# Why isn't the baritenor fach used in today's opera?



## Baritenor (Dec 13, 2015)

I really don't understand why. The other 'mixed' voice type, the bass-baritone, is used of corse.


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## graziesignore (Mar 13, 2015)

Have any parts been written for a baritenor?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

What would you consider the range of a baritenor? We could consider Lauritz Melchior and Ramon Vinay to be baritenors. If Wagner were around, he'd be writing more roles for baritenor - roles like Siegmund and Tristan, which don't hang too high and need real lower register strength. There are no doubt more such roles, but they're just not called baritenor roles because the "fach" name hasn't caught on for whatever reason. Some of Verdi's high baritone roles might even be so classified, and arguably the great baritone Mattia Battistini was a true intermediate. A tenotone?


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Mmmmm... Another faching 'fach' thread.

Sorry to come over all bah humbug (especially at this time of year), but I don't believe in the 'bass-baritone', until quite recently this voice type was called a 'lyric bass' in Italy and it seems to me to be a Wagnerian term for what essentially is a lyric bass. The interesting thing is that some bass-baritones are just as convincing in lyric bass roles as they are in dramatic baritone ones (think Bryn Terfel as Mephistopheles in Faust and Scarpia in Tosca). I can't think of a lyric baritone who has successfully managed to sing roles for that voice type as well as dramatic tenor roles at the same time. Domingo has shown us that he is most certainly a dramatic tenor and not a baritone of any type.

If the baritenor is what I refer to as a dramatic tenor, then I would suggest that it is the rarity of this voice which means that modern composers aren't writing for it. When a dramatic tenor comes along he is snapped up for Cavaradossi, Andrea Chenier, Otello, Calaf, Siegmund, Tristan, Parsifal and at some stage Siegfried.

N.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

The Conte said:


> Domingo has shown us that he is most certainly a dramatic tenor and not a baritone of any type.


^this. like, his voice isn't even that dark. he is nothing close to baritone. a truly "baritonal" tenor would be Giuseppe Giacomini


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Baritenor said:


> I really don't understand why. The other 'mixed' voice type, the bass-baritone, is used of corse.


Because when you say the word at the bar, the bartender pours you another Old Graves with beer back.


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