{"id":4452,"date":"2014-01-14T23:28:07","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T15:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=4452"},"modified":"2018-04-29T21:50:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-29T13:50:59","slug":"countertenors-and-castrati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=4452","title":{"rendered":"Countertenors and Castrati"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some time ago, a friend sent me a link to a YouTube video\u00a0in which the countertenor Philippe Yaroussky sings arias by Vivaldi, Haendel, Porpora etc.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3glhy2V12ME\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Porpora? I had never heard about him. So I searched the Internet and found a website, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.porporaproject.com\/\">the Porpora Project<\/a>, dedicated to this\u00a018th century Italian composer of Baroque operas, oratoria, cantatas etc.<\/p>\n<p>A composer, but also very famous in his time as a singing teacher. Especially of castrati, boys who were castrated before they reached puberty, so they kept their high (soprano) voices! Yes, no kidding! In the beginning of the 18th century that was a not uncommon practice, it is estimated that more than 4000 boys yearly underwent this &#8220;operation&#8221;. Some of them became famous singers, like <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Giovanni_Carestini\">Carestini<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Senesino\">Senesino<\/a>, and last not least: <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Farinelli\">Farinelli<\/a>. He was a student of Porpora<\/p>\n<p>Here is the aria Alto Giove from Porpora&#8217;s opera Polifemo. This opera was first performed in 1735 in London, with Farinelli as singer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iFABDUYMOFQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here the aria is beautifully sung by Philippe Jaroussky. Is he a castrato? Of course not, castration for musical reasons became illegal in the 19th century and the last castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, died in 1922. Here you can hear him in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KLjvfqnD0ws\">Ave Maria<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jaroussky is, like my favourite Andreas Scholl, a countertenor. His vocal chords have developed normally during puberty, &#8220;breaking&#8221; his voice. But all males can still sing high, using their &#8220;head voice&#8221; and not their &#8220;chest voice. Try it out for yourself! Technically it is called the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Falsetto\">falsetto register<\/a>\u00a0and countertenors are trained to use it.<\/p>\n<p>About Farinelli a fascinating movie has been produced in 1994. The movie can be seen on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4ZsfZbxMxl4\">YouTube<\/a>.\u00a0The movie is not historically accurate, but really worth\u00a0viewing. Here two times Farinelli, a portrait and a screenshot. The singing in the movie was \u00a0done by a soprano, by the way!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4832\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=4832\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/carlo_broschi_farinelli_1705_hi.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"450,588\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Lauros \\\/ Giraudon&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;XIR237922 Carlo Broschi &#039;Il Farinelli&#039; (1705-82) (oil on canvas) by Amigoni, Jacopo (1675-1752)\\noil on canvas\\nMusee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, France\\nLauros \\\/ Giraudon\\nItalian, out of copyright&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;Copyright (C) Bridgeman Art Library&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;XIR237922&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"XIR237922\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;XIR237922 Carlo Broschi &amp;#8216;Il Farinelli&amp;#8217; (1705-82) (oil on canvas) by Amigoni, Jacopo (1675-1752)&lt;br \/&gt;\noil on canvas&lt;br \/&gt;\nMusee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, France&lt;br \/&gt;\nLauros \/ Giraudon&lt;br \/&gt;\nItalian, out of copyright&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/carlo_broschi_farinelli_1705_hi-229x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/carlo_broschi_farinelli_1705_hi.jpg\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4832\" style=\"color: #333333; font-style: normal;\" src=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/carlo_broschi_farinelli_1705_hi.jpg\" alt=\"XIR237922\" width=\"212\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/carlo_broschi_farinelli_1705_hi.jpg 450w, https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/carlo_broschi_farinelli_1705_hi-229x300.jpg 229w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 212px) 100vw, 212px\" \/>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4834\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=4834\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41.png\" data-orig-size=\"573,457\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Farinelli1994c4\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41-300x239.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41.png\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4834\" src=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41.png\" alt=\"Farinelli1994c4\" width=\"310\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41.png 573w, https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41-300x239.png 300w, https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Farinelli1994c41-376x300.png 376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are nowadays a few singers who are &#8220;natural castrati&#8221;, for endocrinological reasons their vocal cords have not grown during puberty. One of them is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tp4.rub.de\/~ak\/disc\/rm\/\">Radu Marian<\/a>. Here he sings\u00a0Lascia Ch&#8217;io Pianga by Haendel.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZYKEqsxDnV8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Another example of a natural castrato (male soprano) is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tp4.rub.de\/~ak\/disc\/mma\/\">Michael Maniaci<\/a>\u00a0, who sings here Mozart&#8217;s Exultate Jubilate<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q-lKRXvXwsc\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As I wrote before, Andreas Scholl is my favourite countertenor, so this post would not be complete without a recording by him. A recording of one of the most beautiful arias I know, from the Nisi Dominus by Vivaldi.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P1ywyRbaMHg\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Baroque operas often had a castrato as a lead singer. Nowadays these parts are sung by a countertenor. Or of course by a soprano. One (mezzo) soprano who does this very well is Cecilia Bartoli, another favourite of mine. Here is a collection of Castrati arias sung by her.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pGnJZYnlmPM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Many of the arias in this recording have been composed by Porpora. More about Cecilia Bartoli in a later blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some time ago, a friend sent me a link to a YouTube video\u00a0in which the countertenor Philippe Yaroussky sings arias by Vivaldi, Haendel, Porpora etc. Porpora? I had never heard about him. So I searched the Internet and found a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=4452\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2LqIR-19O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4452"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13926,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452\/revisions\/13926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}