This is the lowest of the male operatic voices, and usually is found in roles requiring either much character, dignity or both!
The true operatic bass voice is not such a common voice, with many of the lower male voice parts being sung by capable lower baritone singers, sometimes known as bass baritones. This has created some confusion about the voice and the roles, but the true bass has a characteristic sound that distinctly different from that of the brighter baritone quality.
Table of Contents
Usually in opera, a voice type (soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor, baritone, or bass) has as much to do with the SOUND as with the CHARACTER that the singer portrays. Just in case the opera voice types weren’t challenging enough to decipher, the soprano voice can be broken down into five subcategories: coloratura, lyric, dramatic, soubrette, and spinto. There are different types of sopranos, depending on timbre or weight: the most special subtype of soprano is called coloratura soprano. A coloratura soprano has the fastest, most agile, and highest voice extension.She can sing several notes above the soprano’s tessitura.The famous role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s the Magic Flute is written for a coloratura soprano.
The Fach System. Operatic voices can be classified by a variety of means. At base we define. Who's who: the different voices in opera. Soprano. The highest female voice, usually representing the leading female character. Subdivisions include soubrette. Mezzo-soprano. This lower female voice is used in 19th-century opera for characters carrying a strong sexual charge.
![Voice Voice](/uploads/1/3/7/8/137884988/504149509.jpg)
History of the Bass Voice
The name of this voice type comes from the Italian, basso, or low. It wasn’t until the seventeenth century that opera composers began to make distinct choices between the lighter baritone voice and the bass for different roles. The ease of movement available to baritone singers allowed composers to create more virtuosic music for a lower male voice. The bass voice began to be heard more and more as a character voice, with the darker qualities of their sound being the preferred option for characters of rank and distinction, or menace.
The characteristic dark quality and weight of the bass voice is produced due to the singer having significantly larger and thicker vocal chords. This can be somewhat restrictive for some, as achieving mobility of the voice – without careful training – can pose something of a challenge.
Types Of Soprano Voices
Types of Basses and the Roles They Play
Bass subsets are fewer than other vocal types, perhaps due to the unique physical qualities of the instrument, which produces this distinctive sound. Within opera, there are three main types.
Lyric Bass or Basso Cantabile
This bass voice has a lyrical upper register with a relatively high tessitura. However, to distinguish it from a low baritone, it still has the dark colour of the bass voice in the middle and lower parts of the range.
Roles for the lyric bass include Verdi’s Ferrando, Il Trovatore and Banquo, MacBeth, the title role in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Faust in Gounod’s Mephistopheles.
Basso Buffo
The buffo nomenclature is one that can be loosely applied to some character roles in other vocal types, but the bass voice is the only one where it is actually given as a type in itself. It is an Italian term, referring to something of a humorous, or clownish style – buffoon-like. Vocally, they require an agile voice with coloratura ability for the patter song type passages that are common to these characters. The voice itself, while being of a characteristically bass colour and range, is often manipulated to further create a humorous effect.
Basso buffo roles include Mozart’s Leporello, Don Giovanni and Don Alfonso, Cosi fan tutti and Rossini’s Don Bartolo from The Barber of Seville.
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Basso Profundo
This is the ultimate bass voice, with – as the name indicates – the lowest range and darkest colour. It is a large, rich and resonant sound with a very low tessitura, so that the bottom notes of the range can be produced with full sound and power.
Some of the better known bass roles fall into this group. They include Mozart’s Sarastro, The Magic Flute and The Commendatore, Don Giovanni and Wagner’s Gurnemanz, Parsifal and Fafner from Das Rheingold and Siegfried, the first and third operas of Der Ring das Niebelungen.
True bases, like contraltos – the lowest of the women’s voice types – are rare, so the opportunity to hear them in these roles is not to be missed as the dark and rich colour they can give adds to the drama on the stage in a unique way.
The Vocal Fach System was developed in Germany at the end of the 19th Century for opera houses to create distinct categories for all the roles in an opera in order to aid auditions and casting.
Fach means classification, specialty, category. Singers were placed in a Fach according to their voice types and they would only study the characters that belonged in that category. ( laugh sometimes because I think of it like the Indian “Caste” system. Meaning, once you were born into poverty, no matter how many times you come back in reincarnation, you will always be a pauper. Or if you were born into royalty, you would always come back a king. Nonetheless, it is still a very helpful way to understand “voice types.” With that said: Opera houses would keep records of singers according to Fach and they would call them in for auditions according to which roles were available.
All together singers and roles were placed in a Fach according to the following vocalcharacteristics:
- range– the notes your body can produce
- weight– light voices, bright and agile; heavy voices, powerful, rich, and darker
- size– the amount of sound you can produce and your voice’s dramatic effect
- tessitura– part of the range which is most comfortable to sing
- timbre or color– unique voice quality and texture
- transition points– points where you change from chest, to middle, to head register
- vocalregisters – how extended each register is
- speech level– speaking range
- physical characteristics – height and build
- age and experience
The Fach System is still used widely throughout the world (especially in Europe), and although it might seem as a very stringent way of classifying singers, knowing your specific voice type can help you make better decisions when auditioning.
Most composers have particular voice types in mind, some times even specific singers, when working on their operas. Nowadays, directors and conductors try to recreate the feeling of particular characters by choosing singers whose voice power, size, timber, color, and range match the composer’s intentions.
Think about it: would a soprano with a heavy and powerful voice be a good fit for the role of a young girl like Gilda in Rigoletto? And how about a bright and airy tenor for the role of a dramatic character like Canio in Pagliacci?
I wish this book was translated into English. This book by Rudolf Kloiber’s Handbuch der Oper, is the definitive complete manual on voice types, auditioning, and roles. Since it hasn’t been published in English, below please find a very scaled down version of vocal fachs, their categories, their characteristics and their ranges (which I will include as well).
This is a collective table of the main 25 voice types in the Fach system.
The 25 Voice Types
Type | English | German | Characteristics |
Soprano Voice Types | Soubrette | Spielsopran | Young, light, bright |
Lyric Coloratura Soprano | Lyrischer Koloratursopran | High, bright, flexible | |
Dramatic Coloratura Soprano | Dramatischer Koloratursopran | High, dark, flexible | |
Lyric Soprano | Lyrischer Sopran | Warm, legatto, full | |
Character Soprano | Charaktersopran | Bright, metallic, theatrical | |
Spinto /Young Dramatic Soprano | Jugendlich-dramatischer Sopran | Powerful, young, full | |
Dramatic Soprano | Dramatischer Sopran | Powerful, dark, rich | |
Mezzo-Soprano Voice Types | Coloratura Mezzo-Soprano | Coloratura Mezzo-Soprano | Agile, rich, bright |
Lyric Mezzo-Soprano | Lyrischer Mezzosopran | Strong, flexible, lachrymose | |
Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano | Dramatischer Mezzosopran | Rich, powerful, imposing | |
Contralto Voice Types | Dramatic Alto | Dramatischer Alt | Powerful, full, metallic |
Low Contralto | Tiefer Alt | Low, full, warm | |
Tenor Voice Types | Countertenor | Contratenor | High, agile, powerful |
Lyric Tenor | Lyrischer Tenor | Soft, warm, flexible | |
Acting Tenor | Spieltenor | Flexible, theatrical, light | |
Dramatic Tenor | Heldentenor | Full, low, stamina | |
Character Tenor | Charaktertenor | Bright, powerful, theatrical | |
Baritone Voice Types | Lyric Baritone | Lyrischer Bariton | Smooth, flexible, sweet |
Cavalier Baritone | Kavalierbariton | Brilliant, warm, agile | |
Character Baritone | Charakterbariton | Flexible, powerful, theatrical | |
Dramatic Baritone | Heldenbariton | Powerful, full, imposing | |
Bass Voice Types | Character Bass | Charakterbass | Full, rich, stamina |
Acting Bass | Spielbass | Flexible, agile, rich | |
Heavy Acting Bass | Schwerer Spielbass | Full, rich, imposing | |
Serious Bass | Seriöser Bass | Mature, rich, powerfulMajor Category – Voice Types by Range and TessituraIf you sing in a choir or take voice lessons, you have probably already been classified as a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto (alto) if you are a woman, and a countertenor, tenor, baritone, or bass if you are a male. But are you really sure you’ve been classified correctly? Test your voice according to the following scales. SopranoVoice Type: Soprano, Range: B3 – G6 Soprano is the highest female voice type. There are many types of sopranos like the coloratura soprano, lyric soprano, the soubrette etc. which differ in vocal agility, vocal weight, timbre, and voice quality; I will talk about them in our livestream. All of the sopranos have in common the ability to sing higher notes with ease. A typical soprano can vocalize B3 to C6, though a soprano coloratura can sing a lot higher than that reaching F6, G6 etc. Mezzo-SopranoVoice Type: Mezzo-Soprano, Range: G3 – A5 Mezzo-Soprano is the second highest female voice type. In a choir, a mezzo-soprano will usually sing along the sopranos and not the altos and will be given the title of Soprano II. When the sopranos split in half, she will sing the lower melody as her timbre is darker and tessitura lower than the sopranos. Though in opera mezzo-sopranos most often hold supporting roles and trouser roles, i.e. male roles, there are notable exceptions like those of Carmen and Rosina in The Barber of Seville, where the prima donna is a mezzo-soprano. A typical mezzo-soprano can vocalize from G3 to A5, though some can sing as high as typical soprano. ContraltoVoice Type: Contralto, Range: E3 – F5 Contralto is the lowest female voice type. In a choir, contralto’s are commonly know as altos and sing the supporting melody to the sopranos. This doesn’t mean that contraltos are not as important. On the contrary, because true altos are hard to find, a true alto has greater chances of a solo carrier than a soprano. A contralto is expected to be able to vocalize from E3 to F5, however, the lower her tessitura, the more valuable she is. CountertenorVoice Type: Countertenor, Range: G3 – C6 Countertenor is the rarest of all voice types. A countertenor is a male singer who can sing as high as a soprano or mezzo-soprano utilizing natural head resonance. As I said before, countertenors are extremely hard to come along and their ability to sing as high as C6 is admired by religious music connoisseurs. Though extremely unique, countertenor is not an operatic voice type, as historically, it was the castrati (male singers castrated before puberty) who would be chosen for the female operatic roles – it was not proper for women to sing in the opera. Instead, countertenors were popular in religious choirs, where women were also not allowed to participate. The castratti are out of the scope of this post, but for those who are interested to learn more about them, I would like to recommend the movie Farinelli, a literary twist on the life of Farinelli, the most famous castrato of all times. TenorVoice Type: Tenor, Range: C3 – B4 Tenor is the highest male voice type you will find in a typical choir. Though it is the voice type with the smallest range, it barely covers 2 octaves from C3 to B4, tenors are the most sought after choir singers for two major reasons. The first reason is that there aren’t as many men singing in choirs to begin with. The second reason is that most men, singers or not, fall under the baritone voice type. In the opera, the primo uomo is most often a tenor, and you will know he is a tenor because of the ringing quality in his voice. A true tenor has a high tessitura, above the middle C4, and uses a blend of head resonance and falsetto, as opposed to falsetto alone. Many a baritone will try to use this technique to classify as tenor and some will be successful; you’ll know who they are because of their red faces when trying to sing the high notes in the tenor melodic line. ? BaritoneVoice Type: Baritone, Range: G2 – G4 Baritone is the most common male voice type. Though common, baritone is not at all ordinary. On the contrary, the weight and power of his voice, give the baritone a very masculine feel, something that in the opera has been used in roles of generals and, most notably, noblemen. Don Giovanni, Figaro, Rigoletto, and Nabucco are all baritones. 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Their range is anywhere between a G2 and a G4 but can extend in either way. If you sing tenor and can’t reach the higher notes with ease, or sing bass and can’t reach the lower notes naturally, you’re most probably a baritone and you shouldn’t worry about it, we’ll discuss this in the live stream. BassVoice Type: Bass, Range: D2 – E4 Bass is the lowest male voice type, and thus a bass sings the lowest notes humanly possible. I tend to think of the deep bass notes as comparable to those of a violoncello, though some charismatic basses can hit notes lower than those of a cello. A bass will be asked to sing anywhere between a D2 and an E4. A cello’s lowest note is a C2. Just with every extreme, it’s really hard to find true basses and it’s almost impossible in the younger ages where the male bodies are still developing. Though in a choir basses might have rather monotone melodic lines, in the opera they have a great range of roles to choose from. Basses are used as the villains and other dark characters, the funny buffos and in comic-relief roles, the dramatic princes, the noble fathers of heroines, elderly priests and more. Now that you have learnt all about the major categories in voice types, I’m sure you’ll want to know how to distinguish between the secondary categories. Do you know the difference between a lyric soprano and a dramatic soprano or a leggero tenor and a spinto tenor? How can you tell which one you are? We will be discussing this in our Youtube Live Stream! See you soon! |
Watch this 30 second before and after video of a student who took the course for only one year:
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