Michael Roy and Sheila Marchant Barish were a vocal duo performing up and down the Gold Coast in South Florida for years in the '70's & '80's.  The pairing of a bass-baritone with a soprano would seem to be an incongruity, but both singers had wide vocal ranges which worked to make the collaboration successful.  For years, the two performed leading roles together in professional productions of musicals and opera: La Boheme, My Fair Lady, Der Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, Pagliacci, and The Fantastiks.  They also appeared with the Miami Beach Symphony on multiple occasions. 

 

   

    Here is a personal word from Michael Roy about Sheila and his thoughts on the duo act in those days:

 

I have always been foremost a singer but next in priority, I am an arranger/composer and orchestrator.  I've had the great privilege of writing for a few great sopranos in my career.  I add Sheila Marchant Barish to that small and select pantheon of towering sopranos with whom I have collaborated.  It was fun writing for Sheila, but also surreal. Being a lyric coloratura, her upper range seemed endless. Her practical singing range was 3 octaves — maybe more. I never actually identified her last ascending note, but I confidently wrote above high 'C' for her in order to display that mind-bending upper range and she sang them with such ease, I knew there was more room up there; but what does an arranger do with those kind of notes?  The piccolo solo in "Stars and Stripes Forever" is already taken.

 

Mean range was only a part of her show-stopping abilities.  She was also a angelic entity, with too much natural beauty to be controlled by one personage, and she had a personality and verve that lit up the stage.  Add to this her ample classically-trained piano abilities, and you have a consummate package of musicianship, beauty and talent.  All I had to do was show up, turn on the lights, shove her out on stage, and the assured success drenched both of us.  

 

It was a valuable time singing with Sheila, and I offer these rare recordings as a tribute to the wisdom of our singing together.   It was good fortune that they were recorded and have survived the years,  Sheila, thankfully, is still resident in my city and remains a great friend.  She was a significant part of my career and my development into a well-rounded musician. 

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Michael Roy