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68-693: Johann Baptist Hoffmann (9 July 1863 – 5 July 1937) was a German operatic baritone and voice teacher . A long-term member of the Berlin Court Opera , he performed leading roles in Europe, such as Verdi's Rigoletto and Wagner's Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer . He took part in several world premieres in Berlin. Born in Garitz  [ de ] , now part of Bad Kissingen , Hoffmann

136-564: A Dramatic Baritone with greater ease in the upper tessitura (Verdi Baritone roles center approximately a minor third higher). Because the Verdi Baritone is sometimes seen as a subset of the Dramatic Baritone, some singers perform roles from both sets of repertoire. Similarly, the lower tessitura of these roles allows them frequently to be sung by bass-baritones. Dramatic baritone roles in opera: The baryton-noble baritone

204-650: A Wagner specialist, sang John when the opera reached the Met in 1907). Then, in 1925, Germany's Leo Schützendorf created the title baritone role in Alban Berg 's harrowing Wozzeck . In a separate development, the French composer Claude Debussy 's post-Wagnerian masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande featured not one but two lead baritones at its 1902 premiere. These two baritones, Jean Périer and Hector Dufranne , possessed contrasting voices. (Dufranne – sometimes classed as

272-512: A bass-baritone – had a darker, more powerful instrument than did Périer, who was a true baryton-Martin.) Characteristic of the Wagnerian baritones of the 20th century was a general progression of individual singers from higher-lying baritone parts to lower-pitched ones. This was the case with Germany's Hans Hotter . Hotter made his debut in 1929. As a young singer he appeared in Verdi and created

340-508: A career lasting from 1935 to 1966, the Bolshoi 's Pavel Lisitsian . Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Sergei Leiferkus are two Russian baritones of the modern era who appear regularly in the West. Like Lisitsian, they sing Verdi and the works of their native composers, including Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades . In the realm of French song, the bass-baritone José van Dam and

408-418: A distinguished, brighter-voiced Wagnerian rival during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s in the person of Thomas Stewart of America. Other notable post-War Wagnerian baritones have been Canada's George London , Germany's Hermann Uhde and, more recently, America's James Morris . Among the late-20th-century baritones noted throughout the opera world for their Verdi performances was Vladimir Chernov , who emerged from

476-643: A few years they were able to run a "Jewish Private Music School Hollaender" until they were deported and murdered in 1941. In 1945, the school was again renamed as the Städtisches Konservatorium (City Conservatory) in what was to become West Berlin . In 1966 it was merged with the public Akademische Hochschule für Musik into the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Berlin State School of Music and

544-563: A lyric baritone and with a darker quality. Its common range is from the G half an octave below low C to the G above middle C (G 2 to G 4 ). The dramatic baritone category corresponds roughly to the Heldenbariton in the German Fach system except that some Verdi baritone roles are not included. The primo passaggio and secondo passaggio of both the Verdi and dramatic baritone are at B ♭ and E ♭ respectively, hence

612-495: A small but precious legacy of benchmark Handel recordings during the 1920s and 1930s. (Dawson, incidentally, acquired his outstanding Handelian technique from Sir Charles Santley.) Yet another Australian baritone of distinction between the wars was Harold Williams , who was based in the United Kingdom. Important British-born baritones of the 1930s and 1940s were Dennis Noble , who sang Italian and English operatic roles, and

680-428: A subset of the Dramatic Baritone. Its common range is from the G below low C to the B ♭ above middle C (G 2 to B ♭ 4 ). A Verdi baritone refers to a voice capable of singing consistently and with ease in the highest part of the baritone range. It will generally have a lot of squillo . Verdi baritone roles in opera: The dramatic baritone is a voice that is richer, fuller, and sometimes harsher than

748-409: A tenor. Baryton-Martin roles in opera: The lyric baritone is a sweeter, milder sounding baritone voice, lacking in harshness; lighter and perhaps mellower than the dramatic baritone with a higher tessitura . Its common range is from the A below C 3 to the G above middle C (A 2 to G 4 ). It is typically assigned to comic roles. Lyric baritone roles in opera: The Kavalierbariton baritone

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816-548: A younger generation include Olaf Bär , Matthias Goerne , Wolfgang Holzmair and Johannes Sterkel (which are also performing or have performed regularly in opera), Thomas Quasthoff , Stephan Genz  [ de ] and Christian Gerhaher . Well-known non-Germanic baritones of recent times have included the Italians Giorgio Zancanaro and Leo Nucci , the Frenchman François le Roux ,

884-714: Is French for "noble baritone" and describes a part that requires a noble bearing, smooth vocalisation and forceful declamation, all in perfect balance. This category originated in the Paris Opera , but it greatly influenced Verdi (Don Carlo in Ernani and La forza del destino ; Count Luna in Il trovatore ; Simon Boccanegra ) and Wagner as well ( Wotan ; Amfortas ). Similar to the Kavalierbariton. Baryton-noble roles in opera are: The bass-baritone range extends from

952-422: Is a metallic voice that can sing both lyric and dramatic phrases, a manly, noble baritonal color. Its common range is from the A below low C to the G above middle C (A 2 to G 4 ). Not quite as powerful as the Verdi baritone who is expected to have a powerful appearance on stage, perhaps muscular or physically large. Kavalierbariton roles in opera: The Verdi baritone is a more specialized voice category and

1020-639: Is now part of Berlin University of the Arts . It was founded in 1850 as the Berliner Musikschule by Julius Stern , Theodor Kullak and Adolf Bernhard Marx . Kullak withdrew from the conservatory in 1855 in order to create a new academy of sculpture and three-dimensional art. With Marx's withdrawal in 1856, the conservatory came exclusively under the Stern family and adopted its name. In 1894 it

1088-404: Is often called the first true baritone role. However, Donizetti and Verdi in their vocal writing went on to emphasize the top fifth of the baritone voice, rather than its lower notes—thus generating a more brilliant sound. Further pathways opened up when the musically complex and physically demanding operas of Richard Wagner began to enter the mainstream repertory of the world's opera houses during

1156-601: The Bayreuth Festival in the 1890s; Giuseppe Campanari ; Antonio Magini-Coletti ; Mario Ancona (chosen to be the first Silvio in Pagliacci ); and Antonio Scotti , who came to the Met from Europe in 1899 and remained on the roster of singers until 1933. Antonio Pini-Corsi was the standout Italian buffo baritone in the period between about 1880 and World War I , reveling in comic opera roles by Rossini, Donizetti and Paer , among others. In 1893, he created

1224-825: The Berlin Court Opera and soon afterwards as Lysiart in Weber's Euryanthe . The audience regarded him as a successor of Franz Betz , the first Wotan at the Bayreuth Festival . In 1897, Hoffmann almost moved to the Vienna Court Opera with Gustav Mahler , Kapellmeister at the Hamburg Opera, but instead moved to the Berlin Court Opera as first baritone, and he remained there until 1919. He took part in several world premieres there, including Chabrier's Briséïs (in German) in 1899, Lortzing's Regina

1292-441: The fifth above the bass root) and to complete a chord. On the other hand, the baritone will occasionally find himself harmonizing above the melody, which calls for a tenor-like quality. Because the baritone fills the chord, the part is often not very melodic. Stern Conservatory The Stern Conservatory ( Stern'sches Konservatorium ) was a private music school in Berlin with many distinguished tutors and alumni. The school

1360-594: The gramophone was invented early enough to capture on disc the voices of the top Italian Verdi and Donizetti baritones of the last two decades of the 19th century, whose operatic performances were characterized by considerable re-creative freedom and a high degree of technical finish. They included Mattia Battistini (known as the "King of Baritones"), Giuseppe Kaschmann (born Josip Kašman ) who, atypically, sang Wagner's Telramund and Amfortas not in Italian but in German, at

1428-567: The 19th century although, generally speaking, his operas were not revered to the same extent that they are today by music critics and audiences. Back then, baritones rather than high basses normally sang Don Giovanni – arguably Mozart's greatest male operatic creation. Famous Dons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries included Scotti and Maurel, as well as Portugal's Francisco D'Andrade and Sweden's John Forsell . The verismo baritone, Verdi baritone, and other subtypes are mentioned below, though not necessarily in 19th-century context. The dawn of

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1496-939: The 20th century opened up more opportunities for baritones than ever before as a taste for strenuously exciting vocalism and lurid, "slice-of-life" operatic plots took hold in Italy and spread elsewhere. The most prominent verismo baritones included such major singers in Europe and America as the polished Giuseppe De Luca (the first Sharpless in Madama Butterfly ), Mario Sammarco (the first Gerard in Andrea Chénier ), Eugenio Giraldoni (the first Scarpia in Tosca ), Pasquale Amato (the first Rance in La fanciulla del West ), Riccardo Stracciari (noted for his richly attractive timbre ) and Domenico Viglione Borghese , whose voice

1564-575: The American-born but also Paris-based baritone of the 1920s, and 1930s Arthur Endreze . Also to be found singing Verdi roles at the Met, Covent Garden and the Vienna Opera during the late 1930s and the 1940s was the big-voiced Hungarian baritone, Sandor (Alexander) Sved . The leading Verdi baritones of the 1970s and 1980s were probably Italy's Renato Bruson and Piero Cappuccilli , America's Sherrill Milnes , Sweden's Ingvar Wixell and

1632-577: The Canadians Gerald Finley and James Westman and the versatile American Thomas Hampson , his compatriot Nathan Gunn and the Englishman Simon Keenlyside . The vocal range of the baritone lies between the bass and the tenor voice types . The baritone vocal range is usually between the second G below middle C (G 2 ) and the G above middle C (G 4 ). Composers typically write music for this voice in

1700-684: The Commandant in Richard Strauss's Friedenstag and Olivier in Capriccio . By the 1950s, however, he was being hailed as the top Wagnerian bass-baritone in the world. His Wotan was especially praised by critics for its musicianship. Other major Wagnerian baritones have included Hotter's predecessors Leopold Demuth , Anton van Rooy, Hermann Weil , Clarence Whitehill , Friedrich Schorr , Rudolf Bockelmann and Hans-Hermann Nissen . Demuth, van Rooy, Weil and Whitehill were at their peak in

1768-413: The F below low C to the F or F ♯ above middle C (F 2 to F 4 or F ♯ 4 ). Bass-baritones are typically divided into two separate categories: lyric bass-baritone and dramatic bass-baritone. Lyric bass-baritone roles in opera include: Dramatic bass-baritone roles in opera include: All of Gilbert and Sullivan 's Savoy operas have at least one lead baritone character (frequently

1836-466: The London production in 1864 so that the leading baritone would have an aria. A couple of primitive cylinder recordings dating from about 1900 have been attributed by collectors to the dominant French baritone of the 1860s and 1870s, Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914), the creator of Posa in Verdi's original French-language version of Don Carlos . It is doubtful, however, that Faure (who retired in 1886) made

1904-557: The Minstrel in the German premiere of Humperdinck's opera Königskinder after Humperdinck had insisted on casting the role with Hoffmann. He extended his engagement to 1915 and again to 1919. He created roles in several world premieres in Berlin. After the end of his stage career in 1919, Hoffmann began to train young singers. In 1928, he was appointed teacher at the Stern Conservatory . Hoffmann's last public appearance

1972-476: The Mozartian Roy Henderson . Both appeared often at Covent Garden. Prior to World War II, Germany's Heinrich Schlusnus, Gerhard Hüsch and Herbert Janssen were celebrated for their beautifully sung lieder recitals as well as for their mellifluous operatic performances in Verdi, Mozart, and Wagner respectively. After the war's conclusion, Hermann Prey and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau appeared on

2040-879: The Priest of Dagon in Samson and Delilah , Escamillo in Carmen , Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles , Lescaut in Manon , Athanael in Thaïs and Herod in Hérodiade . Russian composers included substantial baritone parts in their operas. Witness the title roles in Peter Tchaikovsky 's Eugene Onegin (which received its first production in 1879) and Alexander Borodin 's Prince Igor (1890). Mozart continued to be sung throughout

2108-486: The Romanian baritone Nicolae Herlea . At the same time, Britain's Sir Thomas Allen was considered to be the most versatile baritone of his generation in regards to repertoire, which ranged from Mozart to Verdi and lighter Wagner roles, through French and Russian opera, to modern English music. Another British baritone, Norman Bailey , established himself internationally as a memorable Wotan and Hans Sachs. However, he had

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2176-744: The Spanish-speaking countries, the United States and the United Kingdom, and in Germany, where there was a major Verdi revival in Berlin between the wars. Outside the field of Italian opera, an important addition to the Austro-German repertory occurred in 1905. This was the premiere of Richard Strauss 's Salome , with the pivotal part of John the Baptist assigned to a baritone. (The enormous-voiced Dutch baritone Anton van Rooy ,

2244-412: The bass-baritone. The baryton-Martin baritone (sometimes referred to as light baritone) lacks the lower G 2 –B 2 range a heavier baritone is capable of, and has a lighter, almost tenor-like quality. Its common range is from C 3 to the B above middle C (C 3 to B 4 ). Generally seen only in French repertoire, this Fach was named after the French singer Jean-Blaise Martin . Associated with

2312-473: The beginning of the 19th century till the mid 1820s, the terms primo basso , basse chantante , and basse-taille were often used for men who would later be called baritones. These included the likes of Filippo Galli , Giovanni Inchindi , and Henri-Bernard Dabadie . The basse-taille and the proper bass were commonly confused because their roles were sometimes sung by singers of either actual voice part. The bel canto style of vocalism which arose in Italy in

2380-419: The best known Italian Verdi baritones of the 1920s and 1930s, Mariano Stabile , sang Iago and Rigoletto and Falstaff (at La Scala ) under the baton of Arturo Toscanini . Stabile also appeared in London, Chicago and Salzburg. He was noted more for his histrionic skills than for his voice, however. Stabile was followed by Tito Gobbi , a versatile singing actor capable of vivid comic and tragic performances during

2448-433: The comic principal). Notable operetta roles are: In barbershop music , the baritone part sings in a similar range to the lead (singing the melody) however usually singing lower than the lead. A barbershop baritone has a specific and specialized role in the formation of the four-part harmony that characterizes the style. The baritone singer is often the one required to support or "fill" the bass sound (typically by singing

2516-461: The cylinders. However, a contemporary of Faure's, Antonio Cotogni, (1831–1918)—probably the foremost Italian baritone of his generation—can be heard, briefly and dimly, at the age of 77, on a duet recording with the tenor Francesco Marconi . (Cotogni and Marconi had sung together in the first London performance of Amilcare Ponchielli 's La Gioconda in 1883, performing the roles of Barnaba and Enzo respectively.) There are 19th-century references in

2584-453: The differentiation is based more heavily on timbre and tessitura. Accordingly, roles that fall into this category tend to have a slightly lower tessitura than typical Verdi baritone roles, only rising above an F at the moments of greatest intensity. Many of the Puccini roles fall into this category. However, it is important to note that, for all intents and purposes, a Verdi Baritone is simply

2652-691: The director of the then Deutsche Oper in New York wanted to engage Hoffmann but without success. In 1892 and 1893, Hoffmann refined his vocal skills with Julius Stockhausen in Frankfurt. He was a member of the Hamburg Opera from 1894 to 1897. From 1895, he made guest performances in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, including as Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at

2720-464: The early 19th century supplanted the castrato -dominated opera seria of the previous century. It led to the baritone being viewed as a separate voice category from the bass. Traditionally, basses in operas had been cast as authority figures such as a king or high priest; but with the advent of the more fluid baritone voice, the roles allotted by composers to lower male voices expanded in the direction of trusted companions or even romantic leads—normally

2788-722: The first Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle at Bayreuth , while Reichmann created Amfortas in Parsifal , also at Bayreuth. Lyric German baritones sang lighter Wagnerian roles such as Wolfram in Tannhäuser , Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde or Telramund in Lohengrin . They made large strides, too, in the performance of art song and oratorio, with Franz Schubert favouring several baritones for his vocal music, in particular Johann Michael Vogl . Nineteenth-century operettas became

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2856-677: The first famous American baritone appeared in the 1900s. It was the American-born but Paris-based Charles W. Clark who sang Italian, French and German composers. An outstanding group of virile-voiced American baritones appeared then in the 1920s. The younger members of this group were still active as recently as the late 1970s. Outstanding among its members were the Met-based Verdians Lawrence Tibbett (a compelling, rich-voiced singing actor), Richard Bonelli , John Charles Thomas , Robert Weede , Leonard Warren and Robert Merrill . They sang French opera, too, as did

2924-682: The first magnitude). Lassalle, Maurel and Renaud enjoyed superlative careers on either side of the Atlantic and left a valuable legacy of recordings. Five other significant Francophone baritones who recorded, too, during the early days of the gramophone/phonograph were Léon Melchissédec and Jean Noté of the Paris Opera and Gabriel Soulacroix , Henry Albers and Charles Gilibert of the Opéra-Comique. The Quaker baritone David Bispham , who sang in London and New York between 1891 and 1903,

2992-422: The former USSR to sing at the Met. Chernov followed in the footsteps of such richly endowed East European baritones as Ippolit Pryanishnikov (a favorite of Tchaikovski's), Joachim Tartakov (an Everardi pupil), Oskar Kamionsky (an exceptional bel canto singer nicknamed the "Russian Battistini"), Waclaw Brzezinski (known as the "Polish Battistini"), Georges Baklanoff (a powerful singing actor), and, during

3060-1012: The late 19th and early 20th centuries while Schorr, Bockelmann and Nissen were stars of the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to their heavyweight Wagnerian cousins, there was a plethora of baritones with more lyrical voices active in Germany and Austria during the period between the outbreak of WW1 in 1914 and the end of WW2 in 1945. Among them were Joseph Schwarz  [ de ] , Heinrich Schlusnus , Herbert Janssen , Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender , Karl Schmitt-Walter and Gerhard Hüsch . Their abundant inter-war Italian counterparts included, among others, Carlo Galeffi , Giuseppe Danise , Enrico Molinari , Umberto Urbano , Cesare Formichi , Luigi Montesanto , Apollo Granforte , Benvenuto Franci , Renato Zanelli (who switched to tenor roles in 1924), Mario Basiola , Giovanni Inghilleri , Carlo Morelli (the Chilean-born younger brother of Renato Zanelli) and Carlo Tagliabue , who retired as late as 1958. One of

3128-508: The lighter-voiced Gérard Souzay have been notable. Souzay's repertoire extended from the Baroque works of Jean-Baptiste Lully to 20th-century composers such as Francis Poulenc . Pierre Bernac , Souzay's teacher, was an interpreter of Poulenc's songs in the previous generation. Older baritones identified with this style include France's Dinh Gilly and Charles Panzéra and Australia's John Brownlee . Another Australian, Peter Dawson , made

3196-526: The musical literature to certain baritone subtypes. These include the light and tenorish baryton-Martin, named after French singer Jean-Blaise Martin (1768/69–1837), and the deeper, more powerful Heldenbariton (today's bass-baritone) of Wagnerian opera. Perhaps the most accomplished Heldenbaritons of Wagner's day were August Kindermann , Franz Betz and Theodor Reichmann . Betz created Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger and undertook Wotan in

3264-619: The non-Italian born baritones that were active in the third quarter of the 19th century, Tamburini's mantle as an outstanding exponent of Mozart and Donizetti's music was probably taken up most faithfully by a Belgian, Camille Everardi , who later settled in Russia and taught voice. In France, Paul Barroilhet succeeded Dabadie as the Paris opera's best known baritone. Like Dabadie, he also sang in Italy and created an important Donizetti role: in his case, Alphonse in La favorite (in 1840). Luckily,

3332-572: The operas and oratorios of George Frideric Handel . The greatest and most enduring parts for baritones in 18th-century operatic music were composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . They include Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro , Guglielmo in Così fan tutte , Papageno in The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni . In theatrical documents, cast lists, and journalistic dispatches that from

3400-511: The part of Ford in Verdi's last opera, Falstaff . Notable among their contemporaries were the cultured and technically adroit French baritones Jean Lassalle (hailed as the most accomplished baritone of his generation), Victor Maurel (the creator of Verdi's Iago, Falstaff and Tonio in Leoncavallo 's Pagliacci ), Paul Lhérie (the first Posa in the revised, Italian-language version of Don Carlos ), and Maurice Renaud (a singing actor of

3468-746: The preserve of lightweight baritone voices. They were given comic parts in the tradition of the previous century's comic bass by Gilbert and Sullivan in many of their productions. This did not prevent the French master of operetta, Jacques Offenbach , from assigning the villain's role in The Tales of Hoffmann to a big-voiced baritone for the sake of dramatic effect. Other 19th-century French composers like Meyerbeer, Hector Berlioz , Camille Saint-Saëns , Georges Bizet and Jules Massenet wrote attractive parts for baritones, too. These included Nelusko in L'Africaine (Meyerbeer's last opera), Mephistopheles in La damnation de Faust (a role also sung by basses),

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3536-543: The province of tenors. More often than not, however, baritones found themselves portraying villains. The principal composers of bel canto opera are considered to be: The prolific operas of these composers, plus the works of Verdi's maturity, such as Un ballo in maschera , La forza del destino , Don Carlos / Don Carlo , the revised Simon Boccanegra , Aida , Otello and Falstaff , blazed many new and rewarding performance pathways for baritones. Figaro in Il barbiere

3604-439: The range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F 2 –F 4 ) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A 2 to A 4 ) in operatic music. Within the baritone voice type category are seven generally recognized subcategories: baryton-Martin baritone (light baritone), lyric baritone, Kavalierbariton , Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, baryton-noble baritone, and

3672-525: The rise of the baritone in the 19th century, Martin was well known for his fondness for falsetto singing, and the designation 'baryton Martin' has been used (Faure, 1886) to separate his voice from the 'Verdi Baritone', which carried the chest register further into the upper range. This voice type shares the primo passaggio and secondo passaggio with the Dramatic Tenor and Heldentenor (C 4 and F 4 respectively), and hence could be trained as

3740-558: The same year, d'Albert 's Kain  [ de ] in 1900, Leoncavallo's Der Roland von Berlin in 1904, and Humperdinck's Die Heirat wider Willen  [ de ] in 1905. In 1906, he appeared as Jochanaan in the house's first production of Salome by Richard Strauss. His mother's death in 1908 plunged him into a deep life crisis. He wanted to give up singing after the end of his engagement in Berlin scheduled for 1910 but found new energy through an extended stay at Schloss Hornegg on Neckar. In November 1910, he appeared as

3808-517: The scene to take their place. In addition to his interpretations of lieder and the works of Mozart, Prey sang in Strauss operas and tackled lighter Wagner roles such as Wolfram or Beckmesser. Fischer-Dieskau sang parts in 'fringe' operas by the likes of Ferruccio Busoni and Paul Hindemith as well as appearing in standard works by Verdi and Wagner. He earned his principal renown, however, as a lieder singer. Talented German and Austrian lieder singers of

3876-561: The second half of the 19th century. The major international baritone of the first half of the 19th century was the Italian Antonio Tamburini (1800–1876). He was a famous Don Giovanni in Mozart's eponymous opera as well as being a Bellini and Donizetti specialist. Commentators praised his voice for its beauty, flexibility and smooth tonal emission, which are the hallmarks of a bel canto singer. Tamburini's range, however,

3944-463: The years of his prime in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. He learned more than 100 roles in his lifetime and was mostly known for his roles in Verdi and Puccini operas, including appearances as Scarpia opposite soprano Maria Callas as Tosca at Covent Garden . Gobbi's competitors included Gino Bechi , Giuseppe Valdengo , Paolo Silveri , Giuseppe Taddei , Ettore Bastianini , Cesare Bardelli and Giangiacomo Guelfi . Another of Gobbi's contemporaries

4012-746: Was accepted by Weinlich-Tipka in Munich. He made his operatic debut as a hunter in Kreutzer's Das Nachtlager in Granada . He got an engagement at the Graz Opera , followed by a four-year engagement at the Cologne Stadttheater from 1888, where Valentin in Gounod's Faust and the title role in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer ( The Flying Dutchman ) were among his successes. In 1890,

4080-461: Was all-encompassing and used to describe the average male choral voice. Baritones took roughly the range as it is known today at the beginning of the 18th century, but they were still lumped in with their bass colleagues until well into the 19th century. Many operatic works of the 18th century have roles marked as bass that in reality are low baritone roles (or bass-baritone parts in modern parlance). Examples of this are to be found, for instance, in

4148-399: Was awarded the rare title "Königlicher Preußischer Kammersänger " on the occasion of his 25th stage anniversary. Baritone The first use of the term "baritone" emerged as baritonans , late in the 15th century, usually in French sacred polyphonic music. At this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices (including the bass), but in 17th-century Italy the term

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4216-534: Was exceeded in size only by that of the lion-voiced Titta Ruffo . Ruffo was the most commanding Italian baritone of his era or, arguably, any other era. He was at his prime from the early 1900s to the early 1920s and enjoyed success in Italy, England and America (in Chicago and later at the Met). The chief verismo composers were Giacomo Puccini , Ruggero Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni , Alberto Franchetti , Umberto Giordano and Francesco Cilea . Verdi's works continued to remain popular, however, with audiences in Italy,

4284-476: Was part of a charity event in Bad Kissingen. On 5 July 1937, Hoffmann died of a heart attack there. His grave is at the Kapellenfriedhof  [ de ] . The archive of the Berlin College of Music contains vocal recordings by Hoffmann. In 1995, a CD with Hoffmann's role as mayor in Leoncavallo's Der Roland von Berlin was published by Diji-Rom, New York. Hoffmann's total of 103 roles, which covered both lyrical and heroic opera, included: In 1913, Hoffmann

4352-488: Was probably closer to that of a bass-baritone than to that of a modern "Verdi baritone". His French equivalent was Henri-Bernard Dabadie, who was a mainstay of the Paris Opera between 1819 and 1836 and the creator of several major Rossinian baritone roles, including Guillaume Tell . Dabadie sang in Italy, too, where he originated the role of Belcore in L'elisir d'amore in 1832. The most important of Tamburini's Italianate successors were all Verdians. They included: Among

4420-429: Was taken over by Gustav Hollaender (the uncle of film composer Friedrich Hollaender ), who moved the school's location to the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall on Bernburger Strasse in Berlin- Kreuzberg . In the course of the Gleichschaltung process, the Stern Academy in 1936 was renamed Konservatorium der Reichshauptstadt Berlin controlled by the Nazi regime . Gustav Hollaender 's heirs were disseized, but for

4488-439: Was the Welshman Geraint Evans , who famously sang Falstaff at Glyndebourne and created the roles of Mr. Flint and Mountjoy in works by Benjamin Britten . Some considered his best role to have been Wozzeck. The next significant Welsh baritone was Bryn Terfel . He made his premiere at Glyndebourne in 1990 and went on to build an international career as Falstaff and, more generally, in the operas of Mozart and Wagner. Perhaps

4556-489: Was the fifth child of Wolfgang Melchior Hoffmann (died 1880), a proprietor of a material goods shop from Ochsenfurt and part-time trombonist in the Kurorchester Bad Kissingen  [ de ] , and Margarethe Hoffmann, née Guck, a talented alto singer in the church choir. He was noticed as a boy soprano . He first worked as a salesman but decided for a singing career. August Kindermann in Munich and other singing teachers judged him unsuitable for opera singing, but he

4624-519: Was the leading American male singer of this generation. He also recorded for the gramophone. The oldest-born star baritone known for sure to have made solo gramophone discs was the Englishman Sir Charles Santley (1834–1922). Santley made his operatic debut in Italy in 1858 and became one of Covent Garden's leading singers. He was still giving critically acclaimed concerts in London in the 1890s. The composer of Faust , Charles Gounod , wrote Valentine's aria "Even bravest heart" for him at his request for

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