Haute-contre
The haute-contre (plural hautes-contre) was the primary French operatic tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera, from the middle of the seventeenth century until the latter part of the eighteenth century.
History
This voice was predominantly used in male solo roles, typically heroic and amatory ones, but also in comic parts, even
The leading hautes-contre of the
Vocal features
The nature of the haute-contre voice has been the subject of much debate. Historically, English writers have translated the term as "
The haute-contre is regarded by some authorities as similar to, or indeed identical with, the voice-type described in Italian as
Modern performances
Recently, with a revival of interest in and the performance of French baroque repertoire, several high tenors have come to prominence in haute-contre repertoire. These include Mark Padmore,[5] Anders J. Dahlin, Rogers Covey-Crump, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Paul Agnew and Cyril Auvity. None of these sing the French Baroque repertoire to the exclusion of all others, and all are involved, to a greater or lesser extent, in the performance of mainstream tenor repertoire.
Repertoire
See List of French haute-contre roles
References
- ^ Weller, op. cit.
- ^ a b Sawkins, op. cit.
- ^ Cyr, op. cit., p 292
- ^ so quoted by Mary Cir (ibidem) from de Lalande’s Voyage en Italie (2/1786), p. 204-5. The date Cyr traces de Lalande’s statements back to, 1768, is evidently a misprint as it widely precedes the facts reported: Jean-Joseph Rousseau was then only seven years old and Legros had just started his career and was very far from retiring. The alleged publication date of de Lalande’s Voyage en Italie, or rather, of its (second) edition whence the quotation is reported to have been drawn, 1786, is likelier to be the right one
- ^ The Great Communicator – article in Telegraph.co.uk 10 October 2002[dead link]
- Cyr, M: "On performing 18th-century Haute-Contre Roles", Musical Times, vol 118, 1997, pp 291–5, later reproduced in Cyr, M., Essays on the Performance of Baroque Music. Opera and Chamber Music in France and England, Ashgate Variorum, Aldeshot (UK)/Burlington, VT (USA), 2008, ISBN 978-0-7546-5926-6(essay no. IX)
- Sawkins, Lionel (2001). "Haute-contre". In ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5. [Stanley Sadie (ed), The new Grove Dictionary of Opera, Oxford University Press, 1992, vol. 4]
- Philip Weller, "Tribou, Denis-François", in Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove (Oxford University Press), New York, 1997, ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2(IV, p. 808)
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