In my opinion, there is still a difference between :
- a young boy, who has been sung for a few years only;
- and a countertenor who is an adult, and has been sung since his childhood;
And I consider a Child who is able to sing in tune Bach’s masterpieces, as a Miracle!

(by the way, I would be pretty much more indulgent with a child who sings out of tune, than with a countertenor!!)

Hello Ms. Amy,

Thanx for your kind suggestion. You mentioned "Spem in Alium" with warbling sopranos - Methinks Master Tallis would be rotating in his sarcophagus had he know about that. The Kings Singers did a nice recording of *Spem* a couple of years ago. Anyway, I like your including the string players and their use of catgut strings to illustrate the question about appropriate style. Why you would be considered a traitor to your own sex I don't understand. The focus of *appropriate style* in music performance should, nay, must outweigh the post-Modernist arguments and sentimentalism about gender.

Respectfully,

Giovanni

I think countertenors are great!!! Because they can sing like female alto and soprano beautifully. Their headtones, falsettos and the ranges of their voices are like women. It's like when you listen to them and you close your eyes you can't notice that they are actually men. I remember a countertenor that I had watched at Youtube. His name is Brian Asawa. He's an American countertenor even though his surname sounds like Japanese. He is known for singing works of Handel but in Youtube he sang an aria from one of Mozart's opera. He sang really well no doubt he won prestigious awards. He made me love countertenors more. I am just wondering if "castrati" is still practiced today? Do you think the voice quality of the countertenors will be much beautiful?

Nice to from you Music2! I'm getting to be more fascinated with countertenors then! Just a quick question though - Could you name 3 more countertenors who are currently active in the concert scene? What particular repertoire are they suited for? From what I know, they're more akin to Baroque vocal music. What do you think?

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I've recently discovered Vitas, on youtube. His voice fascinates me…
He sings both classical music and pop (this video, for instance, not classical, is rather funny:
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ygJYxM...elated&search= )

As for castratis, i had the chance to hear one, many years ago: A priest of my parish, native of India, sang a traditional song. He was not only a countertenor, because his voice was so light, so wonderful, … but he still had his voice of child. Marvelous…

There are no castratis alive today, at least in the Western world. Castrating men to preserve their singing voices is a practice which died out in the 19th Century. There is only one recording of a castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, from the early 20th Century. Unfortunately, Moreschi wasn't a terribly good castrato, just the only one around when the primitive recording equipment came to the Sistine Chapel. More often than not the recording sounds like a dying cat.

If there were living Indian castrati I would be very much surprised (and slightly shocked).

In fact, you are right. He was not a castrati. I only suppose that his voice has never changed, and there are probably many reasons for that phenomenon that I ignore. But I suppose also that the result, ie the beauty of the voice, in fine, is the same…

In my opinion, countertenors are great. These are men who can sing a high tenor voice through the use of falsetto or sometimes natural head tone. If there is no available female, the countertenor can replace the part of the alto, mezzo or soprano range. Also, a trained countertenor is more similar to a mezzo-soprano. I experienced listening to a countertenor recording and it amazes me. Just close your eyes and you will forget that a real guy is singing.

I agree with you, Dexter, as I personally find that female altos lack the purity in tone that countertenors have. I'm very much into early choral music and the idea of Monteverdi's madgrigals being performed by a group using anything other than at least one countertenor seems quite frankly peculiar...

Hi Avrile, I am happy to know that you're beginning to appreciate countertenors. Here are some of the famous countertenors of today. First is Derek Lee Ragin, an American countertenor. Aside from being a master in vocal style, he also interprets contemporary music. His recent performance was March 22, 2007. Second is Hurley David, an English countertenor. He is the lead countertenor of the well known international group King's Singers. Third is Michael Chance, an English countertenor. He performed last year a Bangkok opera "Ayodhya". Last is Yuri Borisov, a Russian countertenor. He performed last August 2005 to one of world's famous festival the Edinburg Fringe. It is a series of eleven concerts of Russian art andf folk songs.

I agree to you that most countertenors sang repertoires from Baroque and Renaissance periods. They always sing arias and cantatas from the works of Handel, Purcell, Vivaldi and Scarlatti and many more. This is because during the Baroque period there is an increase of popularity of opera. Many operas were written with roles for castrati and countertenors were the one's who replace them.

I hope my answers to your questions made you more interested in listening to countertenors.

I disagree with your preference, Amy, but for the same reason. What you call "purity" I tend to hear as lack of depth. I think a female alto has a lot more richness and potential for expressiveness than a countertenor. But then, my idea of the ultimate alto sound is the sexy late romantic alto, though I also prefer Purcell sung by ladies.

I completely agree with you, I much prefer Altos and I think the poor old castrati and later the Counter Tenors were used because Females were not accepted in the church so the vocal tradition carries on, I also much prefer Sopranos to boy trebles in choral works they have maturity and feeling.

I think the question of who's more pure in singing depends on the person who sings and the one who listens to it. If a countertenor sings with a mixed choir, his voice might stick out from the group although this would depend on the conductor. If he/she is a good conductor, then he/she could make that person blend with the group. On the part of an alto, you couldn't just mix them to an all male choir because this will not sound good. So this just means that both countertenor and alto have differences. There is a thin line of distinction and limitation to where their voices belong. So the question of who sings more "pure" or who sings best depends because there are countertenors and altos who are good. We must remember that a male voice is different from a female's voice.

Quite correct so why do we need men with high voices

Because it's pretty.