VOCAL FACH SYSTEM

VOICE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

WHAT IS THE FACH CLASSIFICATION

SYSTEM?

FACH CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

The Fach System was developed by German opera houses towards
the end of the 19th century and the reasoning behind it was to
create distinct categories for all the roles in an opera, as well as, for
singing voices, in order to aid auditions and casting.
Fach means classification, specialty, category. Singers were placed in
a Fach according to their voice types and they would only study the
characters that belonged in that category. Opera houses would keep
records of singers according to Fach and they would call them in for
auditions according to which roles were available. There are 23-25
Fach classifications.

WHAT CHARACTERISTICS
CREATE A PERSONS FACH?
range the notes your body can produce
weight light voices, bright and agile; heavy voices,
powerful, rich, and darker
size the amount of sound you can produce and your
voices dramatic effect
tessitura part of the range which is most
comfortable to sing
timbre or color unique voice quality and texture
transition points points where you change from
chest, to middle, to head register
vocal registers how extended each register is
speech level speaking range
physical characteristics height and build
age and experience

SOPRANO FACHS

SOUBRETTE
SOPRANO
A soubrette is usually a young soprano
whose voice portrays her youthfulness
and energy, but is still powerful
enough to be heard over an orchestra.
Her voice is light and bright, and has a
soft timbre. Most roles wont require
extensive coloraturas, nor long
sustaining notes.
A soubrette will usually be casted in
comic operas in secondary and
supporting roles, like those of a friend,
maid, or lady in waiting. Her
characters will be young and frisky,
coy but flirtatious, fickle and
whimsical.

 A lyric coloratura soprano is foremost a

coloratura soprano which means that
her range extends to the sixth octave
where here voice resonates bright and
clear. Another representative
characteristic is her flexibility and
agility singing cadenzas and rapid
successions of notes with ease.A
soubrette will usually be casted in
comic operas in secondary and
supporting roles, like those of a friend,
maid, or lady in waiting. Her
characters will be young and frisky,
coy but flirtatious, fickle and
whimsical.

LYRIC COLORATURA SOPRANO

A lyric coloratura is casted in roles of

young and fragile heroines and is,
thus, required to be slim and capable
to portray such sweetness and
freshness. Just like a soubrette, she
needs to have developed acting skills
and lots of energy, as her characters

DRAMATIC
COLORATURA
SOPRANO
A dramatic coloratura
soprano has
great power and intensity in the upper
register, as well as the ability to sing
complex cadenzas with agility and
speed. Her timber is full and dark, and
she can sustain notes in the 6th octave
with ease. This Fach requires
tremendous acting and an imposing
stage presence.
Real dramatic coloraturas, as opposed
to lyric coloraturas singing dramatic
roles, are by nature rare. In order to
have a dark timber, vocal folds need to
be thick. On the other hand, in order to
have the agility to sing cadenzas,
vocal folds need to be flexible. As you
understand, these two characteristics
are hard to coexist, and therefore the
women who happen to have both and
by chance decide to learn how to sing,

SPINTO SOPRANO
A young dramatic soprano is widely
known as a spinto. She is a youthful
soprano whose voice hasnt matured
yet but is still very powerful and has
great volume. Despite her young age,
a spinto is capable of long lyric
phrases and can be heard easily over a
full orchestra.
Although the word spinto means
pushed in Italian, it doesnt describe
the vocal challenges that a soprano
spinto will have to overcome. The only
pushing that she will have to endure is
the pushing around of her heroines by
villains and lovers alike. As a
consequence of the hardships they
have to go through, the heroines she
embodies usually commit suicide at
the end of the opera.

LYRIC SOPRANO
A lyric soprano is liked for her warm
and melodious voice. She is considered
the queen of sopranos because she
can sing long legato phrases with
elegance and sustain top notes with
ease. Due to her full voice and bright
timber, she is usually casted as a
young, innocent girl, and other such
sympathetic characters.
Lyric sopranos are usually excellent
actresses and display deep emotion
and passion in their singing. Due to
this aptitude for dramatization, they
are usually casted in roles of other
soprano fachs and are considered
Jacks of all trades. Even though they
lack in flexibility, their beautiful and
soothing sound tends to mesmerize
the audiences.

CHARACTER SOPRANO
A character sopranos voice is usually
bright, metallic, and flexible. Though
she might have a very comfortable top
range, shes not required to, as she is
known first for their acting skills and
second for their singing skills.
This fach is called an inbetween fach
or Zwischenfachstimme in German,
because singers who are classified as
character sopranos dont have a set
number of voice characteristics.
Instead they have the skill to adopt
whatever timbre, weight, or color they
need to complement their acting, and
often youll hear them singing nasally
or changing their voices in comical
ways.

DRAMATIC SOPRANO
The characteristic of a dramatic
soprano is that she can sing over a full
orchestra and at the same time
command the attention of the
audience with her imposing and
electrifying presence. Her voice is full,
rich, and powerful, and her dark timbre
can arise feelings of awe.
Though a dramatic soprano is
expected to cover the full soprano
range, i.e. from a C4 to a C6, her
tessitura is lower. This doesnt mean
that she wont be called to sing long
hight notes. Though it is becoming
common for dramatic sopranos to
increase their range well enough to
sutain high notes over fermatas.

MEZZO SOPRANO FACHS

COLORATURA MEZZO-SOPRANO
The coloratura mezzo-soprano is a
fairly small niche. Two periods heavily
used this voice type and one of these
after the fact. Roles actually written for
agile, lower female voices belong to
the Bel Canto period, Donizetti and
Rossini writing a range of big roles.
The other collection of coloratura
mezzo roles were originally written for
castrati in the Baroque period but, as
we no longer abide by such practices,
mezzos have frequently taken these
parts in modern times.

LYRIC MEZZO SOPRANO

The lyric mezzo-sprano gets perhaps
the least glamorous of roles, a good
whack of them are trouser parts
(women playing men). That
classification belies voices that are
also normally smooth and rather sexy.
A lyric soprano's instrument in a lower
range; the resulting sound is less
piercing, more lachrymose and rather
sensitive. The voices are similar, giving
rise to the term 'short soprano' i.e. a
soprano without the highest notes. In
fact, many lyric mezzos with strong
extensions to their upper vocal
registers make the transition to singing
as sopranos at some point in their
careers.

DRAMATIC MEZZO SOPRANO

Dramatic mezzo-sopranos have ranges
very similar to a dramatic soprano. The
main difference is the endurance and
ease in which the two voice-types sing
a mezzo will concentrate singing
most of the time in her middle and low
registers and will go up to notes like
high B-flat only at the dramatic climax.
Consequently, many dramatic mezzosopranos have success in singing some
dramatic soprano roles that are written
with a lower tessitura.

CONTRALTO FACHS

DRAMATIC CONTRALTO

Stylistically similar to the dramatic

mezzo, just lower. Sings usually around
the break between the chest-voice and
middle-voice. Many mezzos tried their
luck in these roles, yet real altos fare
better. A deep, penetrating low female
voice. This is a very rare voice type
with a darker, richer sound than that of
a typical alto.

LOW CONTRALTO

TENOR FACHS

COUNTERTENOR
The highest male voice type, roughly
equivilent in pitch to mezzo-sopranos.
Countertenors were popular in the 17th
Century but fell out of fashion until the
the mid 20th Century roughly coinciding
with a boom in the popularity of Baroque
and other early music. The countertenor
range is roughly from the G below middle
C to a high F one octave above middle C.
These male singers achieve this high
lying range through the use of their head
voice (often called falsetto).
In opera countertenors largely take
Baroque roles, particularly those
originally given to Castrati. This voice
type has been seized upon by some
modern composers however, and has
been increasingly utilized in
contemporary opera.

LYRIC TENOR

Warm, bright and capable of hitting the

highest tenor notes with ease, lyric
tenors get some of the most charming
operatic roles. A fairly broad category,
these singers can range in tonal
colour, some much darker and fuller
with others lighter and brighter.

ACTING (COMIC) TENOR

comic tenor. It is quite possible for a

young comic tenor to eventually work
into the lighter lyric Tenor category;
the deciding factor will be the beauty
of voice.

HELDENTENOR
Literally translates as heroic tenor. This
is a vocal class largely introduced by
Wagner, a collection of parts with low,
almost baritonal, tessitura. They are
massive roles, requiring the singer
sustain a powerful sound over
enormously long periods making them
near unsingable.
Big, emotive and powerful, a dramatic
tenor is usually spared the blushes of
trying to hit a string of high notes but
must project a rich sound against
potent orchestral forces.

BARITONE FACHS

LYRIC BARITONE

Singing in a range from the A one and

a half octaves below middle C to the A
just above it, the lyric baritone is a
light, fruity deep male voice. These
tend towards comic parts but theyre
not without depth in some cases.
A sweet, mild sounding baritone voice,
lacking harshness. Many lyric baritone
roles call for some fioritura and
coloratura, a beautiful line, as well as a
charismatic presence.

CAVALIER BARITONE

A metallic voice, that can sing both

lyric and dramatic phrases, a manly
noble baritonal color, with good looks.
Not quite as powerful as the Verdi
baritone or Charakterbariton, who is
expected to have a powerful
appearance on stage, perhaps
muscular or physically large.

CHARACTER (VERDI) BARITONE

A voice particularly effective with

passages in its higher reaches. A high
tessitura vis-a-vis the range extremes.
A Verdi baritone refers to a voice
capable of singing consistently and
with ease in the highest part of the
baritone range, sometimes extending
up to the C above middle C, or "High
C." The Verdi baritone will generally
have a lot of squillo, or "ping.

HELDENBARITONE

Means 'heroic baritone'. In the German

opera houses a true Heldenbariton is a
prized possession: a singer with
exciting power and an authoritative
mature sound and production.

BASS FACHS

LYRIC BASS

Comical roles. Typical lyrical sound.

LOW BASS (BASSO PROFONDO)

Basso profondo is the lowest bass
voice type. According to J. B. Steane in
Voices, Singers, and Critics, the basso
profondo voice "derives from a method
of tone-production that eliminates the
more Italian quick vibrato. In its place
is a kind of tonal solidity, a wall-like
front, which may nevertheless prove
susceptible to the other kind of
vibrato, the slow beat or dreaded
wobble.
The lowest voice type in opera is the
basso profundo. These singers produce
a wall of rich, unending sound with
limited vibrato but enormous power.
The parts are mostly limited to older
male villains though not exclusively.

BASSO PROFUNDO

Lowest, most dramatic bass voice.