Low male voice repertoire in contemporary musical theatre: a studio and performance guide of selected songs 1996-2020 by

Vocal Considerations 
Musical Style. This piece was originally sung in the contemporary legit style by Michel Bell, a 
bass-baritone who found success in musical theatre and operatic works. He has performed Porgy in 
productions of Porgy and Bess around the world, as well as operatic and concert work with companies 
like Michigan Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, New York Philharmonic, and the Berlin Radio 
Orchestra. His voice has been described as “impossibly deep and luxurious” and one “that rumbles from 

---

23 
the center of the earth”
10
, and Frank Wildhorn has crafted a piece where the tessitura will allow for such 
sonorous tones, but with light enough orchestration that non-classical low male voices will not be 
overpowered, and text can be performed clearly. The legit style expects some deference from diction 
towards timbre quality, particularly in regard to sustained tones, and expects a prevalence of spun tone. 
Range. (E
2
– E
4
) This piece has quite a low range, where multiple low Es and F#s are asked of 
the singer, despite some of them being written with closed vowels, or preceded by a consonant pair. This 
would either require a true bass for whom resonance already comes fairly easy in that range (free and 
resonant speech already occurring in the E
♭
2
-G
2
range), or with a bass-baritone singer who has the ability 
(aided by technique) to achieve secure tones in the same low range, despite the more closed vowels which 
occur within the repeated melodies such as [naɪt], [praɪd], and [terz]. 
Vocalism. As indicated above, this is a piece where bel canto methods of singing and aiming for 
a classical aesthetic would be highly beneficial in creating a dramatic and intense performance. There are 
also several places in the piece where one could sing on the voiced consonants to help emphasize text and 
the declamatory nature of each pleading phrases, thus utilizing elements of musical theatre style as well.
The climax of this piece could be performed in many options. This note would probably be just above the 
secondo passaggio for most LMVs, and thus there could be a discussion on the modification of vowel in 
terms of resonance strategies on its melodic approach, or discovery of belt or mixed tones in that range.
As the climactic E
4
is on the near-closed, near-front vowel in the word [sɪŋ] preceded by a fifth 
leap, a performer has a variety of choices for phonatory practices. The [ɪ] could be opened significantly 
towards a [ɛ] with the goal of creating an F1/H2 acoustic coupling for an open powerful timbre and chest 
voice dominant production, or conversely, the [ɪ] could be closed slightly towards the [i] vowel in head 
register for a whoop coupling (F1/H1), creating a “’hootier’ full, deep, timbre that is less brassy than open 
10
“Michel Bell.” Musica Mica, accessed August 17, 2020, https://www.michelbell.com. 

---

24 
timbre.”
11
The first option will result in a modified but impactful pronunciation and musical climax in the 
legit style while the latter is a technically proficient, overtly classical choice with a significant change in 
timbre from the beginning of the phrase.
For a novice bass voice to gain facility towards success for either of the phonation practices 
above, work should first be done to develop CT-dominant registration practices in falsetto and light head 
voice. This will encourage cricothyroid muscle development with a lower laryngeal space and 
necessitated energized airflow, working towards developing dynamic control around the second passaggio 
while practicing with low glottal flow resistance. Exercises on 5-4-3-2-1 descending scalar patterns in 
falsetto, alternating [i] and [u] and incorporating a light to heavy modal voice upon the arrival on the root 
would be beneficial towards finding a successful registration balance for the climactic E
4
of this piece.
Another approach is to use semi-occluded exercises around and through the second register break; what 
follows is a three phrase exercise which uses lip trill, soft “vf” sound (as if one simple stopped the trill but 
continued with the same breath and tonal approach), and train for a final mix to full voice approach from 
[vi] to [I] as noted.