Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?
Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#0
Posted: 4/18/06 at 11:27pm
Periodically, I read denials that castrati ever existed, leaving one to wonder...
Now I see in the NY Times--
Handel and the Castrati:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/arts/music/19cast.html?8dpc
Updated On: 4/19/06 at 11:27 PM
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#1
Posted: 4/19/06 at 1:36am
never existed........methinks it's documented fact......
There just are NOT that many counter-tenors out there.....
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#2
Posted: 4/19/06 at 7:41am
The closest we have today are the counter tenors. These male singers have voices that are almost falsetto. Although David Daniels is an exceptionally handsome man, listening to a whole concert of his singing Handel arias is like listening to fingernails on a blackboard. He's a bit more tolerable when he's performing in an opera, where the other voices in the production off-set the strange counter tenor sounds.
Still, there are people who love counter tenors.
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#3
Posted: 4/19/06 at 9:15amTwo words: James Blunt.
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#4
Posted: 4/19/06 at 10:06am
I loved a counter tenor once, in Chicago....he was blond, muscled, and sang like an Angel.....he spent a summer at the American Institute of American Studies in Graz, a most amazing place
http://www.aimsgraz.com/
and premiered with the Milwaukee Opera....and then all went downhill as he got into drugs. I am convinced had he not, he would be a name today we would all know.
such a waste
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#5
Posted: 4/19/06 at 10:12amHis video scares me, Rath. It makes me think of that restaurant owner who got caught, um, working it on the subway.
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#6
Posted: 4/19/06 at 11:45am
I sing with a choir that performs mostly the music of Bach, and we have been lucky enough to have many amazing soloists perform with us, including counter-tenor Daniel Taylor.
One of my favorite memories of our recent performances has to do with performances of the Mass in B minor we did two weekends in a row. Daniel was singing the alto arias the first weekend, and his sound is crystal clear, light, and bright and almost other-worldly. The next weekend the alto arias were performed by Marietta Simpson, who has this huge, earth mother, deep, dark, embracing sound. Both were beautiful in their own way, but I loved having the two weekends of complete contrast. (Not to mention the odd looks from the audience members..."Wait Mabel, I thought this was an alto aria.....OMG that's a man!")
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#7
Posted: 4/19/06 at 11:45am
I sing with a choir that performs mostly the music of Bach, and we have been lucky enough to have many amazing soloists perform with us, including counter-tenor Daniel Taylor.
One of my favorite memories of our recent performances has to do with performances of the Mass in B minor we did two weekends in a row. Daniel was singing the alto arias the first weekend, and his sound is crystal clear, light, and bright and almost other-worldly. The next weekend the alto arias were performed by Marietta Simpson, who has this huge, earth mother, deep, dark, embracing sound. Both were beautiful in their own way, but I loved having the two weekends of complete contrast. (Not to mention the odd looks from the audience members..."Wait Mabel, I thought this was an alto aria.....OMG that's a man!")
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#8
Posted: 4/19/06 at 12:02pmI sang with The Washington Chorus and National Symphony Orchestra's performance of Handel's Messiah in December 2005. I don't remember the counter-tenor's name (he was from Spain), but, personally, it's just not a pretty sound.
Featured Actor Joined: 1/3/06
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#9
Posted: 4/19/06 at 2:28pm
An Anne Rice book, A Cry To Heaven gave a fascinating insight into the whole castrati genre with much of the book based on historical fact and extensively researched...
There is somewhere online a soundbite of Alessandro Moreschi, the last castrato to sing in the Sistine Choir, and the only castrato ever to be recorded...
I can't recommend the Anne Rice book highly enough...
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#10
Posted: 4/19/06 at 2:29pm
Never existed? .... okay. That's silly.
I find it fascinating, but... kind of disturbing that this was ever done, considering that it tended not to be um, a natural occurence.
re: Castrati: Will This Singing Craze Return?#11
Posted: 4/19/06 at 6:25pm
I can't get past the fact that he looks like Peter Pan.
Oops. I thought this was the Clay Aiken thread.
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