Talk:The Ballad of Baby Doe

Synopsis source uncredited

The entire sysnopsis is lifted from http://www.tamswitmark.com/shows/ballad-of-baby-doe/ without credit or citation (or the other way around). The clue is that Act One has a scene-by-scene synopsis, but Act Two has a two-paragraph summary. Another good reference source could be the booklet provided for the Heliodor recording (HS 25035-3).Tgkohn (talk) 02:30, 7 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Baritone Lead

"It is one of the few operas that have a baritone male lead, instead of the usual tenor"

I'm sorry, but a baritone lead is hardly unusual with opera. In addition the examples given in the article:

Rigoletto from Rigoletto - baritone Figaro from the Marriage of Figaro - bass Wotan from Das Rheingold - bass-baritone Sweeney Todd from Sweeney Todd - bass-baritone The Flying Dutchman - bass-baritone Tony in The Most Happy Fella - baritone Ko-Ko from The Mikado - baritone Robin from Ruddigore - baritone Jack Point from The Yeomen of the Guard - baritone Don Giovanni - baritone —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.152.189.93 (talk) 17:23, 7 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A few points here. First, several of the above works are not operas but operettas/musicals. Second, in general the baritone voice is relegated to supporting roles. The vast majority of operas do cast a tenor in the lead. I guess it all depends on how you define "few". While I am sure there are hundreds of operas with a baritone lead, there are thousands with a tenor lead. Consider the major composers. The vast majority of Verdi, Donizetti, Puccini, Massenet, Gounod, Gluck, Handel, Wagner, Cavalli, Berlioz, and Bizet operas have tenor leads. Mozart and Rossini for sure wrote a good number of operas starring baritones, but that's a relatively unusual habit for composers. Perhaps a better sentence would be "relatively few".Nrswanson (talk) 21:17, 7 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Your assertion that "the above works are not operas but operettas/musicals" is specious. Rigoletto, The Marriage of Figaro, Das Rheingold, and The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) are without question opera. Notwithstanding your quibble, it is indeed true that 70% of operas have a tenor for the lead male role, but 30% is large enough to cast doubt on a statement that "few operas have a baritone male lead". Let's simply make the edit to remove the stretching comparison to 400 years of opera literature.Tgkohn (talk) 02:41, 7 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]