hi :)

My name is Filip and I am student of singing for 7 years. I sing countertenor for +- 7 months and I really like tehese voices
I am student of playing violin, piano and recorder too. In last two years I began too composing some little pieces, they are not too long but they are ONLY MY
I like singing of reneissance and baroque eras. And I like too our czech traditional folk songs. My favorite composer is mainly G.F.Haendel. After him there are Vivaldi, Porpora, A.Scarlatti, Rameau (my big love ),.. I really enjoy all of them.
I am interested in castrato voices and I must say that it is really interesting. For some of us maybe disgusting but too interesting.
So this is some about me, if you want I will give you some recording of my voice. I think that Chris heard me on youtube, I had on YT "Fairest isle" by Purcell.

Welcome, Filip. Since you're very young, I hope you're careful with your voice. I would love to hear it, you can either post a thread in the Members' Voices forum or send me a PM. Fairest Isle is a good piece for a young countertenor / sopranist, were you satisfied with it? Do you have a favourite high male voice? It's interesting that you have started composing, have you started studying counterpoint and / or harmony yet?

Yes, it is great piece and it was really funny to sing it, bcs I and my teacher didnt know it and we sung it really fast. I like the acient music and it is not too hard to sing it as other music.

My very favorite countertenor is Andreas Scholl, I really love his voice and charisma. I chat with him on myspace.com and he gave me a lot of tips for very good music for me. Next is ... maybe Jaroussky, but I like Maniaci too. BUT my next big star is Christophe Dumaux. I enjoy listening him with Andreas. I have recording of Partenope (it is somewhere on net) from Copenhagen, Andreas as Arsace and Christophe as next prince. They are really good

I dont know if I am countertenor or sopranist, because I havent color of my voice as soprano but I sing in range c1-a2 and my teacher said that my voice will be able to sing in mezzosoprano range.

I am trying to sing "Se tu m´ami" by Pergolesi and Introduction from "The Czech Lute" by A.V.Michna from Otradovice, so I will record something. Now I must listen something from others

You were asking about some of my studying of composing so I will give you link to my composition. It is four little pieces-> http://forum.lide.cz/redir.fcgi?http.../untitled.html Maybe it is not to sophisticated but I like it.

This piece is very soothing and quite beautiful. It requires some sophistication as you said, but you will definitely work that out in the future. Many thanks for posting it!

I am fond of Dumaux's voice as well. His voice sounds natural and is very beautiful, but I still prefer purer voices like those of Randall Wong, Radu Marian, Jaroussky and Scholl and listen more frequently to them ( I mostly listen to Wong and Jaroussky ). Scholl's voice is very pure and precise, you should definitely listen to him. It's great that you're able to communicate with him, it'll definitely prove useful to you. I think Maniaci is very good although I would prefer that he would sing more in the baroque style ( thankfully, he is able to and does it in some pieces like in Tu virginum corona from Mozart's Exsultate jubilate. I wish he would release a solo album. I find it very unfortunate that Wong only released one ( classical, or actually baroque ) album ( and not until he was 42 ) and really wish that Maniaci will be able to produce more than that.

I already said, that baroque music is my favorite, but I felt in love with this -> YouTube - Ciofi & Maniaci - Ah non ti son piu cara (Meyerbeer) . MAybe because it is sung by Maniaci.

Well his voice is certainly much better than that of the woman who sings with him in this piece. Her voice is really not very good, you can hear 'breaks' in it oftentimes. However, Maniaci uses a lot of vibrato in this one, sounding much like a typical female singer and that doesn't fascinate me very much. He does this quite well, nonetheless.

Maybe I have bad taste, but Ciofi is my very favorite soprano In this piece I like his vibrato, maybe because it is romantic, but in baroque music I prefer only little vibrato or singing non-vibrato.

Oh she is? Well, yes, this is a Romantic piece so naturally there are no reasons for that the singers would follow the rules of the baroque style, but I'm especially annoyed by this break / hard edged / dry sound that comes often when she 'emphasizes' a note ( one very obvious example may be heard at 1:20 ). Maniaci's voice is definitely much fuller and cleaner.

I am in total agreement with the above comments about the high quality of countertenor Andreas Scholl's voice. He certainly is an excellent example to follow for accurate Baroque sound and style. Some additional singers of today, such as Jaroussky, are excellent, too, although he has a unique sound. I also would recommend highly Paul Esswood from an earlier generation. His voice has a richer sound but also very beautiful. His insight and taste in Baroque style is admirable.

As for male sopranos, I predict that Michael Maniaci will be given ample opportunity to sing because of the rarity of his voice (I have heard him live in Mozart's "Lucia Silla.") I am disappointed, however, with his heavy vibrato, which becomes more pronounced with higher and louder notes; and occasionally he misses the pitch. I have heard two theories as to why he sings
with such heavy vibrato: 1) that is just the way his voice is, or 2) his vocal coaches taught him to artificially add vibrato to his voice because that has become the common way of singing for some time, even though it is contrary to Baroque style.

I like the greater purity of Radu Marian, Randall Wong, and especially Patrick Husson. The modern world, however, has yet to have the operatic quality of a Farinelli.

Hi Filip, welcome from me as well. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one with a weak spot for Christophe Dumaux. I attended two performances of that Partenope production and, though it must be very difficult for any countertenor to share a stage with Andreas Scholl without seeming slightly amateurish in comparison, Dumaux really held his own, I thought. If you haven’t already you should check out the Glyndebourne Giulio Cesare DVD where he does a brilliant Tolomeo, although he doesn’t seem capable of producing a proper trill.

In addition to all the wonderful singers already mentioned I would like to recommend listening to Dominique Visse (why more of a fuss isn’t made of him is beyond me) and perhaps Xavier Sabata, who has a rather heavy and somewhat feminine voice, which is nevertheless agile and, perhaps not quite clear, but penetrating at least.

Dominique Visse is not one of my favourites but he has a nice sound. His more recent recordings are better than, for example, his singing in Cleofide in 1986 ( which Randall Wong also sang in ). In Cleofide, it sounds as if Visse really pushes his voice at times. I have not listened much to Xavier Sabata, but I agree that he sounds slightly like a female contralto.

Well yes, I think almost everyone on the Cleofide recording seem to do a bit of pushing a squeezing, but the effort is commendable. However, Visse does a very nice job in La Calisto and on the René Jacobs Giulio Cesare I think; his Qui perde un momento doesn't sound at all strained to my ears.

I have mentioned this before, but I hope that all the site's members keep their eyes and ears open for the possibility that there may be other natural male sopranos currently singing. The odds may be against it for several reasons: 1) the physiological causes are rare, 2) if the causes are discovered early enough, they usually are treated, thereby preventing the development of a male soprano voice, 3) even if all the physical and intellectual factors are in place, the individual may not receive the encouragement and training to become a professional singer, especially in Baroque music.

For years, I have heard about Columbian singer Jorge Cano (both first and second names are quite common, should you attempt to research him) who is supposed to be a natural male soprano. I am not aware of anyone having succeeded in acquiring recordings of him.

I am unclear as to whether Patrick Husson is a male soprano or, for some unexplained reason, has an astonishingly pure and precise falsetto soprano.

So, if you do make any such discoveries, and in addition to sharing them with MaleSopranos, I also would appreciate receiving whatever information and/or MP3 files that you might be able to send to me on my internet address, which I would be happy to supply to individual members (but not for general public use.)

It's also hard to say whether it would really be falsetto. It would only be possible to truly prove it by putting a small camera down one's throat. Perhaps there is something in between head voice and falsetto? What is it that Manzotti, for example, claims he is using?

As for Jorge Cano, you could always try to contact Brian Asawa ( who has been photographed with Jorge Cano and has therefore obviously met him / sung with him ). He may however, regard it quite rude of you to contact through phone about another singer so you might rather want to send him a personal letter by mail or e-mail, but that might also be a bit weird. Even if you get in contact with him, there is no reason to be certain that he has any contact information for Cano just because they have encountered each other.