# How do the different voices compare



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

According to this article (see page 15), there are five operatic voices with four types:

Soprano
Mezzo-Soprano
Tenor
Baritone
Bass

Then they indicated that each voice had four possible variations:

Coloratura (the highest range and very flexible in the upper part of the range)
Lyric (rich in tone)
Spinta (kind of a combination between lyric and dramatic)
Dramatic (the most powerful voice)

Does this make sense? What happened to alto? Is alto the same a mezzo-soprano? I thought mezzo-soprano was between alto and soprano?

The coloratura and lyric make sense with sopranos and I have examples of both, but how can a bass be coloratura?

And are the voices indicated differently outside opera?


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Pretty incredible coloratura bass:


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

And yes, I think operatic mezzo-sopranos are generally expected to sing about the same range as a choral alto. There are a few roles specifically for contraltos, but there are very few singers with an operatic contralto voice.

EDIT: in fact, Wikipedia tells me that it is not strictly correct to describe a voice as 'alto' since that word originally described the second highest part of a piece of contrapuntal music, whether that part was sung or played on an instrument. Regardless, the range is about the same as what's expected of an operatic mezzo: about A[sub]3[/sub] to A[sub]5[/sub].


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Well that is my ignorance of the technical part of music. I always though coloratura was something that was only associated with a soprano.

Gunter Wewel is amazing! Thanks for posting the video of him.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

TallPaul said:


> According to this article (see page 15), there are five operatic voices with four types:
> 
> Soprano
> Mezzo-Soprano
> ...


So, that's list is true as a rough outline, but opera vocal types are kind of like electronic music genres -- there's an infinite regress, depending on how specific you want to be. One could easily argue that a Verdi baritone is different from lyric or spinto. Or that a bass-baritone should have its own category. What about soubrettes? Also, as you mention, what about altos? And the german fach system is somewhat different. 
So, use that list as a general guideline.

One easy point to address is indeed the alto issue. The range is similar to a mezzo but the tessitura of an alto voice will generally be a bit lower, and produced more in the chest. An example of a mezzo and an alto singing _Una Voce Poco Fa_









The terms soprano et al are used outside of opera too, but generally with less precision and don't always mean the same thing. Many choirs will only have two male parts -- tenor and baritone, with their baritones being kind of a combo baritone and bass.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

.....................................................


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

re: coloratura and voice types - listen to anything by Rossini; he wrote coloratura for all voice types. You get that in Mozart and Baroque as well, but Rossini is the surest example. You can't sing Rossini without a good coloratura technique.

also these voice types are kinda rough guides. Singers will sometimes sing out of their usual fach, if their voice copes with the specific tessitura of the role (composers roughly before Verdi and even afterwards sometimes wrote roles for specific singers who had already been assigned to sing in their opera, so they wrote for the possibilities of that particular singer which could "transcend" a given fach. Also before the 19th century they didn't differentiate much - the recognised voices were castrato, soprano, tenor and bass).


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

In an interview in the December issue of _Opernwelt_, the countertenor Franco Fagioli claims that, in the early 19th century, the concept of a mezzo soprano didn't exist; women were either considered sopranos or contraltos. He also says that "soprano" was a common designation for castrati.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Castrati were indeed classified into the voice types which are now applied to female singers.

The unaccountable dearth of castrati these days has lead to the practice of casting mezzos and contraltos in roles originally intended for a high-voiced man, along with the ever popular evil alto role. It's said that the only roles available to operatic contraltos are witches, britches, and, uh, unpleasant women.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ahammel said:


> The unaccountable dearth of castrati these days


Unaccountable? Surely it's on account of the fact that we no longer castrate young boys.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Oh if only one could modify posts! What on earth was I thinking? "Know" when I meant "no"? Only just noticed it.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

GregMitchell said:


> Oh if only one could modify posts! What on earth was I thinking? "Know" when I meant "no"? Only just noticed it.


Than you shoed half though.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

GregMitchell said:


> Oh if only one could modify posts! What on earth was I thinking? "Know" when I meant "no"? Only just noticed it.


Sorted.......................................................


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> Unaccountable? Surely it's on account of the fact that we no longer castrate young boys.


I was shocked to find that there is actually a phonograph recording of the last castrato (Alessandro Moreschi?) I had assumed they stopped at the latest by 1810-ish.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

marinasabina said:


> I was shocked to find that there is actually a phonograph recording of the last castrato (Alessandro Moreschi?) I had assumed they stopped at the latest by 1810-ish.


Indeed:






Makes one wonder why they didn't just use women.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

ahammel said:


> Indeed:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Habit, or still following the prohibition against women's voices in church. The castrati survived in church settings long after they had fallen out of fashion in secular vocal music.


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## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

ahammel said:


> Indeed:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well Moreschi wasn't a trained operatic singer, so that's not a particularly good rendition of the song. The great castrati were said to have a very different tone to female singers, effortless top notes and because of their big lungs they could sing really long melismas and difficult passages in a single breath. They would have been quite spectacular to listen to I imagine (at least the greats like Farinelli) and its a shame we only have one on record.

Obviously it was a barbaric practice though, and really ought not to have been done at all.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

GregMitchell said:


> Unaccountable? Surely it's on account of the fact that we no longer castrate young boys.


Pfft...kids, these days. Where's the commitment?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Coloratura is specifically about a quick agility -- in any range -- not everything every singer in any range has.

Spinta (fem.) / Spinto (masc.) is not about range, but timbre, a darker smoky quality, to whatever range that descriptor is connected.

Lyric is that the singer of that usually expected range has a range further upwards extended, and those sound with ease, or "lightness," i.e. are also fluidly agile.

Instrumental music: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass are used to merely indicate the top, the next lower, the next lower again, and the lowest parts of a piece. An orchestral piece could, at least for an extended passage, be from middle C down, and if in four parts those parts would be named in discussion, from top to bottom, Sop. Alt. Ten. Bass.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

We forgot about the most popular voice type. _Approximaturas_


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