Contralto – The mother… The color The range The terrible practice of Castrates The roles The types Contralto The Contralto is the lowest of the female voices. It is also quite rare. While you can train a voice to reach high notes by exercising and learning correct breathing, you cannot really do very much to … Read more
Soprano – The Victim… The color The range The types Soprano The Soprano is the highest of the female voices. It is also the most common. And maybe that’s the reason why there are so many subcategories… First, there are the usual Lyric, Dramatic, and Coloratura. For some reason, the vocal schools felt it necessary … Read more
Bass – The adversary The color The range The roles The types Bass The Bass is the lowest of the male voices. And it’s the lowest human voice, full stop. In Russia, in the Christian Orthodox church, there is a very long tradition of so-called Oktavists. These are extremely low voices that can sing a … Read more
Baritone – The King… The color The range The roles The types Baritone The Baritone is the middle voice in the male voice family. It is also by far the most common of the voices in our society, be it trained or not. In fact, it is the normal male speaking voice. It is slightly … Read more
Tenor – The lover… The birth of the high C. The color. The range. The roles. The types. Tenor In this article, I do not cover the highest male voice of them all… The countertenor. The Tenor is the highest of the male voices (OK, second to the Countertenor). In many popular operas from the … Read more
Mezzo-soprano – The wicked… The color The range The roles The types Mezzo-soprano The Mezzo-soprano is the middle voice in the female voice family. The word mezzo is Italian and means half. So, a half soprano which sits between the soprano and the contralto. Much like the middle male voice, Baritone, it is a late … Read more