Baritone to Countertenor?
JayVCee
Bejun Mehta, who sang the countertenor role of Polinesso, was until two
years ago a "middling baritone." Now how is this possible? Excuse my
ignorance but I thought that characteristics of vocal cords such as size,
texture, degree of tautness, etc determine the natural and permanent singing
voice. Can training alone re-master the vocal instrument -- and so
magnificently so in the case of Mehta that he is receiving such great
reviews -- from one range to another several ranges away from the original??
Gianni
jjo...@my-deja.com
"JayVCee" <Jay...@email.msn.com> wrote:
> I was surprised to read in a review of an "Ariodante" performance, that
> Bejun Mehta, who sang the countertenor role of Polinesso, was until two
> years ago a "middling baritone." Now how is this possible?
Countertenors use a different vocal position than baritones, more what we
call head voice and less chest. This is really no stranger than hearing
a woman who can sing both "legit" (head) and "belt" (chest) tone.
However, as many Broadway ladies have found out, eventually they have to
make a choice which part of the voice they want to concentrate on.
Most countertenors are also "middling" baritones since it's unusual for
anyone to be trained *first* as a countertenor; many voice teachers don't
think of that as a "real" or "natural" range. It seems that the usual
transition is from baritone to countertenor; the more natural mix of head
and chest register in the tenor voice perhaps precludes so easy a
changeover.
David Daniels spent years studying as a tenor with (as he admits) not
much success; the top was always a problem. It is not unreasonable to
think that some voice teachers would have classified his "short" tenor as
a baritone.
I think a tenor who has an easy top has little motivation to "become"
anything else; people are throwing jobs at him before he gets out of
college. A "middling" baritone, on the other hand, is not so valuable a
commodity, and therefore has more reason to explore options.
jj
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Before you buy.
Karen Mercedes
> I was surprised to read in a review of an "Ariodante" performance, that
> Bejun Mehta, who sang the countertenor role of Polinesso, was until two
> years ago a "middling baritone." Now how is this possible? Excuse my
> ignorance but I thought that characteristics of vocal cords such as size,
> texture, degree of tautness, etc determine the natural and permanent singing
> voice. Can training alone re-master the vocal instrument -- and so
> magnificently so in the case of Mehta that he is receiving such great
> reviews -- from one range to another several ranges away from the original??
Actually, this happens more often than you think, particularly with
countertenor falsettists. Many of them are baritones and basses when they
sing in their lower registers.
KM
=====
There is delight in singing,
tho' none hear Beside the singer.
- Walter Savage Landor
-----
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
Lis K. Froding
"JayVCee" <Jay...@email.msn.com> wrote:
>I was surprised to read in a review of an "Ariodante" performance,
>that Bejun Mehta, who sang the countertenor role of Polinesso, was
>until two years ago a "middling baritone."
>
>Gianni
Didn't know this about Bejun Mehta, but had read about David Daniels
converting to countertenor from baritone a few years ago.
Lis
Jjparterre
>... had read about David Daniels
>converting to countertenor from baritone a few years ago.
Actually, David was a tenor; his last onstage role in that range was Albert
Herring, in which I would think he would be a sheer delight. But, as David
says, he could never really get the voice to work properly as a tenor.
However, when he "goofed around" in soprano territory, everything clicked.
He tells the whole story in his PARTERRE BOX interview at
http://www.parterre.com/daniels.htm
james jorden
jjo...@ix.netcom.com
latest opera gossip: http://www.parterre.com/lacieca.htm
Matthew B. Tepper
recordings, including at least opera of Hasse), had a baritone speaking
and singing voice until he trained to sing high. (He also played the
concert harp.) The reason I know this is that he was a friend of mine
in college.
In article
<Pine.SV4.3.96.991001...@saltmine.radix.net>,
dal...@radix.net pondered what I'm pondering as follows...
>
>On Fri, 1 Oct 1999, JayVCee wrote:
>
>> I was surprised to read in a review of an "Ariodante" performance,
>> that Bejun Mehta, who sang the countertenor role of Polinesso, was
>> until two years ago a "middling baritone." Now how is this possible?
>> Excuse my ignorance but I thought that characteristics of vocal cords
>> such as size, texture, degree of tautness, etc determine the natural
>> and permanent singing voice. Can training alone re-master the vocal
>> instrument -- and so magnificently so in the case of Mehta that he is
>> receiving such great reviews -- from one range to another several
>> ranges away from the original??
>
>Actually, this happens more often than you think, particularly with
>countertenor falsettists. Many of them are baritones and basses when
>they sing in their lower registers.
>
>KM
>=====
>There is delight in singing,
>tho' none hear Beside the singer.
> - Walter Savage Landor
>-----
>http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/index.htm
My main music page --- http://www.deltanet.com/~ducky/berlioz.htm
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
"Compassionate Conservatism?" * "Tight Slacks?" * "Jumbo Shrimp?"
Joseph K.
> that sings in falsetto can developpe an alto range. Like a tenor would probably
> sound like a caricature of a soprano when he sings in falsetto. Which is my
> case. I think the falsetto can determine very well what type of voice you are
> (tenor or B). When i use to sing as baryton, i tried to develop my voice to see
> if i can be a male alto and surprisingly it sounded like a soprano. As matter of
> fact, i have developpe my tenor voice not long ago.
Lis K. Froding
jjpar...@aol.com (Jjparterre) wrote:
>Lis wrote:
>
>>... had read about David Daniels
>>converting to countertenor from baritone a few years ago.
>
>Actually, David was a tenor; his last onstage role in that range was
>Albert Herring, in which I would think he would be a sheer delight.
>But, as David says, he could never really get the voice to work
>properly as a tenor. However, when he "goofed around" in soprano
>territory, everything clicked.
>
>He tells the whole story in his PARTERRE BOX interview at
>http://www.parterre.com/daniels.htm
Oops. Thanks for the correction. Wrong fach. Sorry. Gee, how
can I keep track of those guys when they change like that ;-)))
Lis
David Shengold
Drew Minter was a baritone before switching to countertenor- he uses this
lower resonance for dramatic contrast in places on his Handel arias CD with
Mc Gegan.
-David Shengold
Edward A. Cowan
> Most countertenors are also "middling" baritones since it's unusual for
> anyone to be trained *first* as a countertenor; many voice teachers don't
> think of that as a "real" or "natural" range. It seems that the usual
> transition is from baritone to countertenor; the more natural mix of head
> and chest register in the tenor voice perhaps precludes so easy a
> changeover.
When countertenor James Bowman sang in the Dallas Opera production of
Vivaldi's _Orlando Furioso_, 1980 (the role of Ruggiero, the part sung
by baritone Sesto Bruscantini in the Erato recording cond. Claudio
Scimone), he stated in a public conference that I attended that his
"natural" voice is a rather ordinary baritone. Indeed, there was one
offstage passage in this performance which he sang in his "natural"
voice.
Perhaps natural baritones make good countertenors (or sopranists)
because their voices are deeper and have more resonance in the upper
reaches?
-- E.A.C.
JayVCee
So you mean now that Domingo got bad reviews for Otello there are new
options available for him. Oh, just for baritones and basses, but not for
tenors? What a shame..what is a tenor to do?
Gianni
Karen Mercedes <dal...@radix.net> wrote in message
news:Pine.SV4.3.96.991001...@saltmine.radix.net...
> On Fri, 1 Oct 1999, JayVCee wrote:
>