(from Gk. barytonos: ‘deep-sounding’; Fr. baryton; Ger. Bariton; It. baritono).
A male voice, usually written for within the compass A to f', which may be extended at either end.
OWEN JANDER, J.B. STEANE, ELIZABETH FORBES/ELLEN T. HARRIS (with GERALD WALDMAN)
The term ‘baritonans’ was first used in Western music towards the end of the 15th century, principally in French sacred polyphony, where it may signify a voice lower in pitch than the bassus. In several five-voice masses of Pierre de La Rue and Nicolas Champion, for example, the voice one from lowest is designated ‘bassus’ with the ‘baritonans’ lying lower. Gaffurius (Practica musice, 1496) uses the term instead of ‘bassus’ for the lowest of the four regular voices (‘cantus’, ‘contratenor acutus’, ‘tenor’ and ‘baritonans’). In John Dowland's translation (1609) of Ornithoparcus's Musicae activae micrologus (1517), the definition ‘the Bassus (or rather Basis) is the lowest part of each Song’ is qualified with the statement ‘Or it is an Harmony to be sung with a deep voice which is called Baritonus’. A partbook in Lodovico Viadana's Salmi per cantare e concertare (1612) is marked ‘baritono’.
In 17th-century Italy, the term ‘baritono’ takes up its modern position between the tenor and bass parts. According to Praetorius (Syntagma musicum, iii, 1618, p.133), ‘by this term the Italians mean the tenor or quintum … when the F clef is written on the third line. In one of the earliest references to a solo baritone, Monteverdi, looking for a good bass for his La finta pazza Licori (1627, Mantua: lost), gave qualified approval to Don Iacomo Papalino, who, he said, sang with feeling, had a fairly competent trillo and gorgia, but ‘is a baritone and not a bass’ (letter to Alessandro Striggio, 1627).
The French counterpart to ‘baritono’ is Basse-taille, the lowest of three tenor ranges. Brossard (Dictionaire de musique, 1703) defined ‘baritono’ as ‘what we call the basse-taille or concordant’, ranges he distinguished by their lower extension, the basse-taille to B and the concordant to G. Rousseau (Dictionnaire, 1768) placed the basse-taille between the tenor and bass and equated the term with both ‘baryton’ and ‘concordant’ (he limited the latter to sacred music). Although a separate constituent of the five-part chorus in sacred music, the basse-taille had no specific line in the four-part opera chorus; singers in this range joined either with the tailles or the basses. Rousseau, however, equated the ‘concordant’ with the ‘part that in Italy is called tenor’, not with the bass, but allowed that ‘basse-taille’ was sometimes used to identify the true bass. Confusion as to whether the baritone is closer to the tenor or the bass has persisted. Walther (Musicalisches Lexicon, 1732) split the difference, writing that a baritone ‘must have the high range of the tenor as well as some depth in the bass’.
The
term did not enter normal operatic parlance until the 19th century, although
many 18th-century roles call for what is now considered a baritone. These
include the ‘bass’ parts written by Handel for G.M. Boschi. Lully wrote several
important roles, such as Cadmus, Alcides (Alceste) and Aegeus (Thésée)
in the baritone clef (the F clef on the middle line or the C on the top line),
but their ranges do not go beyond G to e' although some have a
high tessitura. Rameau's operas include several such roles, extending from F
or G to f' or f
', such as Teucer and Ismenor in Dardanus
and Jupiter in Castor et Pollux. The most notable basse-taille of
Rameau's day was Claude Chassé, who was admired more for his acting than his
singing but was sufficiently versatile to take the haute-taille role of
Medusa in a revival of Lully's Persée in 1738. Gluck's only notable
baritone roles are Agamemnon (Iphigénie en Aulide) and Orestes (Iphigénie
en Tauride).
Mozart's leading roles for baritone and bass-baritone derive from the basso buffo tradition, in which no clear distinction is drawn between bass and baritone. The first Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Stefano Mandini, described as a ‘primo buffo mezzo carattere’, had a voice that would now be considered a baritone. He specialized in opera buffa and had earlier played Almaviva in Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia. Mozart's first Figaro was the comic bass Francesco Benucci. Luigi Bassi created the title role at the Prague première of Don Giovanni (1787); he had sung the Count in Figaro shortly before. His range was described in 1800 as lying between tenor and bass. A basso buffo, Francesco Albertarelli, sang Don Giovanni at the Vienna première.
Baritone roles arrived late in opera chiefly because so much emphasis had previously been laid on florid singing, for which the lower male voice was not well suited. The baritone was slow to be accepted for principal roles. Castil-Blaze (De l'opéra en France, i, 1820, pp.280ff) explained that ‘the Italians dearly love high voices, the French seem to prefer the middle range, and the Germans deep voices’. He found it extraordinary that in Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni there should be four important roles for ‘basses’ and that the principal male should be a ‘bass’ (like others of the time, he did not distinguish between bass and baritone). That Mozart's prominent roles for basses and baritones were found daringly innovatory in England is indicated by Mount Edgcumbe's remark, ‘They take the lead in operas with as much propriety as if the double bass were to do so in the orchestra’ (Musical Reminiscences, 1824).
The acceptance of the baritone voice widened the range of male character types beyond those traditionally associated with the castrato or the tenor (the hero and the lover) and the bass (the king, the soldier, the high priest, the aged man). The baritone came to be used for new manifestations of virility: the wooer in competition with the lover (Don Carlo, Ernani), the trusty friend (Posa, Don Carlos), the brother figure (Valentin, Faust), the less-than-sage father figure (Germont, La traviata), the swashbuckler (Escamillo, Carmen), the lascivious villain (Scarpia, Tosca), the mature young man (Wolfram, Tannhäuser) or the youthful older man (the Flying Dutchman).
Leading Italian baritones of this period include Antonio Tamburini, who created several Donizetti and Bellini roles; Giorgio Ronconi, who sang for Donizetti but scored his greatest triumphs in early Verdi operas; and Felice Varesi, Verdi's first Macbeth, Rigoletto and Germont. Verdi's finest baritone however was the French singer Victor Maurel, a noted interpreter of Posa and Amonasro and creator of Iago and Falstaff as well as Leoncavallo's Tonio (Pagliacci). Another outstanding French baritone was Jean-Baptiste Faure, who created Posa, Thomas's Hamlet and several Meyerbeer roles; his successor Jean Lassalle was also admired for the beauty of his timbre. High baritone roles, calling on the head voice, were a French speciality: their leading exponent was Jean-Blaise Martin whose long career at the Opéra-Comique gave rise to the voice-type known as the ‘baryton Martin’. In Germany, the heavier ‘Heldenbariton’ voice, a counterpart to the Verdi baritone, developed, especially with the operas of Wagner, typified by Anton Mitterwurzer, the first Wolfram and Kurwenal. But the principal development was that of the ‘Hoher Bass’, the voice-type of Wotan and Hans Sachs (and typified by Franz Betz); this is a bass-baritone rather than a baritone proper.
The burgeoning song and oratorio repertory of the 19th century particularly suited the more lyric type of baritone. Johann Michael Vogl, who began his career in opera performing such roles as Orestes and Count Almaviva and creating Pizarro in the 1814 version of Fidelio, is best remembered as the singer Schubert most admired in the performance of his songs. Julius Stockhausen, who gave the first public performance of Die schöne Müllerin, was one of the first lieder singers to carry the German song repertory abroad; he made his career as a concert artist in such works as Haydn's Creation, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Brahms wrote the baritone part in the German Requiem for him. Early recordings have captured the voices of a number of concert baritones, including Charles Santley, highly praised by Eduard Hanslick and George Bernard Shaw for his refined singing; George Henschel, who sang in Bach's St Matthew Passion under Brahms's direction; and Plunket Greene, who made his début in Messiah and for whom Stanford wrote the Songs of the Fleet.
Operetta became a strong repertory for light baritones. The comic baritone part, replete with patter song, dates back at least to Mozart and Rossini's characterizations of Figaro; it also became a staple of Gilbert and Sullivan. George Grossmith created the principal comedy baritone roles, including the Major-General (The Pirates of Penzance), Koko (The Mikado) and the Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe); his successor, Henry Lytton, also created roles in musical comedies, such as The Rose of Persia (1899). In Paris, the Théâtre des Variétés company included a number of baritones. Eugène Grenier and Henri Couder sang in the premières of Offenbach's La belle Hélène (1864), Barbe-bleue (1866) and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867). At the Opéra-Comique, the lyric baritone Alexandre Taskin sang from 1878 to 1894, creating the three villains of Les contes d'Hoffman (1881) and also Lescaut in Massenet's Manon (1884).
The early 20th century witnessed an outpouring of new baritone roles in French, Italian and German opera. At the Opéra-Comique in 1902, the two baritones in the première of Pelléas et Mélisande were of dissimilar types, Jean Périer (Pelleas) a typical ‘baryton Martin’ with a comparatively light, high-lying voice, the Belgian Hector Dufranne (Golaud), heavier though still lyrical. In the same year, the baritone Giuseppe De Luca created Michonnet (Adriana Lecouvreur) at the Teatro Lirico in Milan; he also sang Sharpless (Madama Butterfly, 1904). His repertory ranged from Figaro (Mozart and Rossini) to Rigoletto. Among his contemporaries were Mario Sammarco, a vital singer and actor who created Gérard (Andrea Chénier, 1896) and whose roles included Sachs, and Titta Ruffo, a powerful, high baritone, often compared with Caruso, who sang a wide range of other parts including Italian, French and Russian repertory. Strauss's baritone roles began with Kunrad (Feuersnot), sung at the Dresden première by Karl Scheidemantel, who also created Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier (1911) and sang Amfortas (Parsifal) and Hans Sachs at Bayreuth. Karl Perron, the bass-baritone who created John the Baptist (Salome, 1905), Orestes (Elektra, 1909) and Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier), sang Amfortas and Wotan at Bayreuth as well as King Mark and Daland, more usually bass roles. Anton van Rooy, Stockhausen's most famous student, sang in the American première of Parsifal (1903) and took all Wagner's leading bass-baritone roles at Bayreuth; he was also a fine lieder singer. The title role of Wozzeck was created by Leo Schützendorf, a bass-baritone whose roles also included Ochs, Boris Godunov, Beckmesser, Faninal and Gounod's Mephistopheles; he was one of four brothers, all professional basses or baritones.
Mid-20th-century Wagner baritones include Friedrich Schorr and Rudolf Bockelmann, both especially admired in their performances of Wotan and Sachs between the wars. Hans Hotter, in a career lasting over 60 years, began as a high baritone and progressed through bass-baritone to bass; he created the Comandant in Strauss's Friedenstag (1938) and Olivier in Capriccio (1942) and during the 1950s became the leading Wagner bass-baritone, unrivalled as Wotan, Kurwenal, Amfortas, Sachs and the Dutchman, and was also a fine singer of lieder. Paul Schöffler began his career, like Hotter, as a lyric baritone before progressing to heavier bass-baritone roles.
An outstanding Verdi baritone was Mariano Stabile, chosen by Toscanini to sing Falstaff at La Scala (1921–2); he also sang the role at Covent Garden, as well as Iago, Rigoletto and Scarpia, and appeared at Glyndebourne. His mantle descended in certain respects on Tito Gobbi, a magnificent comic actor as well as a powerful tragedian. The first Italian Wozzeck, Gobbi had over 100 roles in his repertory, but excelled in Verdi and Puccini; his Posa, Iago, Macbeth, Boccanegra and Falstaff were notable for their dramatic effectiveness, while as Scarpia, opposite Callas's Tosca, he was unrivalled. Noted Verdi interpreters include three distinguished Americans, Lawrence Tibbett, Leonard Warren and Robert Merrill. Tibbett, a powerful actor, also created roles in several American operas; Warren, larger and more lustrous in voice, concentrated on Verdi, singing Rigoletto, Iago, Amonasro, Luna, Macbeth and Boccanegra; and Merrill, a lyric baritone, was outstanding as Germont (La traviata) with a secure technique that enabled him also to sing Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.
Geraint Evans, the Welsh baritone who often sang Figaro and Leporello to Gobbi's Count and Don Giovanni, became an excellent Falstaff, a role he first sang at Glyndebourne; he created Mr Flint (Billy Budd, 1951) and Mountjoy (Gloriana, 1953) and also sang Britten's Balstrode, Bottom and Claggart, though his finest 20th-century role was Wozzeck. His natural successor, in the 1990s, was Bryn Terfel, a rich-toned Welsh baritone outstanding in both buffo and heroic roles.
Sherril Milnes, the American baritone who succeeded to the Verdi roles once sung by his compatriots Tibbett, Warren and Merrill, was also successful in such French roles as Thomas's Hamlet, Alphonse XI (La favorite) and Saint-Saëns’s Henry VIII.
In the 1970s and 80s Piero Cappuccilli was regarded as the leading Italian Verdi baritone; other Italians eminent in the Verdi and Donizetti repertories have included Giuseppe Taddei and Renato Bruson. In Britain, Thomas Allen became the most versatile baritone of his generation, especially noted for his Mozart roles (above all Don Giovanni), his accomplishment in Verdi and French music, his sombre Onegin and his stirring Billy Budd. The opening up of central eastern Europe and the former USSR revealed a formidable number of talented Verdi baritones, including Vladimir Chernov.
French operatic roles have been stylishly sung by the Australian John Brownlee, especially Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande, and, more recently, by Russian-born Sergey Leiferkus, whose roles include Escamillo and Zurga (Les pêcheurs de perles). An outstanding French lyric baritone was Gérard Souzay, whose French operatic roles ranged from Lully to Poulenc and Ravel; his signature role was Golaud. Souzay's mellifluous voice and subtle musicianship made him also a great singer of French song and German lieder. Other lyric baritones who have excelled in the song repertory include Pierre Bernac, Souzay's teacher, who formed a duo with Poulenc and gave first performances of many of Poulenc's songs.
Important lieder singers from early in the century include the German baritones Heinrich Schlusnus, also well known as a Verdi interpreter, Gerhard Hüsch (admired in such roles as Papageno, Wolfram and Falke) and Herbert Janssen, also a noted Wagnerian.
Two great lieder singers active after World War II were the German baritones Hermann Prey and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Prey, admired in Mozart, sang in a wide range of opera, including works by Verdi, Strauss and Wagner. Fischer-Dieskau, regarded as the most subtle, refined and expressive lieder singer of his era, sang similar operatic roles, but also made the creation of new roles a speciality: Mittenhofer in Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers (1961) and the title role of Reimann's Lear (1978) were both composed for him. Younger German and Austrian lieder singers include Olaf Bär, Matthias Goerne, Wolfgang Holzman and Stephan Genz.
The warm, relaxed sound of the lyric baritone has continued to make it the most sought-after voice in operetta, musical comedy and popular music. Nelson Eddy, along with soprano Jeanette McDonald, starred in a long series of filmed operetta, including Rose-Marie, Naughty Marietta and The Chocolate Soldier. Two of the great baritones of musical comedy were Alfred Drake (Kismet, Kiss me Kate and Oklahoma) and Robert Goulet (notable as Lancelot in Camelot). In popular music and ballads, baritones dominate the field: such singers as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat ‘King’ Cole, John Raitt and Harry Belafonte indicate the richness of this tradition.
J.-B. Faure: La voix et le chant: traité pratique (Paris, 1866)
M. Kunath: ‘Die Charakterologie der stimmlichen Einheiten in der Oper’, ZMw, viii (1925–6), 403
R. Celletti: ‘La voce di baritono’, Musica d'oggi, new ser., iii (1960), 452
H. Matheopoulos: Bravo: Today's Great Tenors, Baritones and Basses Discuss their Roles (London, 1986)
R.M. Knight: The Development of the Baritone Voice in Operas of Selected Composers from 1750–1830 (DMA diss., Northwestern U., 1988)
J.B. Steane: Voices: Singers and Critics (London, 1992)
G. and R. Edwards: The Verdi Baritone: Studies in the Development of Dramatic Character (Bloomington, IN, 1994)
J.B. Steane: Singers of the Century (London, 1996)