Bass-baritone

(Ger. Bassbariton, Hoher Bass).

A male voice combining the compass and attributes of the bass and the baritone (see Bass (ii) and Baritone (i)). The term follows the German Bassbariton, and the voice itself is particularly associated with the German 19th-century upward development of the bass range. Wagner called the bass-baritone ‘Hoher Bass’ and first used the term to designate the roles of Wotan, Alberich, Donner and Fasolt in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. These, as well as Hans Sachs (Die Meistersinger) and the Dutchman, require a powerful upper register for phrases in the baritone range e to f', but also numerous phrases in the range A to a requiring the resonance of a bass. The special attribute of this voice type, however, lies less in its range than in the full and powerful sound required at the extremes of the tessitura. Basses with even wider ranges are well known from much earlier periods (for example, John Gostling and Antonio Montagnana), but these used falsetto in the highest registers. Although associated primarily with Wagnerian and later roles, earlier operatic precedents with similar demands include Mozart’s Figaro and Don Giovanni, Pizarro in Fidelio and Caspar in Der Freischütz. Another bass-baritone part is that of Elijah in Mendelssohn’s oratorio.

OWEN JANDER/ELLEN T. HARRIS