It’s a superb time to be a countertenor. During the last 25 years or so, 18th-century operas, most notably these by Handel, have loved a rebirth in homes world wide, which has allowed the high-register countertenor male voice to sing male roles as soon as reserved largely for feminine mezzo-sopranos.
This apply will probably be on full show this summer time in a revival of “Giulio Cesare,” which is able to run for 15 performances from June 23 to Aug. 23 at Glyndebourne, the summer time opera competition within the rolling hills of southern England. Three countertenors have been forged, together with as Julius Caesar, a vocally demanding position usually given to a mezzo-soprano.
Of their heyday, Handel’s operas virtually at all times concerned castrati, singers who have been castrated as boys to protect their greater voices however nonetheless gained the total lung capability and total stamina of grown males. (The apply largely died out within the early nineteenth century.) Right now, nevertheless, male countertenors are being forged in roles that have been as soon as largely written for the male voice.
Amongst singers, casting administrators and music consultants, countertenors appear to be having a second.
At Glyndebourne, on this “Giulio Cesare” — a smorgasbord of arias, love tales, historic figures and palace intrigue that goes on for 3 and a half hours — the three countertenors distinguish themselves not solely in character but in addition in voice. For Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, who’s singing the title position for the primary time in a full manufacturing (he sang it in live performance in Moscow in 2021) it’s a phenomenon that many opera followers won’t take into consideration for what is taken into account the rarest voice sort.
“With every technology of countertenors, the variability appears to be so a lot better, and we’re on this second of the enlargement of the voice sort and recognition of the number of sorts of countertenors,” Cohen, 30, mentioned in a current video interview. “For instance, no one would assume there may be one sort of soprano. No voice is only a monolith. However now there are coloratura countertenors. Then there are countertenors like me who’ve a extra mezzo timbre. I’ve a extra dramatic sound, versus lyric countertenors.”
Cohen credit the casting of extra countertenors during the last 25 years or so to 2 singers.
“The door was opened throughout the late ’90s by David Daniels and Andreas Scholl, who have been each of their primes on the time,” he mentioned. (Scholl famously sang in Handel’s “Rodelinda” a number of occasions at Glyndebourne and different homes to nice acclaim). “The taking again of the roles by countertenors from mezzos has allowed there to be some actually nice singers now.”
Cohen pointed to his co-stars within the Glyndebourne manufacturing of “Giulio Cesare” as examples of the range amongst countertenors, and the way voices might be matched to characters, very like the so-called Verdi tenor or Wagnerian soprano.
“Cameron Shahbazi has a extra sinister high quality to his voice, which fits the position of Tolomeo, the villain,” he mentioned. “And our third countertenor, Ray Chenez, has a extra mild and excessive voice as Cleopatra’s servant, Nireno. It’s ebullient and barely sassy and properly suited to the position.”
It’s an evaluation shared by these behind the casting of this “Giulio Cesare.”
“The renaissance of the countertenor voice began about 60 years in the past with singers like Alfred Deller and Russell Oberlin, who have been pioneers in bringing this to the general public,” mentioned Pal Christian Moe, an opera casting guide who has labored with Glyndebourne since 2002. “It slowly caught on, however folks had develop into accustomed to the mezzo voice in these roles.”
Different consultants level out that as extra countertenors have been forged in male roles, it’s created a nod to authenticity. However that isn’t a precise science.
“There’s a little bit of an issue in that as extra countertenors have develop into excited by these roles, there was a shift to treating them a bit as castrati,” Suzanne Aspden, an affiliate professor of music at Jesus School at Oxford College, mentioned in a current video interview.
“The countertenor voice will not be the castrato voice. The castrati coaching from prepuberty was completely different and really rigorous. Physiologically they’d larger lung capability and have been usually taller.”
The thought of staging it as Handel wrote it’s alluring as opera corporations champion the concept of honoring the origins of his greater than 40 operas.
“The presumption is that it’s a recreation of the unique productions,” Aspden added. “It’s usually marketed as extra genuine. However we shouldn’t child ourselves that the sound of a countertenor goes to be the identical.”
However as Glyndebourne and different corporations proceed to embrace Handel’s operas, the extra they will combine and match the mezzo-soprano and countertenor voices — or totally embrace the origins of his imaginative and prescient. Moe cited Glyndebourne’s manufacturing of Handel’s “Rinaldo” as an awesome instance because it has as much as 4 countertenor roles.
For a lot of audiences, although, the countertenor voice remains to be considerably new, or not less than an anomaly.
“One director mentioned that there are such a lot of countertenors within the U.Ok. that we should always strive it with all countertenors, however as a gaggle we had been considering that it is likely to be a bit an excessive amount of for the ear,” he recalled. “However in that manufacturing, it added one thing to the story of Rinaldo. It labored fantastically properly. We weren’t fairly positive, however you don’t have a recipe for what’s going to work. You simply strive it and see.”
