Is there any correlation between passaggios and tessitura?

Question

Particularly for male singers, is there a relationship between where the singer's "comfort zone" (tessitura) and where the passaggios lie? For instance, will the upper range of a singer's tessitura fall in the zona di passaggio between the first and second passaggios? Is it possible for the tessitura to extend over the upper end of the passaggio region?

Answer 1

Yes, there are correlations. Passagios tend to fall on certain notes for certain vocal types, and tessitura is a function of vocal type. And yes, tessitura often extends a little bit above the second passagio.

According to the page below, the following notes roughly correspond to these classical vocal types... but there is individual variation.

http://www.singwise.com/cgi-bin/main.pl?section=articles&doc=DeterminingVocalFach&page=2

Passaggi Locations For Male Voices

G3 and C4 -- low bass

Ab3 and Db4 -- lyric bass

A3 and D4 -- bass-baritone

Bb3 and Eb4 -- dramatic baritone

B3 and E4 -- lyric baritone

C4 and F4 -- baritone-tenor or the robust tenor

C#4 and F#4 -- dramatic tenor

D4 and G4 -- spinto tenor, may also reflect those of a lyric tenor

D#4 and G#4 -- light tenor

E4 (or F4) and A4 (or A#4) -- high tenor

Passaggi Locations For Female Voices

D4 (or Eb4) and D5 (or Eb5) -- contralto

Eb4 (or E4) and Eb5 (or E5) -- dramatic mezzo-soprano

E4 (or F4) and E5 (or F5) -- lyric mezzo-soprano

F4 (maybe lower for a long middle range/register) and F5 (or F#5) -- dramatic soprano

F#4 (or G4), (maybe lower for a long middle range/register) and F#5 (or G5) -- lyric soprano