Michael Spyres is NOT a Baritenor
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- Michael Spyres' Performance Schedule shows that he only performs tenor roles live on stage:
www.operabase....
A video that debates the premise that Michael Spyres is a baritenor.
Featuring; Michael Spyres, Alfredo Kraus, Mario Filippeschi, Mario Del Monaco, Ramon Vinay and Lawrence Brownlee.
Look at Michael Spyres' performance history he is only performing tenor roles actively. He only sings some baritone parts in the studio and on some limited recitals alongside a piano. He does not do baritone roles actively. There is link to Michael Spyres' performance Schedule in the description. Some people would say that Michael Spyres is an early bel canto or Rossini type of baritenor. Obviously he does not think so, otherwise he wouldn't be singing a duet from Verdi's Otello, that is obviously meant for a dramatic tenor. He also sing Tristain, Pagliacci, Tosca and Carmen. So he is trying to do normal Italian heaver roles, rather than bel canto roles.
Spyres darkens his voice more and sometimes less during some of these examples, but there is no real robustness or power in his voice, his voice remains very light. He is basically playing around with the colour of his voice. The idea of the baritenor became popular with Donzelli. At 18 he did start as very light tenor. But his voice changed, he obviously did not sing high notes with chest voice. The tessitura of the operas that was created for him was that of a dramatic tenor in today's world.
Donzelli was not known for his nuances and delicacy, people revered him for the power of his voice. He was viewed in a differently light to the normal Rossini and Donizetti tenors of the day. Why shouldn't we just assume that this was a dramatic tenor? Dramatic tenors often start as baritones, Melchior is a more recent example of this. In Rossini's era many dramatic tenors (of today) were likely baritones in that era. I don't think it is a strange idea to expect some vocal power, strength and a bigger size of voice around the dramatic tenor or baritenor voice type.
It is certainly interesting, that Spyres is playing around with the colour of his voice. I am not saying he is a bad singer at all, he is obviously one of the best around today, but he is not a baritenor.
Thanks for the insight into the history of terms!! As long as you think he's a good singer, that's all I care about!
Spyres is able to sing both baritones and tenors roles. He is actually a baritone with an extreme mixed voice developement. The only question is : is he a good baritone and a good tenor. The answer is yes. Is he able to sing properly on 3 octaves. The answer is yes. So you can qualify him as a Baritenor
I am not saying he is not a good singer, he is a good tenor but he is not baritenor. He only actively sings tenor roles. He does not sing baritone roles actively. The baritone roles were studio recordings, a TV special and few recitals with a piano. Most tenors can sing low notes, the question is about being audible. Baritone is a more natural voice type whereas tenors need a lot more training. Male voices are naturally low. Most tenors can sing down to around G2 - F2 and some even down to C2. Domingo became to old for tenor roles and he switched to baritone roles, which he doesn't sing that well either but reaching the lower notes is not a problem for him.
Hm… I didn’t see you compare any of their technique, just juxtaposing different recordings on top of each other. I don’t think this really proves your point.
Agree. I dont feel like I learned anything.
Vocal size matters there is huge difference between Rossini and Wagner or Verdi. I tried my best to actually equalize the sound between different recordings. No, it is not perfect all. Today's editing is so much better. Nothing is added to YT without heavy sound editing today. Spyres recorded the early era bel canto roles, but he did not really sing them live. He sings more normal heavy spinto and dramatic repertoire live. I am not saying wouldn't be able to perform this studio material, the problem is we just don't know. If you perform spinto and dramatic reperiotre as a baritenor than vocal size does matter.
@@jefolson6989 That is my fault I really tried to keeps things as simple as possible. I should have explained my position a bit better. The idea or concept of a baritenor comes with certain characteristics. The idea of a baritenor first appeared in the early bel canto era of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini ext. ext.
Some roles such as Pollione in Norma was created for Donzelli, he was one of the most popular singers of the era and a baritenor. His voice was very different to the other tenors of the era, obviously tenors did not sing high notes with heavy chest voice in this era.
He did not sing with any great subtlety, he was known for having a very robust and powerful voice. The roles that are written for him have the tessitura of a modern dramatic tenor. Some roles like Licinius in La Vestale have been sung by baritones and tenors.
i do understand that KajiVolcals are saying that Spyres is a baritenor in this old bel canto tradition. But is not how Michael Spyres is being represented and he does not represent himself in that manner. the idea of what exactly baritenors sounded like or what voice type they would be today is debatable because no one knows how these singers sounded.
I give an example where Syres sings the Otello love duet. Verdi's Otello and Rossini's Otello are complete opposites. Verdi's Otello is a dramatic tenor role. So he is not representing himself as simply being an early bel canto singer when he attempts late era Verdi.
Basically Spyres changes the colour of his voice to sing these different parts. But colour alone does not indicate voice type. The early baritenors had robust voices according to many accounts. That means strong, powerful and big voices. Spyres' vocal size does not indicate that he is a singer in this category. Of course we don't know what strong or robust implies in early bel canto tradition. It might not be as strong as dramatic verimo tenors or heldentenors of the modern era, they also enjoyed castrati.
It is very difficult to tell the vocal size today from recordings. Older opera fans do not realize how much sound editing goes into everything that is released today. Just as an example, the live broadcasts of the Met are heavily edited. Every singer wears a close microphone. (No, I am not saying that they are being amplified within the Met at all).
That is the beauty of social media and live streaming, they can simply editing the voices live. They edit the voices that are broadcasted or uploaded to popular social media platforms.
Thousands of people will see videos on social media and live streaming services while very few people will actually see these performances live within the theatre.
According the main sound engineer of The Met, they edit their live broadcasts to sound like someone is watching the opera from the 3rd row. That is all well and good, but are they editing the voices to sound like Mario Del Monaco from the 3rd row of The Met, or Barry Morell?
We as the audience receive a carefully constructed product, unless you have access to some bootlegs, or you have been able to see many performances with many different singers and you known how they actually sound live in comparison to others (that would likely be 1% of all opera fans), you really have no idea about how voices really sound live.
Over the years music have become more and more compressed, that means softer sounds are made louder. You lose dynamics range, but people act more positively towards loudness within recordings than dynamics.
I simply attempted to equalize the volume between recordings, which is far more fair when people have a natural preference for louder sounds. And I also equalized the volume to try and show the size of the voice. It is certainly not a perfect science, but all recordings receive so much editing that it creates a false illusion of the size of the voice. I believe a baritenor should have a strong and robust voice. That means it should be a big voice. You can change the colour of your voice, and you can make your voice softer, but it is next to impossible to fake the volume of the voice. That is a far more reliable method for determining voice type than colour, studio recordings, edited recording or repertoire.
I am not insulting Spyres, I used certain criteria to determine his voice type. Saying that Spyres is not a baritenor is not some type of insult.
I think you are the commentor that believes that there are no Italian dramatic tenors, because Italian heavy reperiore are spinto roles except for Otello. If Spyres was only singing early era bel canto you could perhaps have made this argument of him being an early bel canto specialist baritenor. But he tries his hand at Otello and other heavier roles as well. In the more modern era, or early 20th century times you get singers like Vinay who sang tenor and baritone roles successfully, Melchior started as a baritone. Spyres has nothing in common with singers like Vinay or the heldentenor types like Melchior.
The way you’re using the term baritenor is not how it was historically used and THAT is how Michael uses the term baritenor. He is precisely what Andrea Nozzari, Giovanni David, Manuel Garcia and Gaetano Crivelli were.
The idea of the baritenor became popular with Donzelli. At 18 he did start as very light tenor. But his voice changed, he obviously did not sing high notes with chest voice. The tessitura of the operas that was created for him was that of a dramatic tenor in today's world. He was not known for his nuances and delicacy, people revered him for the power of his voice. He was viewed in a differently light to the normal Rossini and Donizetti tenors of the day. Why shouldn't we just assume that this was a dramatic tenor? Dramatic tenors often start as baritones, Melchior is a more recent example of this. In Rossini's era many dramatic tenors (of the modern era) were likely baritones in that era. I don't think it is a strange idea to expect some vocal power, strength and a bigger size of voice around the dramatic tenor or baritenor voice type. That being said what they thought about as robust in that era is not same as today.
You are saying that early bel canto is different and that in those terms Spyres would be baritenor. His normal repertoire is Carmen, Tosca, Tristian, Pagliacci, La Vestale, Norma. So he must be thinking of himself more as a dramatic tenor if you look at his active roles. The early bel canto baritenor part was mostly studio performances and a few live recitals with a piano.
Spyres darkens his voice but his voice is still extremely lightweight. Compare him to Filippeschi.
Filippeschi also had somewhat of a darker voice but Filippeschi's voice also still remained lightweight, however is obviously a more robust voice than that of Spyres.
Spyres obviously darkens his voice more and sometimes less during some of these examples, but there is no real heft, power or weight behind the darkness in his voice. He is basically playing around with the colour of his voice. The colour of the voice is not the only attribute that says something about the voice. It is certainly interesting hat he doing, I am not saying he is a bad singer at all, he is obviously one of the best around today, but he is not baritenor, either in the traditional bel canto or in the heldentenor types of way. But I have read before that you see him as more similar to Jadlowker as dramatic singing with very good flexibility or something, that is a fascinating idea.
I was going to say the same thing
1:15 lo estas comparando con un tenor ligero
Si comparas a j. Kaufman con kraus también va a parecer barítono , existen varios tipo de tenores
Exactly, perhaps you did not understand the English descriptions? I am saying that Spyres in not a baritenor, I am comparing the size of the voices not the colour of the voice. And I do compare him to different types of tenors, like a spinto, dramatic and baritenor. You can fake the colour of the voice, Kaufman is an obvious example.He darkens his voice, but he actually has a very small voice. But I don't want to compare Spyres to Kaufman I think he is far better than Kaufman, and he does not darken his voice to that extend.
I thought the Rossini Otello duet was quite good and amusing by both.
They were good and very entertaining, I didn't imply that they were not good. I simply said these are both leggero tenors singing a Rossini duet.
You made a very cogent argument about the difficulty of saying anything certain about voices from recordings, and indeed now in the house, where despite naïve contrary views, ‘enhancements’ are certainly part of the performance. What chiefly strikes me about Spyres TH-cam clips is that no matter what he sings, from stratospheric Rossini to Énée to Tristan, the sound is equally present, never overwhelmed, often helped by added reverberation. This cannot correspond to acoustical reality, which leaves one only to comment on the timbre of the voice, which I find pasty and thin as a tenor, more attractive as a baritone.
Thanks. The Met openly admits that they edit live broadcast sound like someone is listen to the performance from the 3rd row on the theatre. Does that mean Mario Del Monaco from the 3rd row or Barry Morell? We have no idea. Unless you have access to bootlegs there is no way to tell the size of the voice from recordings that have been edited. It is interesting that you like him more as a baritone. there are many good baritone around. I think it would be difficult to really say. People also though Domingo would be a better baritone than a tenor, and that has not really materialized.
On the topic of the size of the voice do bigger voices have more squillo than a lighter voice or is it pure volume? is it true the only dramatic voices generate squillo in the lower range as well as the middle and upper range?
Generally yes, bigger voices tend to have more squillo.
Yes, I think that is generally true, dramatic voice does tend to have more squillo at a lower range. Thus I think it might also have something to do with the weight of voice and the power of the voice. Lyric tenors like Pavarotti for example has the most squillo on B4 and C5 notes. That is where a lyric tenor has the most power in their voice. In dramatic tenor voices they can often generate suillo from F4 and sometimes lower, and of course on their high notes as well. That is where their voices have the most power and volume.
As for why I think it might not work in opera, there are a few reasons. The one reason being as I explained in that other video I made. A lyric Baritone or a Baryton-Martin is a very light and lyrical voice. So what exactly will they sing? Will they sing spinto and dramatic repertoire? Having a more lighter voice for these roles would not necessarily be a good idea. More dramatic operas such as Otello and Fanciulla Del West, requires a lot of power or a big voice. Spinto roles can be tricky some of them have quite a high tessitura. It not about range, but tessitura. Even the really dramatic tenors can struggle a bit with some spinto roles, like Manrico for example. There are not particular high notes if you exclude the interloped C on the pira, but this can be a challenging role. And some of the other lyric repertoire might just be to high and difficult. Baritones tends to sing more different types of roles, but this is of course not the same for tenors. Roles such as Cavaradossi and Rodolfo might be possible.
Take Thomas Hampson as an example he did a more baritone version of Werther. He did not think about trying to do a version of Otello. Werther is one of Kraus' best roles, of the dramatic tenors it is only Corelli who performed this role. This is not exactly a role that is often performed by big voiced tenors.
The same is true of Ramon Vinay when he sang baritone, he did not sing Rossini, he sang Verdi baritone roles, because he had a dramatic voice, whether he sang tenor or baritone that did not change. The same is true in reverse as well, Del Monaco liked singing Largo Al Factotum he could hit all of the notes, but he did not sing it particularly well. His voice was too heavy and inflexible for that light repertoire.
Perhap a lyric baritone would be able to sing Wagner. roles, I think that might work.
From that perspective I think it is easier for a tenor to switch between tenor and baritone roles.
@@ZENOBlAmusic It's hard for both tenors to sing baritone roles and baritones to sing tenor roles. But one of the advantages that a tenor singing baritone would have over baritones singing tenor would be that even though their low notes would likely not be heard across an entire orchestra, they would still be less likely to strain their voices.
All singers have ( or should have) squillo to varying degrees . It's what give it brightness and carrying power. Without it, all the muscles in the world won't help with volume. Like Alredo. He sings in a light voice, but it carried for miles.
Melchior was a true baritenor
Correct
Yes!
Ramon Vinay too.
@@vitormrmr True again!
Corelli was not included.Should have been a good comparison.
Mr. Corelli should always be somewhere. Corelli was classified as a bel canto baritenor by Rodolfo Celletti. lol
@@ZENOBlAmusic Well, he wasn't.
@@giselamarch1994 No, he wasn't a baritenor either.
I will say, sometimes he overdarkens, and sometimes he overbrightens. Either way, he makes fake sounds all the time. It's hard, for me personally, to actually give him an actual voice type when he doesn't have fully established technique. But I will say though, he does have more resonance when he sings brightened than when he sings dark, and that really tells us something about him.
Also a baritoner can also mean a high baritone 🤷
Yes, I think that might be true, especially in music theatre and contemporary music. High baritones can easily sing high notes in the tenor range with mixed voice. There are a few high baritones in pop music and people just assume they are tenors. I think Ed Sheeran might be one of these singers (I am not 100% sure I haven't looked into his music enough to make a 100% conclusion). Then again it is also sometimes a matter of technique, people also thought Harry Styles was a baritone, but his technique improved and he is obviously not a baritone. But of course it is interesting to notice that mixed voice makes the voice lighter and softer, in order to sing higher. And it is easy to sing high notes softly with a microphone. For example, I have read from some music engineers that Chris Cornell's high notes in reality used to be more like the soft whispers. Now, I don't think he was a baritone, but it certainly helps that you can sing very softly and closer to falsetto, and a microphone will pick it up.
Covering and singing opera is obviously the opposite.
Therefore I am not sure that the same is true for opera.
@@ZENOBlAmusic Yes I agree Cornell sounds like either a dramatic or a spinto tenor to me. And Ed Sheeran artificially lightens and brightens his voice a lot and I agree that he's probably a higher baritone who makes a fake tenor timbre and vocal weight.
@@ZENOBlAmusic Also, there's an operatic bass who can sing C5 in mixed voice. It's not true chest voice, but I was surprised he could do it.
A high baritone is acceptable but take the same range and call him a low tenor and he is out of business. There is an infinite variety 9f human shapes. It's crazy to try to fit them neatly into 3 categories per gender.
@@jefolson6989 I agree that it's hard to sing in the range of 3 voice types at once
I'll just say this once: A lyric tenor can be a baritenor if he has good low notes in my opinion. But yes I agree that Spyres doesn't have as deep of a voice as he may think in his own head. But if he heard me say that, he'd likely accept it as a compliment because he always wanted to be a tenor anyways lol. But it's not just the size of the voice that makes a voice, it's also how the technique is. He has technical difficulties, meaning that his voice could likely be just a tad bigger if he had better technique. If I had to make a hazard guess, he's likely a full-lyric tenor who just happens to sing thin due to flaws in his technique. With Juan Diego Florez, it's more obvious on his voice type because he's higher lying than Spyres by quite a bit.
There are some leggero tenors that have good lower extension. Light lyric tenor tend to never have good low notes. lol (In my opinion). A full lyric tenor might have better low notes. But I think a huge problem is simply recordings in general, this have created ideas about voices that are not true. I do think size is really the most important factor in opera. We are currently in a place where vocals are always enhanced, even so called live performances, have enhanced vocals. No, I am not saying that they are using secret microphones or any of these conspiracies. They don't have to use secret microphones with today's technology.
During the 50's and up to the 80's people used to record bootlegs of live performances, so we had a much better record of how these singers used to sound live. But the live vocal enhancements already started to appear in the 80's. The Met have always broadcasted live performances, but from the 80's these broadcasts were specifically controlled. What they release to the public, on these recording is not how the singers would sound live in-house. This trend only became stronger over the years. So even the "live" performances that we get today are carefully controlled, edited and selected. It is very convenient especially these days, a few hundred people may see a real live performance, but on youtube thousand of viewers can see a performance. Here are a few tenors singing the low Bb2 note in Infano Alvero:
th-cam.com/video/7_4tHY59wYM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=nRxrNJpptteQisGt
The light lyric tenors are really bad.
That is a very long way to say that what we generally hear is very deceptive. Warm lyrical voices can sound as if they are big and as if have a lot of weight. This trend already started with Caruso. He was a lyric tenor and later a lyric spinto tenor with a warm voice. And now many people think he was a dramatic tenor. I do think he had a good sized voice, but he was certainly not a dramatic tenor. He was the lyric tenor of his day, other tenors such as Paoli and Tamagno were the real dramatic tenors of the day. But when you hear Tamagno's voice on recordings, it does not sound like a particularly dark or big voice, but from all accounts he had a big voice with lots of squillo. Size of the voice is far more significant then the colour of the voice
@@ZENOBlAmusic Okay respectable. At least I like that you're being polite about disagreeing.
And coluratira sopranos can sing mezzo, but they don't. Why would they? Spyres is in his own category. No once else has had simultaneous careers as tenor and barotone. Vinay sanf tenor, then baritone, then bass, but not at the same time. He wasn't a baritenor. He was a former tenor, then a baritone etc.
Spyres ( as tenor) is lyrico-spinto, plus the agility of a leggero. As a baritone, he's just another baritone. Other singers could do this, but why?
So many tenors are classified as baritones because they have better low notes than high notes. 1st lesson and they are labeled a baritone. Ruins many a good voice. Happened to me. I tried to fatten it up to make a baritone sound with further shrunk upper range as the low notes turned to dust. I gave up . Terribly dissapointed until I found a good teacher. Spyres seems very knowledgeable about vocal mechanic and is mostly self taught I believe. Watch him on the SCREAMING DIVA podcast.
@ZENOBlAmusic sounds like unhinged conspiracy theory to me. While they may twiddle the nobs for broadcasts, there aren't " live enhacements" . If there were, it would cause a huge scandal and no one at the Met could keep it secret.
There is no such thing as a dramatic tenor. Because other than perhaps Otello there are no roles written for dramatic tenor in Italian. The heavier roles are sung by spintos. Some tenors are more dramatic on stage than others but if they are called dramatic tenors it is because they have big voices. One could argue that Jon Vickers and Mario del Monaco were dramatic tenors. They sang spinto roles.
Spyres, nonobstant son registre, sa large tessiture, garde son timbre de ténor rossinien et ne supporte évidemment pas la comparaison avec Del Monaco dans l'Otello de Verdi. Caruso: registre ténor timbre basse, Chaliapine: registre baryton timbre basse, Ramey registre basse timbre baryton, Bastianini registre baryton timbre basse ...
Some of those I don’t agree with. Such as Samuel Ramey who has a very bass timbre, though we can at least agree he has a bass tessitura.
@@bradycall1889 Oui, beaucoup de chanteurs, avec l'âge, prennent du grave (mais Domingo n'aura jamais le i du baryton, un contre exemple Bergonzi fit d'abord carrière en baryton!). Les basses naturelles (Siepi, Ghiaurov ...) ont un grave ample mais souvent moins appuyé que celui des filiformes comme Ramey (en France Depraz) qui, avec l'âge, prennent aussi de l'amplitude, ce qui leur donne une sonorité énorme. En basse rossinienne, Ramey est un phénomène inégalé.
If he SAYS he is a baritenor, thats what he is. Or you can say he is a baritone with an incredible upper range or a tenor with great low range. He is unique whatever you call him. Its not unusual for baritones to have tenorish high but most cant handle the tessitura.
I don't agree with the concept of self-identification.
He is only performing tenor roles, so he is a tenor. Lyric tenor most likely he voice became a bit darker or heavier. Anyone can identify as anything, I would love be a bass, but that is never going to happen. I am not saying there is anything wrong Spyres, it stange ho some people think it is an insult if you don't agree that he is a baritenor.
You can find tenors with more and less penitrating upper notes than the example of Spyres. And example of Spyers with more as well. Your effort here is not showing what you think. It may show resentment. Some folk resent other's achievements instead of feeling inspired. That is the essence of all bad character.
You don't seem to understand, I am not insulting Spyres at all, I am using normal well established criteria to determine voice type. I am saying he is not baritenor, he is a leggero or a light lyric tenor, how is that an insult? To determine the voice type I use vocal size, leggero tenors have small voices that are flexible, heavier tenors have big voices that are less flexible. You are the one that obviously have a problem with small voices if you think I somehow insulted Spyres, I actually wrote in the video that he is a good leggero tenor.
@ZENOBlAmusic It was not me who argued you are insulting. That is some straw man you may have created. My feedback to you was about not showing what you thought you were showing. The examples you used did not have the meaning you assumed. And how your effort makes you look resentful.
@@jjgdo1 I tried to keeps things simple. Perhaps I should have explained every voice type a bit better. It is actual simple, small voices are very flexible they can do coloratura and they mostly have higher voices. Kraus is an example, he is one of the best tenors and he had a small voice. (I basically assumed this idea would be understood). Dramatic tenors and heldentenors which are closest to baritenors have big, robust and powerful voices, they are not good with coloratura, but they tend to be better with lower notes and they sing over big orchestras. I did not use coloratura as a characteristic, because there not many examples of dramatic tenors doing coloratura, it is nonexistent in dramatic tenor roles, expect for Norma. But it is done in such a way that most dramatic tenors cope with it, well enough. Vocal colour is completely deceptive, singers can simply change the colour of the voice. Kaufman sings with artificial darkness. Size is the most reliable way to determine voice types in opera.
English is not my first language but looking in the Merriam Webster, "resentment" can have different interpretations. As a grude it could mean malice or spitefulness, as a grievance it could mean offence or hostility. In anger it can mean insult, ire or irritation. So I don't think that qualifies a strawman argument.
But I do thank you, you made me realize that I should perhaps explain the topic more in depth. I am planning on making another "this singer is not this voice type", video soon, I also have an older one on Freddie Mercury. Everyone has their own feelings and experiences situations differently, so I understand your feeling of perceived resentment.
@ZENOBlAmusic yes please take it as feed back on how the video can come across to some curmudgeons like myself. Resentment as in wishing something was not as it is. In this case you wish the understanding of his voice was as you explain and you are trying to effect this. My view is that men biologically are not as separated in catgories as thr catagories imply. Just having catagories pushes us to try and fit each man into one and moves our view of them to match up with the catagories.
You are not saying anything interesting and your claims are lacking validity.
To start with "A baritenor is...." where did you take this definition from? Lack of reference makes your point invalid, because if that definition comes from your grandmother... well, you have wasted a lot of time producing this video (that sounds very trollish to me)
A lot of this information are common knowledge in opera circles, there is a general idea of how certain voices are supposed to sound, and they have certain characteristics. Roles requires certain characteristics, and people have grouped these roles together. The information is everywhere, even on Wikipedia, some blogs, opera forums such operaclick.
There are two concepts around baritenors, they first appeared in the early bel canto period from around 1800 - 1840. They were really made popular by Donzelli, he was a baritenor. A few roles such as Pollione in Norma was created for him. he was viewed quite differently from other bel canto specialist at the time. He wasn't that good with cadenzas, coloratura or trills, which was extremely popular at the time, but people loved him because he had a very powerful voice. He sang high notes with reinforced falsetto, not with strong chest voice, that appeared with Gilbert Duprez.
Looking at the descriptions of his voice that is available, and if you look at the tessitura of the roles that was created for him, he was very likely a dramatic tenor. In the modern era from around 1880 - 1980. The roles that was created for Donzelli was simply performed by dramatic or spinto tenors.
Of course no one really knows how he sounds, it all educated guess work. You can read some bel canto history from Rodolfo Celletti "A History of Bel Canto".
Many heldentenors from the prewar era started as baritones (like Svanholm and Melchior), as a result heldentenors are sometimes viewed as being baritenors, since some of them did sing both baritone and tenor roles. And the tessitura of heldentenors roles can be quite low for many tenors.
The two trains of school is as follow. Some people believe that baritenors should be early bel canto specialist, and they mostly had light voices, likely full lyric tenors or lyric baritones that could sing lower or higher. They did not need huge voices during this period, the orchestras where smaller with gut strings. That is one idea.
The other idea is that baritenors are dramatic tenor in today's world. Spyres record early bel canto orks. But live on stage he performs as tenor, he is performing some heavier roles like Pagliacci, and he sings some Wagner, so he is actively selling himself as a modern baritenor. These types of singers have certain characteristics, they have strong and power voices without much flexibility generally. I used vocal size as my main criteria. There is nothing wrong with having a small voice, there are many great singers like Scipa and Kraus who had small voices. The size of the voice simply gives you an idea about the voice type.