basses (and in
TANNHAUESER, Landgrave Hermann, the bass, is at least as important as
the baritone Wolfram). Strauss wrote more for baritone, but it's
important to note that in his most important operas, the low-voiced men
- if there are any in major roles - are all bass-baritones or basses,
e.g., Oreste in Strauss's ELEKTRA, Jochanaan in his SALOME, Barak in DIE
FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, Baron Ochs in ROSENKAVALIER; also noteworthy: Simone
Trovai in Korngold's VIOLANTA.

And in American operas, consider Olin Blitch in SUSANNAH, Horace Tabor in
THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE - again, predominantly bass-baritone vs. "straight"
baritone roles.

And in operas in various other languages: Duke Bluebeard in Bartok's
opera, Father Grigoris in Martinu's THE GREEK PASSION, the Water Gnome in
Dvorak's RUSALKA, Don Marco in Menotti's THE SAINT OF BLEECKER STREET,
Tippett's King Priam, Henrik and Jeronimus in Nielsen's MASKARADE, Nixon,
Kissinger, and Chou En-lai in Adams' NIXON IN CHINA, George in Floyd's OF
MICE AND MEN, Frank Maurrant in Weill's STREET SCENE, Gershwin's Porgy,
Prospero in Hoiby's THE TEMPEST, Ned in Joplin's TREEMONISHA, Doctor in
Barber's VANESSA, Tio Sarvaor in De Falla's LA VIDA BREVE, Pascoe in Ethel
Smyth's THE WRECKERS.

And in Britten's operas, while there are important baritones, there are
equally important - and vocally demanding - bass-baritone and bass roles,
e.g., Bottom in MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Claggart in BILLY BUDD, Noye in
NOYE'S FLUDDE, Coyle in OWEN WINGRAVE, Cecil and Raleigh in GLORIANA.

The predominance in importance and vocal demands of the baritone over the
bass would really seem to be an Italian(ate) phenomenon, then.

Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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