Lirico-Leggiero tenor
The male equivalent of a lyric coloratura, this voice is a light lyric instrument, is very agile and is able to perform difficult passages of fioritura. The Lirico-Leggiero tenor has a range of approximately the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the D above tenor C (D5), with a few leggiero tenors being able to sing F5 and even higher while maintaining quality to the sound. Similarly, the lirico-leggero may be able to sing a little lower than the C3. The voice is the highest operatic tenor voice and is sometimes referred to as "tenore di grazia". This voice is utilized frequently in the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti and the highest Baroque repertoire for tenors.
Lirico-Leggiero Tenor Roles In Opera & Operettas:[2]
Count Almaviva, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini)
Belmonte, The Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart)
Ernesto, Don Pasquale (Donizetti)
Ferrando, Così fan tutte (Mozart)
Lindoro, L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini)
Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni (Mozart)
Don Ramiro, La Cenerentola (Rossini)
Tonio, La Fille du Régiment (Donizetti)
Lirico-Leggiero Tenor Singers:
John Aler
Luigi Alva
Ian Bostridge
Rockwell Blake
Lawrence Brownlee
Richard Croft
Juan Diego Flórez
Topi Lehtipuu
William Matteuzzi
Francesco Meli
Peter Schreier
Tito Schipa
Léopold Simoneau
Ferruccio Tagliavini
Cesare Valletti
[edit] Lyric tenor
A warm graceful voice with a bright, full timbre that is strong but not heavy and can be heard over an orchestra. Lyric tenors have a range from approximately the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the D one octave above middle C (D5) with some able to sing up to E♭5 and higher. Similarly, their lower range may extend a few notes below the C3. There are many vocal shades to the lyric tenor group, repertoire should be selected according to the weight, colors, and abilities of the voice.
Lyric Tenor Roles In Opera & Operettas:[2]
Alfredo, La traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)
Arturo, I Puritani (Vincenzo Bellini)
Chevalier, Dialogues des Carmélites (Francis Poulenc)
David, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Richard Wagner)
Il Duca di Mantova, Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi)
Edgardo, Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti)
Elvino, La Sonnambula (Bellini)
Faust, Faust (Charles Gounod)
Fenton, Falstaff (Giuseppe Verdi)
Hoffmann, The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach)
Lensky, Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky)
Oronte, I Lombardi alla prima crociata (Giuseppe Verdi)
Pinkerton, Madama Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini)
Rinuccio, Gianni Schicchi (Giacomo Puccini)
Rodolfo, La Bohème (Puccini)
Roméo, Roméo et Juliette (Gounod)
Tamino, Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
Werther, Werther (Jules Massenet)
Wilhelm Meister, Mignon (Ambroise Thomas)
Guillaume Tell, Arnold (Giacchino Rossini)
Lyric Tenor Singers:
Nazareno Antinori
Roberto Alagna
Marcelo Álvarez
Giacomo Aragall
Piotr Beczała
Evgeny Belyaev
Jussi Björling
Joseph Calleja
José Carreras
Richard Croft
Richard Crooks
Giuseppe di Stefano
Gerald English
Salvatore Fisichella
Miguel Fleta
Luigi Marini
Beniamino Gigli
Nicolai Gedda
Jerry Hadley
Pyotr Slovtsov
Tibor Kelen
Sergei Lemeshev
John McCormack
Francesco Marconi
Chris Merritt
Luciano Pavarotti
Jan Peerce
Alfred Piccaver
Jacques Pottier
Dmitri Smirnov
Leonid Sobinov
Richard Tauber
Joseph Schmidt
Robert Swensen
Alain Vanzo
Ramón Vargas
Fernando del Valle
Rolando Villazón
Gösta Winbergh
Fritz Wunderlich
Gustavo Zamora
Rok Krajnc
[edit] Spinto tenor
This voice has the brightness and height of a lyric tenor, but with a heavier vocal weight enabling the voice to be "pushed" to dramatic climaxes with less strain than the lighter-voice counterparts. (They are also known as "lyric-dramatic" tenors.) This fach is divided into lirico-spinto and drammatico-spinto, though it is an old-school Italian tradition to do so and Spinto tenors today are simply labeled "Spinto". Spinto tenors have a darker timbre than a lyric tenor, without having a vocal color as dark as a dramatic tenor. However, other spinto tenors, such as Carlo Bergonzi have brightly colored and lyrical sounding voices, but are nevertheless able to perform spinto roles due to large vocal size or high volume [2]. Spinto tenors have a wide range of flexibility within the fach system being able to perform such roles as Radames in Aida and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino as well as lighter roles such as the Duca in Rigoletto and Werther. The German equivalent of the Spinto fach is the Jugendlicher Heldentenor and encompasses many of the Dramatic tenor roles as well as some Wagner roles such as Lohengrin and Siegmund. The difference is often the depth and metal in the voice where some lyric tenors age or push their way into singing as a Spinto giving them a lighter tone and Jugendlicher Heldentenors tend to be either young heldentenors or true lyric dramatic voices giving them a dark dramatic tenor like tone. Spinto tenors have a range from approximately the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the C one octave above middle C (C5), and, like the lyric tenors, they are often capable of reaching D5 and sometimes higher. Similarly, their lower range may extend a few notes below the C3.[2]
Spinto Tenor Roles In Opera & Operettas:[2]
Andrea Chénier, Andrea Chénier (Umberto Giordano)
Canio, Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)
Des Grieux, Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Don Carlo, Don Carlo (Verdi)
Don José, Carmen (Bizet)
Erik, Der Fliegende Holländer (Wagner)
Ernani, Ernani (Verdi)
Hermann, Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky)
Idomeneo, Idomeneo (Mozart)
Macduff, Macbeth (opera) (Verdi)
Manrico, Il trovatore (Verdi)
Mario Cavaradossi, Tosca (Puccini)
Maurizio, Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea)
Max, Der Freischütz (Carl Maria von Weber)
Pollione Norma (Bellini)
Stiffelio Stiffelio (Verdi)
Riccardo, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi)
Turiddu, Cavalleria rusticana (Pietro Mascagni)
Spinto Tenor Singers:
Carlo Bergonzi
Beniamino Gigli
Franco Corelli
Plácido Domingo
Giuseppe Giacomini
Jonas Kaufmann
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
Francesco Merli
Giovanni Martinelli
Aureliano Pertile
Helge Rosvaenge
Georges Thill
Richard Tucker
[edit] Dramatic tenor
Also "tenore di forza" or "robusto" – a rich, emotive, ringing and very powerful, clarion heroic tenor. The dramatic tenor has an approximate range from the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the C one octave above middle C (C5).[2] Many successful dramatic tenors have historically avoided the coveted high C in performance. Their lower range tends to extend into the baritone tessitura or, a few notes below the C3.
Dramatic Tenor Roles In Opera & Operettas:[2]
Calaf, Turandot (Puccini)
Canio, I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)
Cavaradossi, Tosca (Giacomo Puccini)
Dick Johnson, La fanciulla del West (Giacomo Puccini)
Don Alvaro, La forza del destino (Verdi)
Florestan, Fidelio (Beethoven)
Otello, Otello (Verdi)
Peter Grimes, Peter Grimes (Benjamin Britten)
Radames, Aïda (Verdi)
Samson, Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns)
Dramatic Tenor Singers:
Franco Bonisolli
Enrico Caruso
Giuseppe Giacomini later in career
Mario del Monaco
James McCracken
Aureliano Pertile later in career
Jean de Reszke
Vladimir Rosing
Francesco Tamagno
Ramon Vinay
[edit] Heldentenor
A rich, dark, powerful and dramatic voice. As its name implies, the Heldentenor (English: heroic tenor) vocal fach features in the German romantic operatic repertoire. The Heldentenor is the German equivalent of the tenore drammatico, however with a more baritonal quality: the typical Wagnerian protagonist. The keystone of the heldentenor's repertoire is arguably Wagner's Siegfried, an extremely demanding role requiring a wide vocal range and great power, plus tremendous stamina and acting ability. Often the heldentenor is a baritone who has transitioned to this fach or tenors who have been misidentified as baritones. Therefore the heldentenor voice might or might not have facility up to high B or C. The repertoire, however, rarely calls for such high notes. A Heldentenor is less a true tenor than a baritone with a strong top register. Heldentenor Roles In Operas & Operettas:[2]
Florestan, Fidelio (Beethoven)
Tannhäuser, Tannhäuser (Wagner)
Loge, Das Rheingold (Wagner)
Lohengrin, Lohengrin (Wagner)
Parsifal, Parsifal (Wagner)
Drum Major, Wozzeck (Berg)
Siegfried, Götterdämmerung (Wagner)
Siegfried, Siegfried (Wagner)
Siegmund, Die Walküre (Wagner)
Walter von Stolzing, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner)
Tristan, Tristan und Isolde (Wagner)
Heldentenor Singers:
Bernd Aldenhoff
Giuseppe Borgatti
Karel Burian
Richard Cassilly
Mario del Monaco
Wilhelm Elsner
Stephen Gould
Ben Heppner
Siegfried Jerusalem
James King
Heinrich Knote
Ernst Kraus
Lauritz Melchior
Albert Niemann
Simon O'Neill
Ticho Parly
Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Peter Seiffert
Ludwig Suthaus
Set Svanholm
Josef Tichatschek
Jacques Urlus
Jon Vickers
Wolfgang Windgassen
Franz Völker
Ivan Yershov
Jess Thomas
René Kollo
[edit] Tenor buffo or Spieltenor
A tenor with good acting ability, and the ability to create distinct voices for his characters. This voice specializes in smaller comic roles. The range of the tenor buffo is from the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the C one octave above middle C (C5). The tessitura of these parts lies lower than the other tenor roles. These parts are often played by younger tenors who have not yet reached their full vocal potential or older tenors who are beyond their prime singing years. Only rarely will a singer specialize in these roles for an entire career.[2] In French opéra comique, supporting roles requiring a thin voice but good acting are sometimes described as 'trial', after the singer Antoine Trial (1737–1795), examples being in the operas of Ravel and in The Tales of Hoffmann.[11]
Tenor Buffo or Spieltenor Roles in Opera & Operettas:[2]
Count Danilo Danilovitsch, Die Lustige Witwe (Franz Lehár)
Don Basilio, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)
Mime, Siegfried (Richard Wagner)
Don Anchise/ Il Podestà, La Finta Giardiniera (Mozart)
Monostatos, The Magic Flute (Mozart)
Pedrillo, The Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart)
Dr. Blind, Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II)
Slender, The Merry Wives of Windsor (opera) (Otto Nicolai)
Kálmán Zsupán, The Gypsy Baron (Johann Strauss II)
The Captain, Wozzeck (Alban Berg)
The Magician, The Consul (Gian-Carlo Menotti)
Beppe, I Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo)
Frantz, Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach)
Spoletta, Tosca (Giacomo Puccini)
Goro, Madama Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini)
Pong, Turandot (Giacomo Puccini)
Gastone, La traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)
Tenor Buffo or Spieltenor singers:
Charles Anthony
Nico Castel
Graham Clark (tenor)
Piero de Palma
Anthony Laciura
Michel Sénéchal
Darren Keith Woods
Heinz Zednik
Renato Ercolani
Gerhard Stolze
[edit] Operetta
Tenor Roles in Operetta: All of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operettas have at least one lead lyric tenor character; other notable roles are:
Candide, (Candide)
Eisenstein, (Die Fledermaus)
Camille, Count de Rosillon, (The Merry Widow)
Prince Karl, (The Student Prince)
Sheikh Red Shadow, (The Desert Song)
Captain Dick, (Naughty Marietta)
[edit] References
Specific references:
1.^ McKinney, James (1994). The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Genovex Music Group. ISBN 978-1565939400.
2.^ a b c d e f g h i j k Boldrey, Richard (1994). Guide to Operatic Roles and Arias. Caldwell Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1877761645.
3.^ Stark, James (2003). Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0802086143.
4.^ a b Smith, Brenda (2005). Choral Pedagogy. Plural Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-1597560436.
5.^ Shortage of tenors acknowledged (but blamed on cultural discouragement)
6.^ Joseph Callega interview: mentions shortage of tenors
7.^ The disciplines of vocal pedagogy By Karen Sell: mentions shortage of tenors
8.^ Averill, Gage (2003). Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195116724.
9.^ Cantwell, Robert (2002). Bluegrass Breakdown: The Making of the Old Southern Sound. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252071171.
10.^ Appelman, D. Ralph (1986). The Science of Vocal Pedagogy: Theory and Application. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253203786.
11.^ Cotte RJV. Trial, French family of musicians. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.
General references:
David Fallows, Owen Jander. Tenor, Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy, grovemusic.com (subscription required)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
1904 Addio fiorito asil -- role created by Zenatello
Giovanni Zenatello (2 February 1876 - 11 February 1949) was an Italian opera singer. Born in Verona, he enjoyed an international career as a dramatic tenor of the first rank.
Zenatello showed musical promise from a young age.
His singing teacher in Verona originally tried to train him as a baritone, but he never felt comfortable in this range and later switched to the higher tenor register.
Nonetheless, it was as a baritone that he made his professional debut at Belluno in 1898.
His tenor debut (as Canio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci) did not come until the following year, at Naples.
Zenatello's operatic career gathered momentum during the early years of the 20th century, and on February 17, 1904, he created the role of Pinkerton in the world premiere of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at La Scala, Milan.
La Scala was Italy's leading opera house, and he remained a member of its company of singers until 1907.
He also sang at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in 1905-06, 1908–09 and 1926; at the Manhattan Opera House in 1907-1910; and with the New York Metropolitan Opera company, on tour, replacing Enrico Caruso, in 1909.
He sang often, too, in South America and Mexico and in various cities of Continental Europe.
Zenatello's voice had matured into that of a clarion-voiced dramatic tenor during his La Scala years, and he succeeded Francesco Tamagno (1850–1905) as the world's greatest exponent of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello.
He performed this extremely taxing role more than 300 times during his career and recorded highly acclaimed extracts from the work.
After a final stage appearance (in New York City) in 1933, Zenatello retired from opera and taught singing.
Lily Pons was one of his pupils.
As to his private life, he lived with the Spanish mezzo-soprano Maria Gay from 1906 until her death in 1943.
They were often described as husband and wife although they may never have actually married.
In 1913, Zenatello was instrumental in having the Verona Arena, built originally by the ancient Romans, restored and turned into a world famous open-air venue for opera performances.
That same year the arena was used to mount a grand production of Aida, marking the centenary of Verdi's birth.
In 1947, Zenatello arranged for a promising young soprano named Maria Callas to appear at the arena's Summer Festival in Amilcare Ponchielli's operatic masterpiece, La Gioconda.
This appearance would give Callas invaluable exposure in Italy and help set her on the path to future stardom.
Zenatello died in New York City in 1949, aged 73.
Zenatello left an important musical legacy in the form of a considerable number of commercial recordings of his voice, made both acoustically and, after 1925, with the aid of microphone technology.
His first discs were made in Italy by The Gramophone Company in 1903, followed by a long series for Fonotipia Records. Later, he recorded for the Columbia, Edison and HMV labels.
These recordings of operatic arias, duets and ensembles, as well as of a few song titles, have been reissued on CD in recent years, most notably by the English firms Pearl and Symposium Records and the Austrian Preiser label.
They reflect the wide range of his repertoire and confirm the impressive power, thrust and ardency of his singing at its best.
A radio interview with an elderly Zenatello, recorded in 1947, includes a creditable (if transposed dowanwards, due to the singer's age) performance of the aria Niun mi tema from Otello. This interview was reissued in the 1960s and can be heard on CD.
Roles created
1903: Vassili in Siberia (Giordano).
1903: Init in Oceàna (Antonio Smareglia)
1904: Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini).
Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, (Oxford University Press), 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
Scott, Michael (1977), The Record of Singing, Volume One, (Duckworth, London), 243 pages, ISBN 0 7156 1030 9.
[edit] External links
History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration
1853 Di quella pira -- role created by Firenze-born tenor C. Baucarde
Carlo Baucardé or Boucardé (1825–1883) was an Italian operatic tenor who sang leading roles throughout Italy, as well as in London, Madrid, Paris, and New York.
He is most remembered today for creating the role of Manrico in Verdi's opera Il trovatore and the title role in Donizetti's Poliuto.
Carlo Baucardé was born in Florence to a family of French origin.
According to contemporary accounts, he had originally been employed in the palace kitchen of the Grand Duke of Tuscany where he first attracted attention by his talent for cookery, and later by his talent for singing which enabled him to receive musical training.[1]
His earliest known appearance was in Florence in 1847 as Carlo ("Il bravo") in Mercadante's Il bravo.[2]
Between 1848 and 1850, he sang frequently in Naples at the Teatro San Carlo.
He appeared in three operas by Verdi, all in their first performances at that theatre: I Lombardi alla prima crociata as Arvino (1848), Macbeth as Malcolm (1849) , and I masnadieri as Carlo (1849).
He also sang there in the premiere of Donizetti's Poliuto in the title role (1848) and in the theatre's first performance of his La favorita as Fernando (1850).[3]
Baucardé made his London debut to considerable popular acclaim as Oronte in I Lombardi alla prima crociata during the 1850 season of Italian opera at Her Majesty's Theatre.
During that season he also performed the leading tenor roles in Verdi's I due Foscari, Bellini's I puritani, and Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. Benjamin Lumley, the Director of Her Majesty's Theatre at the time, wrote of Baucardé
Nothing was expected, yet great results were achieved. With a charmingly sweet, but still robust voice of wonderful extension; with a style wherein the use of the falsetto was at once sparingly and judiciously employed, this young artist won easily upon a public accustomed to give a preference to natural gifts over the display of skill. Not that Baucarde was deficient in skill; on the contrary, his " school" was excellent. As an actor he rose scarcely above mediocrity, but any deficiency in this respect was overlooked in the splendour of his "organ". [4]
In 1851, Baucardé sang the title tole in the world premiere of Gualtiero Sanelli's Camoëns at the Teatro Regio in Turin where he also sang Gualtiero in Bellini's Il pirata (1852), Arturo Talbot in his I puritani (1852), and the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto (1852).
Baucardé achieved particular success as the Duke, both in Turin and elsewhere.[5]
Verdi then cast Baucardé as the first Manrico in Il trovatore, although he had previously wanted Raffaele Mirate for the role.[6]
The premiere at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 19 January 1853 was a great success not only for Verdi, but also for Baucardé.
************************ DI QUELLA PIRA ********************
His popular acclaim in the role increased when
he substituted a high C
for the original G in the finale of
"Di quella pira"
during a later performance of Trovatore in Florence.[7]
---------------
He went on to sing Manrico for the Paris premiere of the opera on 23 December 1854 at the Théâtre-Italien.
The following month, he again appeared at the Théâtre-Italien in the title role of Pacini's now forgotten opera, L'ultimo dei Clodovei.[8]
Despite his great popularity in Italy, Baucardé failed to impress one British observer, Frances Minto Elliot.
Writing under the pseudonym "Florentia", she described his 1854 Rome performance in Lucrezia Borgia thus:
"Boucarde is a fat and stupid Gennaro, the real and veritable "pescatore ignobile",[9] and not the high-bred, unmistakable patrician Mario appears, even in his dingy dress."
"There is not a grain of romance about Boucarde, and his voice is no more comparable to Mario's silvery tones than his appearance."
"The fact is, he drinks like a fish, and is rapidly ruining a naturally fine organ."
"He made a good point in giving the words "Era mia madre, ah! misera", with an expression of deep pathos that brought down rounds of applause, and a particular kind of roar peculiar to a gratified Italian crowd, very savage and bloodthirsty to the ears, reminding one of revolutions and all kinds of horrors.[10]"
Baucardé was married to a prominent, but notoriously temperamental soprano, Augusta Albertini (1827-1898) and often sang with her.
When she was proposed for the role of Mina in the 1857 premiere casting of Verdi's Aroldo, Verdi wrote to his librettist Francesco Maria Piave:
"In short, as regards Albertini, I tell you, no. I've had more than enough of her husband, and I don't want anything more to do with lunatics. [11]"
From 1859 to 1860, the couple sang at the Academy of Music in New York, but the venture was not successful.
By then, Baucardé was past his prime.
He retired from the stage in 1863 and died in his native Florence on 22 January 1883.
1.^ Lumley (1864) p. 275
2.^ Lawrence (1999) p. 552
3.^ Casaglia
4.^ Lumley (1864) p. 275
5.^ Rescigno (2001) p. 85
6.^ Phillips-Matz (1993) p. 308. Raffaele Mirate (1815-1885) created the role of the Duke in the world premiere of Rigoletto.
7.^ Rescigno (2001) p. 86
8.^ Casaglia
9.^ Italian, literally "ill-bred fisherman"
10.^ quoted from Florentia (1854) p. 412
11.^ Letter from Giuseppe Verdi to Francesco Maria Piave, 31 October 1856, quoted in Rescigno (2001) p. 86. Original Italian:
"Intanto, ti dico per l'Albertini, no. Ne ho avuto abbastanza di suo marito e non voglio più avere che fare coi matti."
[edit] References
Casaglia, Gherardo, Almanacco Amadeus. Accessed 7 March 2009.
Florentia, "Diary of a first Winter in Rome – 1854", in The New Monthly Magazine Vol. 101, Richard Bentley, London, 1854.
Lawrence, Vera Brodsky, Strong on Music: Repercussions, 1857-1862, 2nd Edition, University of Chicago Press, 1999. ISBN 0226470156
Lumley, Benjamin, Reminiscences of the Opera, Hurst and Blackett, 1864.
Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, Verdi: A Biography, Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0193132044
Rescigno, Eduardo, Dizionario verdiano, Biblioteca universale Rizzoli, 2001. ISBN 8817866288,
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