Philippe Jaroussky's low notes

Philippe Jaroussky highly prefers not to enter his chest register in his singing and solely uses his head voice / falsetto in the vast majority of his performances and recordings. What is your opinion on this? I personally think that this is a good thing. Jaroussky's lower head voice notes may not be the strongest ( at the lowest they can be a little airy and monotone ), but his voice seems to be getting richer. I think it suits him to avoid entering the chest register because his voice quality is quite much like that of a child ( as he himself puts it ).

I have heard him singing in chest voice and I frankly think his head voice is a much nicer sound. He has such a sweet sound when he sings in head voice that his tenor/baritone voice is not as sweet. But then again how many counter tenors can claim sweetness in both areas? His voice isn't much like a child's voice so I don't get that at all. To use chest voice on occasion is probably not bad but to avoid sounding like a tenor or baritone must be remembered. I know when I sing in speaking voice that my tenor timbre isn't anything like a ct voice. But when I employ a different technique, of which I haven't figure out how it works, it sounds like a full lower note. Maybe it is a mixed voice. I don't know.

chris

it sounds better, but in my opinion it would be more historic if he used (even only in the lower notes) more chest voice. the castrati did also. and its not true that castrati sounde like trebles. they had more volume, what made them quite different from trebles. they also had a low register ( a castrato ( i forgot his name, but i'll look him up) once also was able to sing tenor arias in the original range!) so it must have been a strange mix between female voices and boy sopranos, because they had a mutation, but because thy hadn't much testosteron, but more oestrogen, their voice broke like a female ones. Using in the lower chest register is also the only way to connect the registers ( what was very imortant in baroque Bel canto) so i think it doesnT hav e to be like Andreas scholl does.
It should be though chest voice, light. you can get that by relaxing the throat ( singing high notes you haave to open it as wide as possible) but still staying in the Masque. the effect will be a female sounding mix between the chest register and the headvoice. though it sounds sometimes very feminine, it's the best way to come closer to our "models" the castrati

I think they probably incorporated a mix voice (chest/head blend) in their passagio. And you are right in that I think that the castrati probably did have a tenor range too.

chris