Voice Types

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In modern musical theatre, just as in Opera before it, certain types of roles are commonly associated with certain vocal ranges. While these vocal range cliches differ depending on the style of the show (more rock- or pop-oriented musicals lean toward tenors and alto/mezzo belters across the board), these generally seem to hold up pretty strong. Most of these associations do indeed stem from similar associations in opera, and especially in operetta, which is where American musicals developed from in the first place.

NOTE: Under notable roles, try to limit entries to roles that are generally agreed to be said voice parts. Roles with very contested ranges should be kept to a minimum.

Sopranos are almost always The Ingenue and/or Shallow Love Interest and/or Purity Personified. When they're not, they're still more often than not the romantic lead, and commonly also a Defrosting Ice Queen like Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls or Marion Paroo in The Music Man. It should be noted that this does not apply to opera wherein most female roles, of any type, are written for sopranos. Sopranos are also much rarer in rock musicals, because most rock music is not written for soprano vocalists.

Other notable soprano roles:

• Christine Daae, in both musical adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera.
  • Carlotta is a soprano too, though more of the Viking-helmet opera type.
• Johanna in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Maria from West Side Story
• Rapunzel and Cinderella in Into the Woods
• Cosette in Les Misérables
• Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music
• Rosa Bud in Drood
• Julie Jordan in Carousel
• Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
• Hope Cladwell in Urinetown
• Guido's mother in Nine
• Glinda in Wicked. Kristin Chenoweth (who originated the role) specializes in high-pitched singing with her "Cheno Notes".
• Laurey in Oklahoma!. Ado Annie can be played by one as well, but she can also be a mezzo.
• Miss Dorothy in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
• As mentioned above, Sarah in Guys and Dolls and Marian in The Music Man.

Mezzo-sopranos, being in the most common vocal register for women, come in a wide variety of types. They can be a wide range of ages, although female characters over fifty tend to be altos more often than mezzos. The majority of mezzo singing, especially nowadays, is belting, and as such mezzos are especially common in pop- or rock-oriented musicals. Just as the leads in most operas are sopranos, the secondary female characters (commonly referred to as "witches, bitches and britches (cross-dressing roles)") are generally mezzos; this is not uncommon in modern musicals, where frequently the soprano will be the main love interest, and the mezzo her best friend or rival, a la Cosette and Eponine in Les Misérables. Also referred to in many productions as a "Belt" voice, for someone who can strongly sing passages in the middle and high register in her chest voice (rather than the soprano's lighter head voice.) Elphaba from Wicked is prime example of this.

Other famous mezzo-soprano roles:

• The eponymous role in Evita
• Fantine, Madame Thenardier, and as previously mentioned, Eponine in Les Misérables
• The Baker's Wife, The Witch, Little Red (and the rest of the female cast, except for Cinderella and Rapunzel) in Into the Woods
• Florence Vassey and Svetlana Sergievsky in Chess
• Elphaba in Wicked
• Penelope Pennywise in Urinetown
• Dot/Marie in Sunday in The Park With George
• Kim and Ellen in Miss Saigon
• Carla Albanese and Lilliane la Fleur in Nine
• Mary and Gussie in Merrily We Roll Along
• The eponymous role in Drood
• Petra and Charlotte in A Little Night Music
• Lucille Frank in Parade
• Diana and Natalie in Next to Normal
• Aldonza in Man of La Mancha
• Madame Giry and Meg Giry in The Phantom of the Opera
• Both Sarah and Magda in Tanz der Vampire, though both have been played by sopranos.
• Rosemary, Hedy, Smitty and pretty much all of the girls in How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
• The girls in Rent: Mimi, Maureen, and Joanne.
• Adelaide in Guys and Dolls
• Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
• Fanny Brice in Funny Girl
• Little Sally in Urinetown
• Belle in Beauty and the Beast
• Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Altos or Contraltos are the lowest female singers commonly heard. Unlike their male counterparts the basses, however, roles for altos are a bit more common, especially in rock musicals. In more traditional pieces, altos are frequently middle-aged leading women, though some of those are mezzos as well. The only role demographic altos have a firm hold over is for women over sixty - which in most shows means grandmothers like Mme. Armfeldt in A Little Night Music or Gran in Billy Elliot. In the rare case that there is a female villain in a show, she will probably be an alto.

Other famous alto roles:

• Sally Bowles and Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret
• Mama Rose in Gypsy
• Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly! Dolly sings so low that it is often joked that the role was written for a basso profundo.
• The female cast of Passing Strange
• Luisa Contini and Sarraghina in Nine
• Ilse in Spring Awakening
• Mrs. Johnstone in Blood Brothers
• Princess Puffer in Drood
• Rebecca in Tanz der Vampire.
• In addition to Mme Armfeldt, Desiree in A Little Night Music.
• Joanne in Company
• Mrs. Meers and Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
• Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!! verges on female tenor, which is strikingly rare in any choral type but especially so in musical theater.
• Vera Charles in Mame
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: If a woman plays Pirelli and Sweeney Todd, she falls in the contralto/female tenor range.
• Madame Morrible from Wicked is a contralto, and in "Thank Goodness" gets a very low note.
• Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Counter-Tenors are men who sing in their falsetto register, allowing them to enter the rarefied pitch-sphere normally reserved for women singers. These were common in the time of the castrati, but today are quite rare outside of the Bee Gees.

Tenors are mostly good guys, and mostly leading men or ingenues. There are a couple of villainous tenors, such as Pirelli in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and John Jasper in Drood. There are also a few character tenors, such as Sancho in Man of La Mancha and Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls. Because most people's voices deepen as they age, there are few tenor roles for men over forty, although Jean Valjean from Les Misérables, one of the rangiest tenor roles in popular musical canon, is usually played by a middle-aged man.

Other famous tenor roles:

• Frederick Trumper in Chess
• Tony in West Side Story
• Quasimodo in the stage version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, even more than the original movie
• Frankie Epps, Jim Conley, Britt Craig, and generally half the cast of Parade
• Bobby Strong in Urinetown
• Roger and Angel in Rent
• The eponymous character in Pippin
• Henrik Egerman in A Little Night Music
• George(s) in Sunday in The Park With George
• In addition to Pirelli, Tobias and the Beadle in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
• Jonathan Harker in any and all musical adaptations of Dracula
• Che in Evita
• Chris, Thuy, and John in Miss Saigon
• The Padre from Man of La Mancha
• C.B. in Starlight Express. Starts off appearing to fit the male-ingenue standard, but that impression quickly, um, fades.
• Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell, unsurprisingly. Judas in JCS, surprising
• Giuseppe Zangara and the Balladeer in Assassins
• Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
• Elders Price, Cunningham, and McKinley in The Book of Mormon.

Baritones, like their female counterpart, the mezzos, come in all shapes and sizes. They are common for leading men, villains, and character parts. There are even a few ingenues, or at least roles for young men, in the baritone range, such as Arpad in She Loves Me, and Anthony in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Because it is range shared by many singers, there are many subtypes of baritone roles. Villains and leading men in heavier pieces are frequently dramatic baritones, whereas character types are comic baritones, and younger characters or characters in lighter shows are lyric baritones. Because it is the most common male vocal register, the voice can also have an "everyman" implication, and such roles are frequently baritones.

Other famous baritone roles:

• Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha
• The eponymous role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Inspector Javert and Thenardier in Les Misérables
• The eponymous role in the Yeston/Kopit version of Phantom of the Opera, whereas the Webber/Rice version's Phantom is borderline tenor/baritone
• Billy Bigelow in Carousel
• The male leads of Beauty and the Beast prove how diverse baritone roles can be (Beast, Gaston, Lumiere, Maurice, etc.)
• Ditto the the male leads of Into the Woods (The Baker, The Princes, The Narrator/Mysterious Man)
• Graf von Krolock in Tanz der Vampire is the dramatic type; Chagal in the same show is a character baritone. Krolock's son Herbert is a low tenor/high baritone in the Webber!Phantom range.
• Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof
• Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls
• Psudolous in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
• Mark from Rent, although he does break into the tenor range occasionally.
• Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime
• The Emcee in Cabaret, though this one can go all over the place.
• Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, which can also vary because Henry Higgins' lines can be spoken as easily as sung.
• Anatoly Sergievsky in Chess
• Mr. Graydon in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
• Guido Contini in Nine
• Billy Flynn in Chicago.

Basses are very rare in modern musical theatre, chiefly because there are few vocalists who have sufficient volume at those low registers. Because of the unique qualities of the sound, most bass roles are villains and/or authority figures, and in either case older men. The most notable exceptions to this are Emile de Becque of South Pacific, who is the romantic lead (though still middle-aged), and Joe of Show Boat, who is the wise old black man. Otherwise, bass roles are few and far between, and it is more likely to find bass soloists from the ensemble rather than bass leads. Basso Profundo is when someone has a very low voice even when compared to other basses.

Other famous bass roles:

• Officer Lockstock in Urinetown
• Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Caiaphas in Jesus Christ Superstar
• Leon Czolgosz and the Proprietor in Assassins
• Michael in I Do! I Do!
• The Innkeeper in Man of La Mancha
• Alexander Molokov (arguable bass-baritone) and Walter de Courcey in Chess
• Mack Sennett in Mack And Mabel
• The Boatman from Sunday in The Park With George

There are many who also use the term bass-baritone to describe a vocalist with a firm, resonant bass who can sing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Several of the roles listed above, such as Sweeney Todd, are frequently categorized as such. The phrase baritenor has come into less formal use to describe the high baritone roles that are increasingly common in modern musical theatre, such as Marius and Enjolras in Les Misérables, Bobby in Company, or The Phantom and Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera.

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Usage outside standard musical theatre

• The opera sequence from Final Fantasy VI features two male characters: the heroic tenor Draco and the villainous bass Prince Ralse.
• The four basic voices (sop, alt, ten, bas) are also used to organize and classify singers in just about any genre where singing happens, but rarely involve any personality associations ("How many tenors does it take to change a lightbulb" jokes notwithstanding). Also, this organization only matters when multiple singers will be singing at once; the tenor/bass division is important in a Boy Band, for instance, but Britney Spears' voice part is irrelevant beacuse she's a solo act.
• The characters in The Decemberists album The Hazards of Love have voice types that match up very well to their roles in the story. Of the female parts, Margaret (Becky Stark), the sweet Love Interest, is a soprano; the villainous Queen (Shara Worden) has a much deeper alto. The parts of William and the Rake are both sung by Colin Meloy, but he tends to sing heroic William's parts higher than the Rake (most evident in "The Rake's Song," where Meloy's voice takes on a much rougher aspect than is featured in the rest of the album).
• The song "Alto's Lament" is about an alto lamenting the fact that she always gets stuck singing the harmony in big, show-stopping musical numbers instead of the livelier and much more recognizable melody.