Question about Baritones & Tenors

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/19/05 at 1:10am

I'm a hopefully Broadway star someday and was just wondering how far you're range has to be able to be a leading man. As of right now i'm considered a Bar-a-tenor. A mixture b/w the two. As of right now i'm singing the song: "What is it About her?" from the Wild party and i can hit the notes. Just wondering. I just want to make sure my range is good enough so that way i won't be highly disappointed. Thanks.

[bbroadwaybb]

Posted: 2/19/05 at 1:35am

It depends on the role. There is no specific range for Leading Man. If you sing the A flats in "What Is It About Her?" with ease, then you're on your way. I would say you're safest if you develop your voice to at least a comfortable Bb, because often songs ask for that nowadays.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 2/19/05 at 2:18am

the terms refer to color/quality and not range. what is it about her, as sung by brian d'arcy james is baritone. most leading male parts nowadays will easily go up to a b flat. some higher, some lower. but all-in-all you should just develop as large a range as possible and learn to use it properly. also the ability to change your voice quality is extremely useful in order to go for a varying amount of parts.

[phantom_tenor]

Posted: 2/19/05 at 6:00am

natural placement of the voice is what baritones and tenors are all about. Some baritones have been known to hit high Cs and still not be classed as tenors.

Range really isn't all that relevant.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 2/19/05 at 9:54am

p_t... exactly my point. maybe you can help me out trying to convince people of this over on the favorite broadway baritone's thread. i keep saying. it's all color and quality. never range.

[Jon]

Posted: 2/19/05 at 12:56pm

As far as range is concerned, if you can hit an A flat in full voice, your good to go for about 90% of the male roles in the American musical comedy repertoire.

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 2/19/05 at 1:20pm

Jon is right. Maybe 1% of musical theatre male roles go up to a Bb or higher. ALmost all male musical theatre "money notes" are G, Ab, and OCCASIONALLY the high A. But, as the opera world contests, in order to comfortably sing an A, you have to have a half-step to a step above it, so a Bb would be a good thing to aim for. But don't kill yourself trying to crank it out. Leave that to us tenors.

apdarcey and p_t are also correct. Pablo Elvira could comfortably hit a high C whenever he wanted, but he never had to because he was always classified as a baritone, albeit a LYRIC one. I was classified as a baritone for a really long time just because I could hit a low E and my voice had a mellow timbre. But, the fact that I can sing a high D sort of clinches the tenor aspect. So now they call me a "dramatic tenor" - high voice+dark timbre.

I would say that classic "leading men" roles are most of the time high baritone. That's just what the golden age composers wrote. More modern composers have been making tenors their leads. If you're a bari-tenor, try to have from low G to high Ab and you'll be gold. Break a leg!