In any case, mere darkness is not the aspiration of Spyres. He seeks to establish “baritenor” as a voice type able to sing both baritone and tenor parts dating from Mozart’s time to Korngold’s and Ravel’s, passing through Verdi’s, Wagner’s, and Leoncavallo’s en route. For his CD’s accompanying booklet, he’s written an essay that attempts to trace the history of this voice type. He also has a list of singers he classifies thus, and whom he wishes to thank for paving his way. The list is an impressive compilation of names, but serves mostly to muddy the waters. On it is the indubitably great baritone Mattia Battistini, who on his recordings indeed displays an extraordinary florid capacity and a long reach at the upper end of the range, but in the context of a vital “real baritone” voice of unrivaled coloristic span. He sang no role we would classify as tenor save for Werther, and that because Massenet wrote a lowered setting specifically for him. More logically, the list includes prominent baritone-to-tenor conversions, such as Lauritz Melchior, Set Svanholm, and Carlo Bergonzi (all three of whom, however, found their correct identities as tenors, and never thereafter took on baritone parts) and, arguably, the uniquely long-lived example of Placido Domingo, who sang a couple of light baritone roles in little touring venues when very young, had a long career as every sort of tenor except the High C-and- higher sort and who, much later, migrated down to “real baritone” parts when the high notes had vanished, never sounding like anything other than a modern tenor. Whereas, by way of contrast, Ramon Vinay debuted as a baritone (as Di Luna), then switched to dramatic tenor after study with René Maison, reverted some 15 years later to Heldenbariton, then sang his last performance at the Metropolitan as a bass (Rossini’s Bartolo), all the while sounding quite like a baritone, although no doubt “really” a tenor. He was an intense, sensitive artist, who because of his youthful successes as Otello with a number of distinguished conductors, and later in the heavier Wagner tenor parts, could be said to have given postwar permission to a vocal format not previously considered suitable for his repertoire.

The majority of the voices cited as relevant to baritenorism by Spyres predate recording, and are thus safely out of earshot. We can read what they sang, and what people thought of them, but we can’t hear or evaluate for ourselves what they sounded like. Some predate, and others postdate, the passage from several varieties of old-style to new-style tenors, and a few nestle right in the crevice between the last of the castrato-trained voices and the emergence of full-ranged, full-voice tenors like Tamberlik and Tichatsheck. Spyres makes large but undocumented claims for some of them, speaking of Rossini roles with a three-octave range (which would they be?) and male singers of the same compass (I really don’t think so, unless we allow for a break into unintegrated falsetto. But as I said, they are all conveniently unavailable for inspection).