There are three basic categories of operatic singing voices: high, medium, and low. For women, these categories, starting from the top, are soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto. (Mezzo means “middle,” in Italian.) For men, they’re tenor, baritone, and bass. Voice type, though, isn’t just a matter of high and low. It has to do with the range in which the voice is strongest and the singer most comfortable, and with the quality of the voice. There are basses, for example, who can physically reach some of the high notes in “tenor range,” but even when they do, they don’t sound anything like true tenors. Within the basic voice categories there are various sub-categories and specific classifications, mainly used in the world of opera to define what kinds of roles a singer can or should sing. Not surprisingly, voice type in opera is often linked with character: lighter and higher voices with youth, innocence, and gaiety; heavier and lower voices with age, wisdom, and evil. It goes without saying that no voice type in opera has a monopoly on sex and death. “Heldentenor,” for example, is German for heroic tenor, and is usually reserved for tenors who sing the lead roles in certain Wagner operas, and whose heroic task is to make themselves heard over huge orchestras for hours at a time without dying before they’re supposed to.
A Minute with Miles – a production of South Carolina ETV Radio, made possible by the J.M. Smith Corporation.
Miles Hoffman is the founder and violist of the American Chamber Players, with whom he regularly tours the United States, and the Virginia I. Norman Distinguished Visiting Professor of Chamber Music at the Schwob School of Music, in Columbus, Georgia. He has appeared as viola soloist with orchestras across the country, and his solo performances on YouTube have received well over 700,000 views.