Yakko
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Jeykyll and HydeIs it a baritone role or tenor role?
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Glissando
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Baritone. I think. Maybe baritenor.
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Yakko
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baritenor what kind of notes can they reach?
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The Guard
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It's a role a baritone could sing (because I just played it), but the notes are in the tenor range. The highest note in the musical is a high A.
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Yakko
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So someone like me could have a good chance to play it?
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Pannic
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It's a role that can't decide whether it wants to be a baritone or a tenor.
"This is the Moment" and "Alive!" are on the higher side, but "Lost in the Darkness" is rather low.
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The Guard
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| Quote: | | So someone like me could have a good chance to play it? |
Do you have a very good range with your voice? Can you play Dr. Jekyll and a convincing Edward Hyde?
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Yakko
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Well I'm a baritone, but I do have problems with reaching that last note on Alive. In fact I'm trying to figure out if it's a high A
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The Guard
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I think it's a high A. Not the biggest problem in the world. You don't have to hit every note when you're Edward Hyde. He's not exactly a "pretty" singer.
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Yakko
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Well I wish I could do it the same way Rob Evans did.
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High-baritonne
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Well, you should not compare yourself to people like Rob Evan. Evan is brilliant! The thing you should try if you play a role like Jekyll & Hyde is to use the freedom the songs give you, almost every song sung by Jekyll & Hyde are songs that can be altered in some ways or others. Use the freedom the songs give you, and you will create YOUR Jekyll & Hyde character. If you do that, the characters voice range will depend on your, and you will still be able to pull it off!
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Yakko
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| High-baritonne wrote: | | Well, you should not compare yourself to people like Rob Evan. Evan is brilliant! The thing you should try if you play a role like Jekyll & Hyde is to use the freedom the songs give you, almost every song sung by Jekyll & Hyde are songs that can be altered in some ways or others. Use the freedom the songs give you, and you will create YOUR Jekyll & Hyde character. If you do that, the characters voice range will depend on your, and you will still be able to pull it off! |
Well I meant like I want to sing the high A the same way that Rob did in his performance on Broadway. When it was on YouTube I could stop listening to how he hit it.
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Anno_Domini
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| Quote: | | Well I meant like I want to sing the high A the same way that Rob did in his performance on Broadway. When it was on YouTube I could stop listening to how he hit it. |
Your setting the bar too high for yourself. Rob Evan is a professional performer and a singer who has likely trained his voice for many a year. Try not to compare yourself to any previous performer, especially the man who best performed the role on stage (says the composer).
It's not only the range that makes Jekyll/Hyde a difficult role vocally, but also the fact that you want to create two distinct voices for each of the two characters (this distinction will need to be especially apparent during the Confrontation)
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Yakko
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Well I've been working on the acting for a while. It just vocally I need to be better.
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The Russian
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| Yakko wrote: | | Well I've been working on the acting for a while. It just vocally I need to be better. |
Sounds like you need a voice teacher, young padawan. Don't worry so much about the high notes. The thing that makes a role a baritone, tenor, or a baritenor is not the high notes, but the tessitura (how high the role sits in the voice).
Having been paid a silly amount of money to play Jekyll/Hyde let me give you some pointers: You must be SUPREMELY comfortable between middle C and G to sing the role. Most of it sits directly in the passagio and you must learn how to negotiate that difficult part of the range with ease. You must also be able to bring the requisite snarl to Hyde's voice without hurting yours. You do not need to take the A in Alive if you don't wish to, Cuccioli didn't (too much booze, probably) and it sounded fine....on the other hand, if you don't people will talk about how small your balls are...just sayin'. Jekyll has to have a certain lightness to his voice to contrast Hyde's weight. It is certainly one of the hardest roles on the voice to come out of post-Les Mis Broadway.
The bottom line is, if you want to sing it well, you have to study voice and technique and practice the correct technique religiously so your voice will be strong enough to reahearse the role day after day.
To answer your question: I would say baritenor based on the tessitura of the role. For a reference, think of Chauvelin and Percy from the Pimpernel. Chauvelin is clearly and baritone and Pecy is firmly in the tenor fach.
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Yakko
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| The Russian wrote: | | Yakko wrote: | | Well I've been working on the acting for a while. It just vocally I need to be better. |
Sounds like you need a voice teacher, young padawan. Don't worry so much about the high notes. The thing that makes a role a baritone, tenor, or a baritenor is not the high notes, but the tessitura (how high the role sits in the voice).
Having been paid a silly amount of money to play Jekyll/Hyde let me give you some pointers: You must be SUPREMELY comfortable between middle C and G to sing the role. Most of it sits directly in the passagio and you must learn how to negotiate that difficult part of the range with ease. You must also be able to bring the requisite snarl to Hyde's voice without hurting yours. You do not need to take the A in Alive if you don't wish to, Cuccioli didn't (too much booze, probably) and it sounded fine....on the other hand, if you don't people will talk about how small your balls are...just sayin'. Jekyll has to have a certain lightness to his voice to contrast Hyde's weight. It is certainly one of the hardest roles on the voice to come out of post-Les Mis Broadway.
The bottom line is, if you want to sing it well, you have to study voice and technique and practice the correct technique religiously so your voice will be strong enough to reahearse the role day after day.
To answer your question: I would say baritenor based on the tessitura of the role. For a reference, think of Chauvelin and Percy from the Pimpernel. Chauvelin is clearly and baritone and Pecy is firmly in the tenor fach. |
Oh believe me I've been learning to sing for three years now!
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The Guard
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Too much booze. Heh. There's no such thing when it comes to this role.
Listen to this man.
Something to think about: The The A in "Alive" or "Alive Reprise", depending on which version you're doing is great, but quite frankly, I don't think it's worth taking at all if you can't take it in character as Hyde. Too many actors turn right back into Jekyll at the worst possible moment to do so, and it just sucks all the emotion and power out of the scene, and it becomes another note.
Being a Baritone (actually, I think I'm a Bass Baritone), and having been paid a silly amount of money (none) to play this role....it's definitely Baritoner, and this role is grueling on your voice. Not just because of the high notes, but because of the sheer range of performance required in this character. Someone above said it's about making two distinct voices, and that's the truth. You bounce back and forth so much it's not funny.
When The Russian says "requisite snarl without hurting your voice", take that to heart. Don't make the mistake of doing nothing but snarling. I do voices fairly well, and tried to make Hyde into a more feral monster man VS what you usually see, which is a syrupy, pseudo romantic villain with hints of monster, so I did this quasi "Batman" voice (think Christian Bale's Batman voice, but deeper, with more growling behind it, less of a whisper. Think it, but for the love of all that is holy, don't do it). It was great for the audience, but idiotic for me, and I was lucky to have a voice by opening night (booze helps). Basically, pick your moments when you want Hyde to be dark and monstrous, because if you use it the whole way through, you'll kill yourself.
And like other people are saying...if you can't sing the role perfectly, that's not a huge issue. Sing it in character, and with passion, and people will love you for it. I would much rather see a role played with passion than sung perfectly by rote any day of the week.
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