| Title: | Baritone |
| Original Title: | Basse-taille |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 2 (1752), p. 121 |
| Author: | Louis de Cahusac (biography) |
| Translator: | Beverly Wilcox [California State University, Sacramento] |
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.080 |
| Citation (MLA): | Cahusac, Louis de. "Baritone." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Beverly Wilcox. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2020. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.080>. Trans. of "Basse-taille," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 2. Paris, 1752. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Cahusac, Louis de. "Baritone." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Beverly Wilcox. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.080 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Basse-taille," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 2:121 (Paris, 1752). |
Baritone, singer at the opera or in a concerted piece who sings the roles for baritones. See Bass.
These roles have been cast in operas as either leading or supporting roles, generally following the popularity the public has given to the singers who are given these roles.
The baritone was popular during the whole time that Thevenard remained in the theater; [1] but composers make the counter tenor roles more brilliant today.
The roles of Roland, Egée, Hidraot, Amadis de Grece, etc. are baritone roles.
Tancrede is known as the “opera of the baritones ” because there are no counter tenor roles, and because the roles of Tancrede, Argant, and Ismenor are very good roles for baritones.
Magicians, tyrants, and hated lovers are usually baritones. Women seem to have decided, for unknown reasons, that the counter tenor should be the favored lover, saying that this is the voice of the heart . Strong and manly sounds undoubtedly offend their delicacy. Sentiment, this imaginary thing that is too much talked about, that is hoped for everywhere, that is analyzed incessantly without experiencing it, without defining it, without recognizing it – this sentiment has decided in favor of counter tenors. When a new baritone finds favor, even if he seems another Thevenard, this system breaks down, and one could probably use “sentiment” to show that the counter tenor was never the voice of the heart. See Counter tenor.
1. Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard (1669-1741), a baritone who retired from the Paris Opera in 1729.