Top 25 Visited Articles

When he was a teenager, Radu Marian didn't talk or sing for an entire year. He had a voice so high, delicate, and mysterious that it could put people into a sort of trance; but at the age of seventeen, he came down with severe laryngitis and a doctor told him to stop using the voice altogether. He didn’t go to school. If he needed to say something, he jotted it down on paper; and if he had no other way of expressing himself, he would rasp out a few spare words. But, mostly he stuck to the doctor... [Read More]

The man with the 300-year-old voice

Michael Maniaci’s unique soprano voice gives him the air of an antique castrato

We are endlessly fascinated by the high male voice, from Jimmy Somerville to Michael Chance, from Pavarotti to Steve Tyler. But the young American singer Michael Maniaci is something else again: a real-life male soprano. “I don’t sound like a counter-tenor or a woman” he explains. “It’s quite unique.”

He does not sing falsetto, n

... [Read More]

Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi is known as the most famous castrato in history, although others (ranging from the highly successful Marc-Antonio Pasquilini and the ambitious Atto Melani in the mid-1600s to opera-castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti in the early 1800s and church singers in the late 1800s) were noted for wonderful voices and major contributions to stage and church music. One can piece together from var... [Read More]

Castrato Alessandro Moreschi was born in Rome in 1858 and died there in 1922. He was a lead soprano in the Sistine Chapel from 1883 through 1913. He also is the only castrato known to have been recorded. There has been much discussion as to the unsatisfactory sound of those recordings. Briefly, I shall mention the factors contributing to his sound.
... [Read More]

Counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky’s first visit to Quebec hasn’t gone unnoticed – and for good reason: he’s star material. Like Cecilia Bartoli, the 28-year-old sings without a score, making instant contact with the audience entranced by the breadth of his expressive range and colour palette – his crystal-clear high notes, daring vocalizing, and expressive phrasing. All the magic of baroque theatre combined with an overriding sense of naturalness is present here. He can look forward to a m... [Read More]

Q: The history of your involvement with *Harvey Milk* dates from its very
beginning. How did you first hear about it?

Randall Wong : I first met Wallace and Korie in 1988 via a double route;
the late Scott Heumann of Houston Grand Opera (who knew me from
recordings) and a friend from Stanford, Nina Gilbert, who was also a
friend of Michael Korie's. I sent them some tapes, and they invited me to
participate in the New York readings of *Where's Dick?* Because of my
involvement with Chanticleer ... [Read More]

Philippe Jaroussky
countertenor

Not even 30 years old and Philippe Jaroussky is already a legend in France, recently winning the title of France's Opera Singer of the Year and gaining a gold record for his recording Heroes: Vivaldi Opera Arias after selling more than 75,000 copies - all this and boyish good looks as well!

To say Philippe's star is on the rise doesn't do him justice - here is a performer on the verge of international superstardom and this mon

... [Read More]

Counter-Tenor Philippe Jaroussky
Alexey Parin, Boris Ignatov and Pavel Tokaryev, leaders of radio program “The Opera Club” broadcast by “Echo of Moscow”, talking to Philippe Jaroussky. Some of the questions were asked by listeners on the phone.
DE I: What did you feel when you came to Moscow? What are you expecting of the city?
P.J.: I don’t know the country; I don’t understand th

... [Read More]

High and mighty

With his seductive counter-tenor, the only way is up for Philippe Jaroussky



Those who were there will never forget Philippe Jaroussky’s British debut. It was 18 months ago at the Purcell Room: not the most star-spangled London venue, but the atmosphere changed when this counter-tenor – French, handsome, late twenties – leapt from the ensemble of Christine Pluhar’s early music group L’Arpeggiata to sing Monteverdi’s madrigal Ohimè ch’io cado.

... [Read More]

Festival Vancouver Preview - Phillippe Jaroussky



What do you get when you combine a male voice with a near-soprano range and the emotive nuances of a diva? A divo, of course: namely, French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky. The 26-year-old singer was declared 2004's operatic revelation of the year by Les Victoires de la Musique Classique, France's version of the Juno Awards. He will make his North America debut with Vancouver's La Cetra ensemble at Holy Rosary Cath

... [Read More]

Farinelli’s Voice Described by Giambattista Mancini, Renown 18th-Century Authority and Instructor of Singing

“His voice was thought a marvel, because it was so perfect, so powerful, so sonourous, and so rich in its extent, both in the high and the low parts of the register, that its equal never has been heard in our times. He was, moreover, endowed with a creative genius which inspired him with embellishments so new and so astonishing that no one was able to imitate them. The art... [Read More]

An Interview With Michael Maniaci

Michael Maniaci has a fight on his hands. In the world of baroque opera he’s a young singer who seems to have it all: he’s intelligent, immensely talented, well-trained, committed and surprisingly wise for his 29 years. On top of that he’s already been successful in the USA winning prestigious competitions, and recently gaining significant roles at such proving grounds as Glimmerglass, New York City Opera and Santa Fe.

... [Read More]

Michael Maniaci on high singing Idomeneo
Countertenor breaks with tradition by taking on boy's part usually played by a soprano


The world is full of inspirational stories of children growing up in unmusical households and still, somehow, one day finding themselves on the world's greatest opera stages.

But Michael Maniaci's story adds an extra twist or two.

He is one of only a handful of men in the world who can sing in the same vocal range as a soprano, allowing him to perf

... [Read More]

Rising to the occasion – Michael Maniaci saves the day at La Fenice

It is every young opera singer’s dream.

The phone call at midnight, the frantic request to drop everything and “just come–we have a problem, we need you to cover all performances and it’s curtain up in just two weeks……”
Yet that usually happens when the house in question knows that the young singer already has the role in his or her repertoire, and it will just be a matter of polishing up the vocal m

... [Read More]

The young American male soprano Michael Maniaci is rapidly gaining attention for his rare, “thrilling” voice and “sensational” stage presence. Mr. Maniaci “sounds like no other counter-tenor or female sopra

... [Read More]

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Venus and Cupid
monologue and concert
performed at the Ackland Art Museum
December 2 and 3, 2:00 PM


PRELUDE
George Frederic Handel (1685-1759):
Trio Sonata in F -- Andante/Allegro
Handel:
Concerto Grosso in A minor, Op 6, No.4 -- Larghetto affetuoso /Allegro


Farinelli speaks (circa 1775, age 70):
“Venus and Cupid.” There are many paintings in my villa here in Bologna, and few of my many visitors take much notice of this one.... [Read More]

This brief history and explanation of the high male voice is meant to assist those persons who are newcomers to this genre. To me, it is not surprising that the majority of people are unfamiliar with the high male voice.





To begin with, serious (or classical) music is of relatively little interest to most people. I have noted that especially in t... [Read More]

RECALLING THE AGE OF THE CASTRATI

CARMEL - Randall Wong is an average-looking man.with a round face and a pencil mustache. However, when he opens his mouth, he sounds like an angel - and a 200-year-old angel, at that.

Monday evening, the Carmel Bach Festival brought male soprano Wong on board for what will likely be the most unusual diversion of this 61st season. "Hommage a Farinelli: The Other Side of the H

... [Read More]

Francesco Irene Augusta Bernardi, known by the stage name “Senesino” in reference to his place of birth, Siena, lived from 1686 to 1758. He gained well deserved fame throughout Europe as one of the greatest and most popular alto-castrati; however, it is his lengthy association with George Frideric Handel for which he now is most famous.



The son of a barber, Senesino was n... [Read More]

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We'll never know what Queen Victoria would have thought of the use to which Randall Wong has put the toy
theater we call Victorian. These erstwhile home entertainment center seem so much more fun than modern-daymultimedia outposts, but they're very hands-on and labor-intensive. Thus it was that Wong's Household Opera, which played three nights at the Z Space, deployed several singers, musicians and stagehands to

... [Read More]

Age of the Castrato, by Jason Zasky

Thousands of boys were castrated in the name of music, and for most the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.
In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, thousands of pre-pubescent boys were castrated to preserve their youthful, high-pitched voices and allow them to pursue singing careers. Only a handful became wealthy opera stars, and as a result the conventional wisdom is that these boys were sacrificed to s... [Read More]