I've also heard people use bass-baritone and basso-cantate interchangeably in early/sacred music circles. This usage has nothing to with the German Fach system, I'm sure, but it seems to be the preferred voice type for certain kinds of bass arias that really move, like "Eilt!" from Bach's St. John's Passion.
Max van Egmond and William Parker are examples of this "cantate" type of bass voice. I've actually seen Parker billed as a bass-baritone before, if I'm not imagining things.
It seems to me like many company rosters pile their bass-baritones in the "bass" column, perhaps for no other reason than it would otherwise be a lonely column. True basses are really much rarer than bass-baritones, however we choose to categorize them.
Tako
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