Hero tenor
A type of tenor voice is called a hero tenor . Hero tenors have a “heavier”, more stable voice than, for example, a lyrical tenor , they sing in the dramatic vocal subject . The quality and volume of the Heldentenor voice are paramount. As a rule, they have to be able to drown out orchestras with very large and complex instrumentation.
With hero is not meant a particularly heroic role, but the title and main role of the protagonist , which usually also means mythical , "heroic" figures such as Othello , Siegfried or Tristan . In contrast to the prima donna , the "first female singer", the traditional Italian name Primo uomo (first singer) is now almost extinct. The word hero tenor has such a meaning for German-language operas that it has been included in English, French, Russian and Polish, among others.
Josef Tichatschek is considered one of the first heroic tenors in today's sense of the word , who sang the title roles of Wagner's Rienzi and Tannhäuser at the respective premieres . Wagner never noted his later heroic tenor roles such as Siegfried and Siegmund above the high A, so he did not demand particularly spectacular top notes from them. In 1884, the vocal expert Julius Hey considered the hero tenor to be a particularly mature stage of a "deep" tenor singing close to the baritone register. In fact, quite a few hero tenors began their careers as baritons. The famous heroic tenor Lauritz Melchior was initially cast in no fewer than fifteen bass-baritone roles.
The voice type is divided into several sub-forms such as the tenor Robusto , who sings the exhausting, highly dramatic title roles in the great romantic opera ( Wagner , also Verdi ) and Richard Strauss , or the tenore di Forza , whose roles are basically lyrical, but in the climax of their arias require a radiant, "breaking out" voice. The hero tenor's partner is usually a dramatic soprano .
Voice subject hero tenor
Heldentenor is also a name for a vocal subject in which the relevant opera and oratorio parts are summarized.
Examples of games of the hero tenor are:
- Hector Berlioz , Les Troyens : Énée ( Aeneas )
- Benjamin Britten , Peter Grimes : title role
- Giuseppe Verdi , Otello : title role
- Richard Wagner , Tannhäuser : title role
- Richard Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung : Siegmund and Siegfried
- Richard Wagner, Tristan and Isolde : Tristan
Well-known hero tenors are or were: Bernd Aldenhoff , Hans Beirer , Gerd Brenneis , Helge Brilioth , Jean Cox , Hermin Esser , Walter Geisler , Stephen Gould , Ben Heppner , Peter Hofmann , Hans Hopf , Siegfried Jerusalem , Manfred Jung , James King , Klaus König , René Kollo , Sándor Kónya , Ernst Kozub , Max Lorenz , Lauritz Melchior , Mario del Monaco (who, besides Otello, also sang mainly Spinto parts), Wolfgang Neumann , Joachim Sattler , Herbert Schachtschneider , Andreas Schager , August Seider , Peter Seiffert , Heikki Siukola , Leo Slezak , Robert Dean Smith , Ludwig Suthaus , Set Svanholm , Jess Thomas , Günther Treptow , Fritz Uhl , Jacques Urlus , Jon Vickers , Ramón Vinay , Franz Völker , Spas Wenkoff , Wolfgang Windgassen , Ralf Willershäuser , Erich Witte .
Vocal subject youth hero tenor
The youthful heroic tenor and especially its Italian form, the tenore lyrico spinto , are generally viewed as a separate vocal subject, namely as a transitional subject between the lyrical tenor and the dramatic, i.e. heroic tenor. Many hero tenors sing the roles of youthful hero tenors at an early stage in their careers, which, on the other hand, are often sung by otherwise rather lyrical tenors.
