Tenor

This is here to help you learn about the different types of operatic tenors. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.

The tenor is the highest natural male voice. Above that is the countertenor which uses an entirely different method of producing a sound.  An operatic tenor might need a high C and might not, but he would seldom need to go above high C.  They aren't known for their low notes.  The sub-categories for tenor are generally listed:

Mozart tenor
Leggiero tenor
Lyric tenor
Spinto tenor
Dramatic tenor
Heldentenor

If there are more categories, we are ignoring them.  I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories.  A role may also cross into more than one category.  I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.

Mozart tenor

A Mozart tenor is known for the beauty of his relatively light tone and for the perfection of his legato.  Examples of Mozart tenor roles are  Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Tamino in The Magic Flute, etc.  The first film is Fritz Wunderlich singing "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" from Die Zauberflöte.




Wunderlich is for some people the quintessential tenor. They will complain bitterly whenever someone doesn't sound like him. He is perfect for what he is singing here.

Our next example is Francisco Araiza singing "Dalla sua pace" from Don Giovanni.

Leggiero tenor

A leggiero tenor is basically a bel canto tenor (Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and early Verdi).  They are expected to sing outrageous gymnastics and astounding high notes but aren't required to focus on their legato.  They are the most likely operatic singers to receive a request for a bis--a repeat of the same aria.  Leggiero is an Italian term that means between legato and staccato, or legato with small separations between the notes.

Examples of this Fach are Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), Tonio in La fille du régiment (Donizetti), Elvino in La sonnambula (Bellini), Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola (Rossini), etc.  And this is the essential performance for this Fach--Juan Diego Florez singing "A mes amis" from La Fille du Regiment.




Here is Javier Camarena singing the Prince from La Cenerentola.

 

Lyric tenor

During the bel canto the ideal sound for a tenor changed.  Gilbert Duprez invented the sound of a tenor singing a high C "in chest."  The public went mad for this intense, dramatic sound, and from that moment everything changed.  Women as heroes disappeared, and the roaring tenor became the stereotypical operatic hero.  Desire for the castrato sound evaporated. 

Most tenors today are lyric tenors.  They have lighter voices than the Fachs to follow, but their technique still follows the roaring tenor ideal.  Examples of lyric tenor roles are Alfredo in La traviata (Verdi), The Duke in Rigoletto (Verdi), Lensky in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Rodolfo in La bohème (Puccini), Werther in Werther (Massenet), etc.  The first film is Pavel Breslik singing Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin.




This is Luciano Pavarotti singing "che gelida manina" from La Boheme.

Spinto tenor 

This Fach is between lyric and dramatic, just like the spinto soprano Fach.  Examples are Manrico in Il trovatore (Verdi), Calaf in Turandot (Puccini), Hermann in Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Radames in Aida (Verdi), etc.  The greatest spinto tenor was probably Franco Corelli, here singing "Ah, si ben mio. Di quella pira!" from Il Trovatore.



For others the greatest tenor of all time was Placido Domingo who now sings as a baritone.  Here he sings "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot.

Dramatic tenor

A dramatic tenor can get by without a high C most of the time. Usually this Fach is limited to Italian repertoire or Enée in Les Troyens (Berlioz).  Canio in I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Dick Johnson, La fanciulla del West (Puccini), and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino (Verdi) are all examples of dramatic tenor roles, and all have been recently undertaken by the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. The essential dramatic tenor role is Verdi's Otello in Otello which Jonas has not yet sung.  Here is his "Ch'ella mì creda libero" from La fanciulla del West.




And here is Mario del Monaco singing "Dio mi potevi scagliar" from Otello.

Heldentenor

A German word has been coined to name a German Fach:  Heldentenor, which means heroic tenor.  A Heldentenor has a specific sound, powerful but bright and penetrating.  I will try to find examples.

Florestan in Fidelio by Beethoven is probably the first dramatic tenor of either Italian or German type.   This became its own category because of the large Wagnerian repertoire for this voice: Tannhäuser in Tannhäuser, Lohengrin in Lohengrin, Siegmund in Die Walküre, Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal in Parsifal.

I have carefully selected these examples to represent the true Heldentenor sound.  First is Lauritz Melchior singing The Prize Song from Die Meistersinger.



Here Ben Heppner sings "In fernem Land" from Lohengrin.



Last is Jon Vickers singing "Wintersturm" from Die Walküre.



Each category is a different voice and a different technique. My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.

_________________________________

I have become aware after writing this that it has been done before here.  I don't think I agree with this.  In particular I do not agree that a leggiero tenor and a countertenor are the same.  Countertenors are singing falsetto and modern day leggiero tenors are not.  I have separated dramatic tenor and Heldentenor because a Wagnerian tenor has a specific sound which the listener should become aware of.  This sound is not heard in Italian repertoire where they still have dramatic tenors.

Soprano

The highest vocal Fach is the soprano.  Opera singers refer to their voice category as their Fach, the German term for category.  Vocabulary has crept in from Germany such as Sitzprobe, which translates to sitting rehearsal and means an unstaged rehearsal with orchestra.

A soprano must have a good high C.  After that they are broken down into categories:

Soubrette
Lyric Soprano
Coloratura Soprano
Spinto Soprano
Dramatic Soprano

I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories.  I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.

Soubrette

The term soubrette actually describes more than just the voice.  She has a light, high voice and plays young women.  Examples of soubrette roles are Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss), Lisette in La Rondine (Puccini), Sophie in Werther (Massenet), etc.  The women shown below embody all aspects of their Fach.  First is Kathleen Battle singing "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" from Don Giovanni.




Lisette Oropesa sings "Du gai soleil" from Werther.

Lyric Soprano

This classification technically breaks down into light lyric and full lyric.  For our purposes we will consider the light lyric to be the same as soubrette.  If a soprano doesn't seem to be any particular category, she is probably a full lyric.  Examples of full lyric roles are Liù in Turandot (Puccini), Tatyana in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Mimì in La bohème, (Puccini) Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Rusalka in Rusalka (Dvořák), etc.  Renée Fleming sings Mariettas Lied from Die tote Stadt (Korngold).




Angela Gheorghiu sings "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme.

Coloratura Soprano 

In the Baroque and classical periods and through most of Rossini every singer, male or female, was a coloratura, but when the tenor voice suddenly became heavy (see tenor) most coloratura roles moved to the soprano Fach.  A coloratura soprano usually has an upper extension with notes well above the high C.  This is probably the first role for the true coloratura soprano, Mozart's Queen of the Night from Die Zauberfloete. Even if you have no idea what she's saying, you can tell she is pissed.  Mozart's Queen is a heavy coloratura.  Diana Damrau sings "Der Hölle Rache" from Die Zauberflöte.



Examples of roles for coloratura soprano are Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Adele in Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss), Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss), Gilda in Rigoletto (Verdi), Amina in La sonnambula (Bellini), Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffman (Offenbach), etc. Here Nadine Sierra sings "Caro nome" from Rigoletto.




Edita Gruberova sings "Großmächtige Prinzessin" from Ariadne auf Naxos.

 

This is so good it hurts.

Spinto Soprano

This singer is somewhere between lyric and dramatic.  Exactly where is open to interpretation.  Different roles seem to show up in different categories, so I will place them where I think they go.  Roles for a spinto soprano include Aïda in Aïda (Verdi), Liza in The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Floria Tosca in Tosca (Puccini), Elisabetta in Don Carlos (Verdi), Elisabeth in Tannhäuser (Wagner), etc.  Maria Callas sings "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca.




Leontyne Price sings "Ritorna Vincitor" from Aida.

Dramatic Soprano

The heaviest high voice is the dramatic soprano. Only some mezzos and contraltos are heavier. Examples of roles for dramatic soprano are Leonore/Fidelio in Fidelio (Beethoven, who is credited with inventing this Fach), Gioconda in La Gioconda (Ponchielli), Minnie in La fanciulla del West (Puccini), Turandot in Turandot (Puccini), Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung (Wagner), etc.  Birgit Nilsson sings "In questa reggia" from Turandot.


For my ears the greatest of all heavy sopranos was Birgit Nilsson.

Hildegard Behrens sings the Immolation scene from Götterdämmerung.



Behrens was a very exciting singer, but only moderately heavy.


Dramatic Coloratura Soprano

This is an unofficial category possibly brought about by a sudden transition from light to heavy voices before the middle of the nineteenth century.  This singer requires both a heavy tone all the way up to the highest notes and great flexibility.  This type of voice is required to sing roles like Verdi's Abagailla in Nabucco (Verdi) and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Verdi).

Maria Guleghina sings "Salgo gia" from Nabucco.




Every singer must carefully select roles for their voice that suit its range and weight.  These are the hardest soprano roles to cast.  The range part of classification is easy to grasp, but the weight aspect is much more difficult and requires both training and vocal maturity. Singing a role that is too light for you voice can result in inaccurate fast notes and muddiness.  Singing a role that is too heavy for your voice can possibly ruin the voice.

Categories are not exactly rigidly defined.  Here are five different voice types singing the same soubrette role, Susanna, in The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart arranged in ascending amount of weight.

* To hear soubrette Dawn Upshaw as Susanna click on:



For soubrette to lyric Kathleen Battle, click on



* To hear light lyric soprano Lucia Popp as Susanna click on



* To hear full lyric soprano Anna Netrebko as Susanna click on



To hear a dramatic soprano Margaret Price as Susanna, click on



My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.

I have become aware after writing this that it has been done before here.  I don't think I agree with it.

Every singer must carefully select roles for their voice that suits its range and weight.  The range part of classification is easiest to grasp, but the weight aspect is much more difficult and requires training.

Countertenor

This is here to help you learn about the countertenor. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.

A countertenor is a natural male voice that sings falsetto to allow him to sing music that was originally written for a woman or a castrato (a man castrated in childhood to retain his high voice).  In opera their use allows male roles to be sung by male singers, a feature that means nothing to me but seems to matter to others.  Most countertenors are actually baritones. The voice range for a countertenor usually is the equivalent to a mezzo-soprano or contralto.  In a choral alto section that includes countertenors and female altos the countertenors drown out the altos.

These are examples of roles written for the countertenor voice:   Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten), Annas in Jesus Christ Superstar (Lloyd Webber), Akhnaten in Akhnaten (Glass), Trinculo in The Tempest (Adès), etc.  Please notice that all these examples are modern, three out of four are British, and none of them are written by Italians.

This is David Daniels singing "I know a Bank" from A Midsummer Night's Dream.




David Walker sings Akhnaten's aria from Akhnaten.




Roles performed by countertenors but originally written for castrati include:  Ariodante in Ariodante (Handel), Nerone in Agrippina (Handel), Ruggiero in Alcina (Handel), Giulio Cesare in Giulio Cesare (Handel), Artaserse in Artaserse (Vinci), etc.  All of these roles are also sung by women.

Franco Fagioli sings "Vo solcando un mar crudele" from Artaserse.




Philippe Jaroussky sings "Come Nube Che Fugge Dal Vento" from Agrippina.




A third category is roles composed for women which are then sung by countertenors. Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare is an example.  This is uncommon but becomes more common every year.

Baritones and Basses

Of my chapters on different types of voices this one was actually the hardest for me.  I hope I got it right.

This is here to help you learn about the different types of operatic baritones and basses. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.

The bass is the lowest natural male voice.  His voice might extend up to F above middle C and down to low C depending on Fach.  The sub-categories for baritone and bass are many, some very specialized, that a full discussion may prove impossible.  This is proving to be difficult, a learning experience also for me.  We will start with this set and see how far we get.

Lyric baritone
Dramatic baritone
Lyric Bass-baritone
Dramatic Bass-baritone
Bass

If there are more categories, we are ignoring them.  I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories.  A role may also cross into more than one category.  I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.

Lyric baritone

This is a pleasant low sound, basically the voice of the average male.  Sample roles are Papageno in The Magic Flute [Die Zauberflöte] (Mozart), Marcello in La bohème (Puccini), Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), etc.  Here is Simon Keenleyside singing "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" from The Magic Flute.

Dramatic baritone

Sometimes this Fach includes a sub-sub-category called Verdi baritone.  For me the Verdi baritone defines the dramatic baritone and does not require a Fach of its own.  This voice needs a full tone for its entire range and that special Verdi intensity.  Sample roles are Rigoletto in Rigoletto (Verdi), Scarpia in Tosca (Puccini), Simon Boccanegra in Simon Boccanegra (Verdi), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Conte di Luna in Il trovatore (Verdi), etc.  Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings "Il balen" from Il Trovatore.



I'm calling him a dramatic baritone.  He is for me the greatest of operatic idols:  Leonard Warren singing "Cortigiani" from Rigoletto.

Lyric Bass-baritone

What is a bass-baritone?  He is a baritone with a really full, rich low register.  He might be lower than a baritone or he might not.  It's the sound that matters.  Examples of lyric bass-baritones are:  Méphistophélès in Faust (Gounod), Leporello in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Philip II in Don Carlos (Verdi), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Porgy in Porgy and Bess (Gershwin), The 4 Villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach), etc.

Rene Pape sings "Le veau d'or" from Faust.



This is Ferruccio Furlanetto singing "Ella giammai m'amo" from Don Carlo.

Dramatic Bass-baritone

I think this is a category invented by Richard Wagner.  He wanted a bass sound with the Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer, Wotan/Der Wanderer in the Ring Cycle and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg while generally ignoring the upward boundaries of the Fach.

This example is like nothing else in the world.  It is a young (35?) Hans Hotter singing "Die Frist ist um" from the Flying Dutchman. 

Bass

A bass needs to have full resonance on very low notes.  The Fach may extend to below the bass clef staff.  Examples of roles are The Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo (Verdi), Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss), Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Hunding in Die Walküre (Wagner), etc.

Here is a wonderful example of a baritone and a bass singing in the same scene.  The older man is Rigoletto, a baritone, and the younger man is Sparafucile, an assassin who sings bass, including a nice low F at the end. Željko Lučić (Rigoletto) and Štefan Kocán (Sparafucile).



This is Charon from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo sung by Paul Gérimon.

Buffo Bass

There is a whole category for men who sing only comic roles called buffo bass or basso buffo.  This is a long tradition starting in Italy.  They are always basses but not usually very distinguished.

Some roles for this voice are Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola (Rossini), Leporello in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Dottor Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti), Rocco in Fidelio (Beethoven), etc.

Here is the preeminent basso buffo of our era, Alessandro Corbelli.

Mezzo-soprano and Contralto

This is here to help you learn about the different types of operatic mezzo-sopranos and contraltos. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.

Lower voiced women in opera are usually mezzo-sopranos, but occasionally one hears a true contralto, the lowest female Fach.  Today I know of only two contraltos:  Ewa Podleś and Meredith Arwady.  Mezzos and contraltos will need notes well below middle C, and a mezzo should have a high B flat at least.  I'm not sure there is a sharp line separating mezzo-soprano from contralto, but I will try.  Here is a list of the sub-categories for mezzo-sopranos and contraltos.

Coloratura mezzo
Lyric mezzo
Dramatic mezzo
Coloratura contralto
Lyric contralto
Dramatic contralto

I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories.  A role may also cross into more than one category.  I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.

Coloratura Mezzo

The coloratura mezzo is primarily a phenomenon of the Baroque and bel canto.  Sometimes the male hero is in this Fach, but most of our examples are female roles.  Angelina in La Cenerentola (Rossini), Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini), Costanza in Griselda (Vivaldi) [Wikipedia lists Griselda as a coloratura mezzo when she is barely a singing role at all.  Costanza has all the good singing.], Rosina in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), etc.  This example is Cecilia Bartoli singing "Non piu mesta" from La Cenerentola.



And only La Bartoli runs to the top of the cake.

Lyric Mezzo

When the tenor gets heavier after Rossini, the mezzo follows.  This voice generally does not perform coloratura like the mezzo in the previous Fach.  Charlotte in Werther (Massenet), Carmen in Carmen (Bizet), Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach), Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (R Strauss), etc.  Here Elina Garanča sings the Habanera from Carmen.

Dramatic Mezzo

This begins with Verdi and is at the heavy end of operatic repertoire for the female voice.  In German repertoire there is never coloratura, but in Italian repertoire, especially Verdi, there might be.  Example roles are:  Eboli in Don Carlos (Verdi), Azucena in Il trovatore (Verdi), Marina in Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky), Ortrud in Lohengrin (Wagner), etc.  Our Italian example is Fiorenza Cossotto singing "O Don Fatale" from Don Carlo.



Our German example is Christa Ludwig singing "Entweihte! Götter!" from Lohengrin.

Coloratura contralto

Since there aren't ever enough contraltos to go around, anything designated for a contralto will often be sung by a mezzo-soprano.  I will attempt to find examples of true contraltos who are known for the extreme darkness in their voices.  Roles for coloratura contralto include Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini), Tancredi in Tancredi (Rossini), etc.  Ewa Podleś sings "Di tanti palpiti" from Tancredi.



I only know of one. We will suggest others. Here is Marijana Mijanović singing "Empio, Dirò, Tu Sei" from Handel's Giulio Cesare.



And this is Marie-Nicole Lemieux singing "Nel profonfo" from Vivaldi's Orlando furioso.




And then there's Ewa Podleś singing "Pour Une Femme De Mon Nom" from Donizetti's La Fille Du Régiment.  We keep coming back to her.



You decide.

Lyric contralto

This is the same dark voice in more legato music with virtually no coloratura.   Mother in The Consul (Menotti), Pauline in The Queen of Spades [Pique Dame] (Tchaikovsky), Maddalena in Rigoletto (Verdi), La Cieca in La Gioconda (Ponchielli), etc.  Here Olga Borodina sings Pauline's aria from Pique Dame.

Dramatic contralto

The same restrictions as for mezzos apply:  Wagner will never show coloratura but Verdi often will, though it has a much heavier sound than for a soprano.  Examples are Azucena in Il trovatore (Verdi), Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera (Verdi), Erda, Das Rheingold, Siegfried (Wagner), etc.  Hanna Schwarz sings Erda from Das Rheingold.



This is Elena Obraztsova singing Ulrica's aria from Un Ballo in Maschera.



My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.

Recitative and Aria

An opera includes other things besides recitatives and arias. It will usually have an instrumental prelude and may have other purely instrumental interludes such as ballets. There may be a chorus.

Recitative was invented by the Florentine Camerata, but aria is forever for aria is song. The division into recitative and aria is the difference between action and reflection. L'Orfeo of Monteverdi is the first true opera because he instinctively understood the need to break up the action oriented recitative with other more traditional musical numbers like dances, ensembles and arias.

The balance and emphasis has changed throughout opera's 400 year history. The great Italian tradition has always emphasized the aria. The form might change--ostinato in the early phase, florid da capo throughout the long Neapolitan style, the slow section followed by fast section form of bel canto, the free form of Puccini--but the opera exists for the arias.

The balance shifts from generation to generation. In Handel's time the lyric expression of the reflective arias had expanded to virtually smother the action. Gluck was part of the generation that searched for simplicity in art, though this trend began first in France with Rousseau. Because this urge for naturalness and the romanticized rural was felt first in France, Gluck's return to the primacy of action over reflection in opera resonated much more with the French. Gluck tried to hide the distinction between recitative and aria but didn't actually succeed in doing away with it.

Wagner subsumed all to the gigantic orchestral tone poem with singing, a style that seems to create endless, formless arias with no speech-like elements.

The recitative and aria dichotomy is a part of the words and music discussion--prima la musica, etc. The purpose of the invention of recitative was to rebalance the relationship of words and music toward word dominance. Music must conform to the requirements of the text. In aria the priorities are reversed. The words guide the expression, but it is the music that determines the form and contour of the aria.

Wagner destroyed the distinction, indeed he destroyed the entire phenomenon of recitative. He eliminated the text repetitions that tell you you are in an aria. He inflated the orchestra to the point that it carries the music much more than the singers. Everything is extended. Everything is aria. Unrelenting continuity replaced alteration of action and reflection.

In modern times composers can't seem to bear the inflated orchestra of Wagner, the slowing of time that drags his operas into four and five hour performances but retain his formlessness in a much more shrunken form that is closer to constant recitative than aria. There are still no text repetitions, and nothing is extended.

Richard Strauss' through-composed operas while seeming to imitate Wagner, often include extended patter recitatives, as for example most of the role of Baron Ochs. Strauss is still distinguishing action and reflection, recitative and aria, but the transitions are extremely subtle. Strauss is one of the last composers who still knows how to compose an aria.

It is the inability of modern composers to compose true arias that dooms most modern operas.

It is curious to think of Glass' opera Orphée in this context. It's almost as if he set out to create a sound track for a beloved film, in this case Jean Cocteau's Orphée, since he is already familiar with the process of writing for the movies. The French version of the film runs 112 minutes, a length that feels very similar to the opera. Then Glass decided to set the voices to music. There are alterations in the pacing between the film and the opera, but the overall pace is constant. The text brings lyrical moments, but the expected extension of the moment into aria does not come. This is from Philip Glass of all people. The artist who most wants to alter our perception of time does not.

It is the lyrical vocal outburst that makes it opera. Modern opera fails because the moment of extension, the moment of greatest emotion where the glory of the voice takes us to another realm never comes.

Thus the rage about John Adams' lousy librettos. John Adams is one of the few who can actually write a decent aria. But what good is reflection without action?

If I were giving advice, I would say write an aria for your opera. Think of it as something that will stand on its own outside the opera. Think of it showing off the voice of your singer. Golijov's best work is written for Dawn Upshaw. Aim high.