Joseph Caillot (24 January 1733, in

Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois The Church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois () is a medieval Roman Catholic church in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, directly across from the Louvre Palace. It was named for Saint Germanus of Auxerre, a medieval bishop of Auxerre, who became a papal ...

, Paris – 30 September 1816, in Paris) was a French actor and singer. He was endowed with a very wide

compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...

which enabled him to sing as a basse taille (

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three ...

), while also reaching the

haute-contre The ''haute-contre'' (plural ''hautes-contre'') was the primary French operatic tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera, from the middle of the seventeenth century until the latter part of the eighteenth century. History ...

tones. According to

Rodolfo Celletti Rodolfo Celletti (1917–2004) was an Italian musicologist, critic, voice teacher, and novelist. Considered one of the leading scholars of the operatic voice and the history of operatic performance, he published many books and articles on the subje ...

"he was a

baritenor Baritenor (also rendered in English-language sources as bari-tenor or baritenore) is a portmanteau (blend) of the words "baritone" and "tenor". It is used to describe both baritone and tenor voices. In ''Webster's Third New International Dictionar ...

and a

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

at the same time": Grétry and Monsigny used to notate his parts in the

bass clef A clef (from French: 'key') is a musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical staff. Placing a clef on a staff assigns a particular pitch to one of the five lines or four spaces, whi ...

, but set them in high-

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

tessiture.''Voce di tenore'', Milan, Idealibri, 1989, p. 59,

References

Bibliography

*Émile Campardon, '' Les Comédiens du roi de la troupe italienne'', Paris, Berger-Levrault et C^ie, 1880, vol. I, pp. 85–95. 1733 births 1816 deaths Male actors from Paris French male stage actors 18th-century French male opera singers 18th-century French male actors {{France-stage-actor-stub