Top Bass-Baritone Singers Part 1 (Honorary Mentions)

        One of the best tools for singers are recordings and performances of professional opera stars.  Of course, it’s not good to completely imitate a famous singer because ever voice is individual, like a finger print.  However, there’s so much to gain from studying great singers.  As a bass-baritone, I’ve listened and watched many videos and recordings of professional bass-baritones.  In this post, I will be mentioning bass-baritones that didn’t quite make my top ten list, but are incredible performers.  

        (Almost Bass-baritones) Samuel Ramey, Eric Owens, Rene Pape, Gabriel Bacquier-  These are some of the best singers that delve into the bass-baritone repertoire, but are not bass-baritones so they were disqualified.  Samuel Ramey is on the Mount Rushmore of basses and he delved into a lot of bass-baritone repertoire, but his voice is just a little bit too low to be on my list.  Eric Owens is one of the best singers today, but I consider him one of the greatest basses of all time.  He has high notes like Ramey, but the tessitura is a high bass.  Rene Pape is probably a low bass-baritone.  Yet, he lists himself as a bass and his repertoire now is mostly bass, so he only gets a mention.  Gabriel Bacquier is listed as a baritone, but he sang a lot of bass-baritone roles, so I think he deserves to be mentioned.

Samuel Ramey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCvX-7cgKNw

Eric Owens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BGu2aoCzPk

Rene Pape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRuGNal1ie0

Gabriel Bacquier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvOznlXoook

        (Honorable Bass-baritones) Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Ildar Abdrazakov, John Relyea, Donald Gramm, Greer Grimsley, Justino Diaz, Falk Struckmann-  All of these are true bass-baritones that I admire and have studied them.  I’ve heard John Relyea, Falk Struckmann, Ildar Abrazakov live and they were sensational.  Falk Strukmann played Iago along side Rene Fleming, and his performance was incredible.  He is a beast!  His vocal capability to sing in that high range with the power of a true bass-baritone and his evil aura he gave out as Iago was one of the best performances I’ve seen.  I bought ever DVD with Falk Struckmann in the Met store after that performance because I knew he was the man!   

One singer that I’ve not been able to see at the Met is Ildebrando D’Arcangelo.  He is one of my favorite voices!  It hurt me having to write his name in the honorary section only, but it’s because he’s still young and many of my top ten have finished their careers and had more accomplishments. He will be in my top ten in the future, but for now he didn’t quite make it.  

Ildebrando D’Arcangelo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9ZAHsixLE

Ildar Abdrazakov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgqO_yCJM8A

John Relyea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sUjXc2ni4E

Donald Gramm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw2fWm42H70

Greer Grimsley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIZe3gF1Ye0

Justino Diaz:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6qKmAQ8klQ

Falk Struckmann:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_kTILC3sDA