Great post. Micro-small quibble. Judging from CD sales, it seems that mezzo-sopranos are all the rage these days. Yes plenty of sopranos, but mezzos just have that golden radiance.
Few alto recording artists of note.
Good point about Mezzos. (although I don’t think they’ve ever threatened to displace sopranos at the top of the diva heap).
They trade on their own brand of circus act impressiveness - namely, the ability to sing incredibly ornate, intricate music at speeds that most of us can’t fathom. It’s as much of a high-wire act as the high singing that tenors and sopranos do. That’s why so many of Rossini’s heroines are mezzo sopranos (because his music tends to be fast and ornate), and ditto why so many mezzo sopranos got famous singing Rossini’s music: Cecilia Bartoli, Vivica Geneaux, Jennifer Larmore, etc. These days there’s a big Vivaldi revival on, at least in recordings, and it has the same basic appeal.
The other thing, of course, is that any good mezzo has essentially the same high notes available to her as a good soprano. It’s not uncommon to hear interpolated high Bs and Cs from Mezzos during arias that allow for that kind of impromptu decoration. So, they pack a double punch.
But back to the fast, ornate singing…hearing someone machine-gun their way through Rossini or Vivaldi is its own kind of viceral thrill - one that often makes me laugh because (unlike high notes, for instance, which I “get” on a level of physical understanding) I can’t even project in my mind what it would feel like to sing that way. Kind of like imagining driving a delivery truck through a slalom course at breakneck speed. Not gonna happen.
Not surprisingly, the one genuine “super star” bass of the last 30 years, Samuel Ramey, first got attention for being able to go toe to toe with Mezzos in the intricate, fast Rossini operas. He had freakish agility for a low voice. And unusually ringing top notes…go figure 
Figaro - just want to chime in (oh, sorry) and say how much I appreciate your perspective on this. Great thread overall - thanks for starting it, Carnac - I feel like my Ignorance is being combatted…
Thanks! Favorite subject, you know…
This point just came back to me, and Figaro is absolutely correct here.
While I have sung at the operatic level, most of my experience is in operetta…Gilbert & Sullivan, to be precise. The type of piece for which this team was most famous is the patter song. It’s an awful lot of text, often sung at blinding speed (think of the famous “Figaro, Figaro, Figaro” song, also known as Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville). A good performance of such a piece need not be remarkable in its tonal quality, but must exhibit excellent diction. The reason I bring this up is that it occurred to me just now (don’t know why I never noticed before) that while each of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas includes several patter songs, they are always sung by the lower voices. Tenors and sopranos may have solos or duets that also require good diction, but never a full-fledged patter song. I’m quite sure that this is due to the point Figaro makes about lower voices being more easily understood.
BTW, I am acutely aware of the fact that The Barber of Seville is by Rossini, and not by Gilbert & Sullivan. I used that example for the benefit of those who are not familiar with the works of Sirs William and Arthur.
Speaking of really high singing voices … I always thought it was interesting that some of the most powerful heavy metal singers of the 1980s, who had the highest ranges (examples: Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, David Coverdale) happened to have rich, deep, baritone or bass speaking voices.
I don’t know if there’s a general rule about the relationship between the pitch of one’s “natural” (unsupported) voice and a trained speaking or singing voice. During casual conversation, my voice is fairly high. On stage, or when I sing, it drops significantly into a deep, booming, bass-baritone. Most people who have only heard me speak are somewhat surprised when I start singing, because it sounds like another person entirely.
Ramey is a marvel. Is he considered at the high, middle or low end of bass? Is there such thing as a contrabass? Are there some bass parts reserved for men with exceptionally low voices?
Mozart tended to write his heroes for baritones. Figaro, as has been previously noted…Don Giovanni…Papageno (yeah, he is the HUMAN hero, as opposed to that wuss Tamino).
[wrong link above]
Seems like there indeed are “contrabass singers.” Read below about former Uruguary composer Francisco Canaro.
Canaro reached the next level of his career, in 1912, composing his first tune, “Pinta Brava,” and conducting an orchestra for the first time. He continued to introduce new innovations to the tango tradition, becoming the first tango bandleader to feature a vocalist singing the “estrabillo” (bridge) and a contrabass singer providing harmony.
http://www.fondazionecini.it/english/04attivita/laportasulretro/porta15.html
It happens that way a lot, in my experience. In the case of a bass singer like yourself, it’s probably a healthy sign that your speaking voice isn’t stuck in the basement all the time. If you think about it, you probably speak in the same range that you often sing in (somewhere from C below middle C to A below middle C???) - all that changes when you start to sing is the color, which comes more from resonance and energy than it does from fundamental pitch. For your actual speaking voice to sound “low” to other people, you’d have to talk below the bass staff most of the time - not good for your voice over time.
A lot of that singing is done in a reinforced falsetto, or what you could think of as a supported scream. Oddly enough, the most accomplished falsettists tend to have natural baritone or bass voices. In English church choirs (pretty far removed from the metal you were talking about…;)), the guys recruited to be male altos usually come from the ranks of the less accomplished basses and baritones. Not always, but it’s a trend.
Sure, but not many. For example, the role of Sarastro in Mozart’s Magic Flute rarely (only once in the whole role if I recall) extends above C# (middle C#), and so it’s usually cast with the lowest and heaviest voice around to keep it from sounding too easy.
To your Ramey question, about high, middle, or low…the characterization of voices has as much if not more to do with tone color and what’s called *tessitura *as it does with absolute range. Tessitura is the part of a person’s singing range where they are comfortable singing most of the time - where they can sing all night and not get tired or overtaxed. From that comfort zone, the voice then branches out to its highest and lowest ranges, which are only used sparingly. The surest way to kill a singer is to write for the voice as if it were a piano, where all pitches within the singer’s range are treated equally… These two factors are usually what make a person one kind of voice or another. I know tenors with decent low notes, and baritones with great high notes in the tenor range. But because of where each is most comfortable, and the color (darkness, lightness, brilliance, etc.) of their voices, they are easy to categorize when you hear them.
Ramey’s voice has the color of a bass - it’s dark, somewhat rough around the edges, and not something you’d mistake for a baritone. He also has the range associated with the bass voice - good solid low notes (F#, E below the bass clef). But his comfortable tessitura is wider, and arguably higher, than many basses, so he often sings things written for bass-baritone or even baritone. That’s a big part of his appeal - the dark color in conjunction with higher singing and ringing top notes is very exciting.
The contrabass question is interesting. Some people argue that real “contrabass” singing (that extends below C below the bass clef - think Russian Choral music) is just the integration of the vocal “growl” register, sometimes called Straw Bass, strohbass, or even vocal “fry.” A gimmick, essentially, and not the sign of a naturally lower voice. It’s an open question.