# Heldenbaritone

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{{Short description|Type of opera singer's voice}}
A '''Heldenbaritone''', also known as '''dramatic bass-baritone''' or '''hoher bass (high bass)''', is a [voice type](/source/voice_type) in [German opera](/source/German_opera), a specific dramatic [baritone](/source/baritone).<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGinnis |first1=Pearl Yeadon |title=The Opera Singer's Career Guide: Understanding the European Fach System |date=2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=39 |isbn=978-0-8108-6916-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lgjl9xrWwE8C&pg=PA39 |access-date=25 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sapienza |first1=Christine |last2=Hoffman |first2=Bari |title=Voice Disorders |date=2020 |publisher=Plural Publishing |page=370 |edition=Fourth |isbn=978-1-63550-262-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWoOEAAAQBAJ&dq=Heldenbaritone&pg=PA370 |access-date=25 March 2025 |quote=Baritones are often broken down into eight subcategories: [lyric baritone](/source/lyric_baritone), bel canto or coloratura baritone, kavalierbariton, heldenbaritone, Verdi baritone, [dramatic baritone](/source/dramatic_baritone), and [bass-baritone](/source/bass-baritone)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Link |first1=Dorothea |title=The Italian Opera Singers in Mozart's Vienna |date=2022 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |page=39 |isbn=978-0-252-05365-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FMaVEAAAQBAJ |access-date=25 March 2025 |quote=The twentieth-century [Fach](/source/Fach) system ... distinguishes four types of baritone: the Verdi baritone (Charakterbariton), the lyric baritone ... kavalierbaritone (kavalierbariton), and heldenbaritone (Heldenbariton, previously called Hoher bass)}}</ref>

"Heldenbaritone" (Ger. "Heroic baritone) is a [fach](/source/fach) (operatic voice type) that is usually associated with the operas of [Richard Wagner](/source/Richard_Wagner). It is usually sung by [bass-baritone](/source/bass-baritone)s such as [Hans Hotter](/source/Hans_Hotter), [Theo Adam](/source/Theo_Adam) or [Bryn Terfel](/source/Bryn_Terfel). Wagner himself calls this voice type "Hoher Bass" (high bass) rather than baritone. In his opera scores he distinguishes between the two so that Wolfram in "[Tannhäuser](/source/Tannh%C3%A4user_(opera))" is labelled "Bariton", whereas Wotan in "[Die Walküre](/source/Die_Walk%C3%BCre)" is called "Hoher Bass". Wolfram is a much more lyrical part than Wotan, and normally the same singer would not have both parts on his repertoire.

Heldenbaritone parts are different from dramatic baritone parts in Italian operas (such as Scarpia in [Puccini's](/source/Giacomo_Puccini) "[Tosca](/source/Tosca)" or Iago in [Verdi's](/source/Giuseppe_Verdi) "[Otello](/source/Otello)") in that the Italian parts have a much higher tessitura and the vocal line is much more like that of a dramatic tenor, whereas the Wagner Heldenbariton is in effect a bass singer with a high register and only occasionally stretches to the high notes of the dramatic Italian baritone. Other Heldenbaritone parts include Kaspar in Weber's "[Der Freischütz](/source/Der_Freisch%C3%BCtz)", Jochanaan in Strauss' "[Salome](/source/Salome_(opera))" and the title role in Verdi's "[Falstaff](/source/Falstaff_(opera))".

==References==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
* [Heldentenor](/source/Heldentenor)

Category:Voice types

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Heldenbaritone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heldenbaritone) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heldenbaritone?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.