THE TENOR BUFFO OR SPIELTENOR

Tenor buffo or Spieltenor

A tenor with good acting ability, and the ability to create distinct voices for his characters. This voice specializes in smaller comic roles. The range of the tenor buffo is from the C one octave below middle C (C3) to the C one octave above middle C (C5). The tessitura of these parts lies lower than the other tenor roles. These parts are often played by younger tenors who have not yet reached their full vocal potential or older tenors who are beyond their prime singing years. Only rarely will a singer specialize in these roles for an entire career.^[2] In French opéra comique, supporting roles requiring a thin voice but good acting are sometimes described as 'trial', after the singer Antoine Trial (1737–1795), examples being in the operas of Ravel and in The Tales of Hoffmann.^[11]
Tenor Buffo or Spieltenor Roles in Opera & Operettas:^[2]

Count Danilo Danilovitsch, Die Lustige Witwe (Franz Lehár) Don Basilio, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) Mime, Siegfried (Richard Wagner) Don Anchise/ Il Podestà, La Finta Giardiniera (Mozart) Monostatos, The Magic Flute (Mozart) Pedrillo, The Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart) Dr. Blind, Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II) Slender, The Merry Wives of Windsor (opera) (Otto Nicolai) John Styx, Orphée aux enfers (Jacques Offenbach) Prince Paul, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (Jacques Offenbach)

Kálmán Zsupán, The Gypsy Baron (Johann Strauss II) The Captain, Wozzeck (Alban Berg) The Magician, The Consul (Gian-Carlo Menotti) Beppe, I Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo) Frantz, Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach) Spoletta, Tosca (Giacomo Puccini) Goro, Madama Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini) Pong, Turandot (Giacomo Puccini) Gastone, La traviata (Giuseppe Verdi)

Tenor Buffo or Spieltenor singers:

Charles Anthony Nico Castel Graham Clark Piero de Palma Anthony Laciura

Michel Sénéchal Darren Keith Woods Heinz Zednik Gerhard Stolze Jerī Alexa

[edit] Operetta

Tenor Roles in Operetta: All of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operettas have at least one lead lyric tenor character; other notable roles are:

• Candide, (Candide)
• Eisenstein, (Die Fledermaus)
• Camille, Count de Rosillon, (The Merry Widow)
• Prince Karl, (The Student Prince)
• Sheikh Red Shadow, (The Desert Song)
• Captain Dick, (Naughty Marietta)

[edit]

UNDER CONSTRUCTION