Question Regarding Matt Doyle's vocal fach.

[ocyne12]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 10:14pm

Okay, so, I am a lyric baritone, and I've gone on a mission to find broadway lyric baritones who are singing as tenors. So far, I've found Jay Armstrong Johnson, but Matt Doyle interests me, because he seems to tick all the boxes for a lyric baritone.

CLEARING UP MISCONCEPTION:

Baritone does not mean super deep voice manly man, and tenor does not mean Andrew Rannells high voiced man. Voice type is solely based on the passagio, which are the notes in which you bridge from your chest voice to your mixed voice and from your mixed voice to your head voice. Speaking voice, timbre, and tessitura are aspects that bridge from that, not be-all end-all factors. Baritones can have bright, warm timbres (Bobby Conte Thornton, according to multiple sources) or deep voices (Norm Lewis). 

I repeat, deep voice does not equal baritone, and bright voice does not equal tenor.

Now that that's out of the way, lyric baritones are known for their sweet, romantic sound, as well as posessing a bright, husky edge to their voice.

Lyric baritones begin mixing at around B below middle C and bridge into their head voice at around an E.

Now, my case is:

Matt mostly sings roles meant for spritely, young-sounding lyric baritones ( Anthony from Sweeney, Melchior) and the highest roles he's ever sung are Elder Price and Tony from WSS.

Also, a lot of his life performances, to my ear at least, have his head and mixed voice start exactly on B3 and E4, just as a lyric baritone would. 

Now, Tony is a pretty low tenor, and Matt still skips over the sustained Bb in Maria, and i've heard lyric baritones with great head voice control tackle it before beautifully. Elder Price makes things complicated, but it is suspicious that, according to people I know who saw the show, he was very headvoicey and didn't sound as vocally healthy singing the part as tenors do, like Andrew Rannells and Kyle Selig.

So, I personally think Matt is a bright, tenor-sounding lyric baritone with uncanny control over his headvoice, to the point of being able to sing tenor roles.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinions on the matter.

[John Adams]

Posted: 7/23/18 at 12:18am

ocyne12 said: "CLEARING UP MISCONCEPTION:
Baritone does not mean super deep voice manly man, and tenor does not mean Andrew Rannells high voiced man. [...]
I repeat, deep voice does not equal baritone, and bright voice does not equal tenor."

It's only a misconception if people thought it was true. I think it's a misconception that you feel those definitions are generally accepted.

Fach is a system that was developed for categorizing singers in the Opera world. Until (somewhat) recently, Opera singers have not been noted for their acting skills, and even age has not been as important in casting a role as it is in musical theater. It's the voice itself that portrays the character. In Opera, a 50-year-old can sing the role of a 20 year old if his/her voice is still vibrant.

Also in Opera, it's perfectly acceptable for the singer to simply stand and sing an aria. The voice itself (in conjunction with what the composer wrote) carries the emotion and the character. You (most times) won't find an opera singer pulling a "Jennifer Holiday" - reaching across the footlights, bug-eyed, pleading to "Looooooove meeeee!"

The Fach system doesn't hold much importance in musical theater, though. In musical theater, actors can actually... act. For me, that makes the Fach system (in reference to musical theater actors) irrelevant. For example: What Fach would you consider Rex Harrison to be? or Yul Brynner? or even Carol Channing? All are famous for their iconic musical theater roles, but is it really worthwhile to hyperdefine their singing voices as mezzo-, coloratura-, lyric-, -profundo, etc.?

Unlike the operatic world, musical theater roles don't have to rely on the singers' Fach to successfully portray a role. 

IMO, the only time the Fach system brings value to the musical theater world is when a role calls for a countertenor (i.e., Mary Sunshine in Chicago or the Eunichs in The Visit). Just my opinion.

Updated On: 7/23/18 at 12:18 AM