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 Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer, Wotan/Der Wanderer in the Ring Cycle and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Wagner labelled these roles as Hoher Bass ("high bass")—see fach for more details.

The bass-baritone voice is distinguished by two attributes. First, it must be capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Secondly, however, it needs to have the ripely resonant lower range typically associated with the bass voice. For example, the role of Wotan in Die Walküre covers the range from F at the bottom of the bass clef to F# above middle C, but only infrequently descends beyond the C below middle C. Bass-baritones are typically divided into two separate categories: lyric bass-baritone and dramatic bass-baritone.

Thomas Quasthoff (born November 9, 1959) is a German bass-baritone. Although his reputation was initially based on his performance of Romantic lieder, Quasthoff has proven to have a remarkable range from the Baroque cantatas of Bach to solo jazz improvisations.

Quasthoff was born in Hildesheim, Germany, with serious birth defects caused by his mother's exposure during pregnancy to the drug thalidomide which was prescribed as an antiemetic to combat her morning sickness. Thomas Quasthoff is 4' 4¾" (1.34 m) [1] tall due to shortening of the long bones in his legs, and he has phocomelia of the upper extremities with very short or absent long bones.

Quasthoff was denied admission to the music conservatory in Hanover, Germany, owing to his physical inability to play the piano, rather than a lack of skill required for entry to the conservatory. In the early stages of his education as a singer, Quasthoff was promoted by Sebastian Peschko. Thus, he chose to study voice privately. He also studied law for three years. Prior to his music career, he worked six years as a radio announcer for NDR. He also did voice-over work for television.

Jeffrey Black (born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 1962), is an internationally acclaimed opera singer. He studied singing at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and appeared in many of the operas staged by the Conservatorium students and post-graduate students, including appearing in the role of "Figaro", as a First year Opera Student, in the Conservatorium's 1981 production of The Marriage of Figaro, at the Basil Jones Theatre (now called the QUT Gardens Theatre), (which was the Conservatorium's location prior to its move to its present location at South Bank).

Jeffrey Black won the Marianne Mathy Scholarship in the Australian Singing Competition in 1983 and the Armstrong-Martin Scholarship in 1985.

Jeffrey Black made his operatic debut as a principal singer with the Australian Opera in 1984. He made his United Kingdom debut at Glyndebourne in 1986. ,

He currently resides in Barnes, southwest London, UK with his wife Janice, son James and daughter Tiffany. Black's son has diabetes, and he has been active in fundraising, in support of his cause.

Richard Paul (June 6, 1940 – December 25, 1998) was an American actor who was born in Los Angeles, California. He was able to imitate most American and many foreign dialects. He had a tenor voice and trained with Lee Sweetland.

Richard had a B.A. in public affairs from Claremont Men's College and an M.A. in psychology from California State University at Los Angeles. He was near completion of his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, but gave up his career as a therapist to become a full time performer.

Richard Paul was nicknamed "Pige Paul" by Slim Pickens while filming an episode of The Love Boat (1977) after local pigeons anointed a new suit jacket.

Richard was also a frequent panelist on Match Game in the 1980s. From 1977 to 1979 he portrayed Mayor Teddy Burnside in Carter Country, and later played the recurring character of Cabot Cove Mayor, Sam Booth, in Murder, She Wrote.

He was cast as Dr. Bob Halyers in the "Clean Up Radio Everywhere" episode of WKRP in Cincinnati (1978) because of his resemblance to Rev. Jerry Falwell. Paul played Falwell himself twice: once in Fall From Grace, a Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker TV movie made in 1990, and then in The People vs. Larry Flynt in 1996.

Franz Peter Schubert (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁants ˈʃuːbɛɐ̯t]; 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer.

Although he died at the age of 31, Schubert was a prolific composer, having written some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. Appreciation of Schubert's music during his lifetime was limited, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, among others, discovered and championed his works in the 19th century. Today, Schubert is seen as one of the leading exponents of the early Romantic era in music and he remains one of the most frequently performed composers.

Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of Alsergrund), Vienna, on 31 January 1797. His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, the son of a Moravian peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother, Elisabeth Vietz, was the daughter of a Silesian master locksmith, and had also been a housemaid for a Viennese family prior to her marriage. Of Franz Theodor's fourteen children (one illegitimate child was born in 1783), nine died in infancy; five survived. Their father was a well-known teacher, and his school in Lichtental, a part of Vienna's 9th district, was well attended. He was not a musician of fame or with formal training, but he taught his son some elements of music.