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Hello, my name is Benjamin Appel. I'm a baritone and I'm excited to be here at Klassiker Film
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The baritone voice developed in the 18th century because the opera and the concert platform needed a smooth, noble colour in the voice
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Between the high tenor voices and the low basses. It also has the biggest vocal range, which is more or less two octaves, and then we also have the head voice, which we could also use
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They are wonderful colleagues, great baritones throughout history. We have people like Thomas Hampson, like Dimitri Vorostovsky
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Brin Terfel, Dietrich Fischerdiskau, but also in pop music, actually. Most of the singers like Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley
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they are all baritones, so I'm very happy to be part of this club
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To all singers, well, all musicians, preparation is key. The first thing in the morning I always do is to check if the voice is still there
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So often I do some lip trills like and throughout the day there are every two hours some checks of 10 minutes with some exercises in the middle range So where the speaking voice lies singing a few vowels like
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And then when I have the feeling the voice is awake because normally actually the voice sleeps two hours longer than the body does
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When the voice is ready I start really to train the high notes
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So with exercise, with very fast runs up and down, and then also to try to really relax and reach my lower register
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And when all that works, then I'm ready to sing. Most of the song recitals are performed by baritones
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I think the reason for that is that the singing voice is very close to the speaking range of everyone
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and therefore it is something very natural to communicate with the audience
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There are beautiful cycles and music written for song singers. Often Winterreise is the song cycle for a baritone But then we also have Vaughan Williams Songs of Travels and many many more
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There's so many versatile roles for baritone in opera. For example, Papagino in Magic Flute by Mozart
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a playful character who entertains throughout the entire opera. Don Giovanni, also composed by Mozart, shows a lot of dark moments and very, very colourful singing
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And we have the innocent Billy Budd in Benjamin Britten's opera, Billy Budd
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A character who is searching for light and just wants to be a good boy
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So you can see, as a baritone, you have to really cover quite a lot of different characters
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and moods. When preparing for a role, it's also important to actually be open-minded
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So when I sit here in the tube and I see someone walking very proudly around, I think, oh, that's
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exactly a Don Giovanni. Some roles actually sit lower in the body others are more intellectual or are more connected with the heart And therefore even waking up in the morning you immediately actually have to remind yourself how you appear and walk through the
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entire day in the character. Now I hope you learned a little bit more about the baritone voice
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I recommend you three pieces to listen to. First is Papageno's aria from Mozart's magic flute, always fun
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Then we have the beautiful flowery song A Chloris by Rinaldo Ahn, gorgeous music
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And the big cycle of Winterreise by Franz Schubert, which really has all emotions in the cycle
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So it's really a big, big journey. I hope you will like these recommendations
