Helden-counter-tenor

[doversoul1]

Just to liven up a midweek evening (if you like this sort of thing, that is)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFmTZr_Ps6Q&list=PLYdzQWbiblzmFOJcTW9pdwt9RQCB9KBff&index=7&feature=plpp_video

An aria from Artaserse
(performer) Franco Fagioli

I wonder what Alfred Deller would have made of it. Come to think of it, what would the EMS team think of the opera as a subject one day?

[Pianorak]

Just to liven up a midweek evening (if you like this sort of thing, that is)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFmTZr_Ps6Q&list=PLYdzQWbiblzmFOJcTW9pdwt9RQCB9KBff&index=7&feature=plpp_video

An aria from Artaserse
(performer) Franco Fagioli

What a spellbinding performance - and the first counter-tenor voice I actually like!

[ostuni]

Hmmm - not to my taste at all. I prefer countertenors to sound like men, not contraltos on an off day... And what about that vibrato? Not much point in singing semiquavers if your voice is already wobbling at that speed.

[Tony Halstead]

Hmmm - not to my taste at all. I prefer countertenors to sound like men, not contraltos on an off day... And what about that vibrato? Not much point in singing semiquavers if your voice is already wobbling at that speed.

[Pianorak]

Oh dear - just goes to show what I know - or rather don't!

[MrGongGong]

Oh dear - just goes to show what I know - or rather don't!

well you know this

the first counter-tenor voice I actually like!

[doversoul1]

Pianorak
Very glad to hear that you liked this. It’s not very often that a countertenor brings the house down this way. Never mind the vibrato and all that. This is not Dowland. It’s Murder and Vengeance (I think) and what goes with it. I can’t say I ‘like’ the voice but I thought this was absolutely amazing.

MrGG
Wise as ever

[ed] ostuni and waldhorn
I’d normally agree with you about vibrato but this is one of those rare occasions (actually the first time) when it didn’t bother me at all.

[Pianorak]

Pianorak
Very glad to hear that you liked this.

But I wasn't supposed to like it!! And I never even noticed the wobbly voice and vibrato. I think I'd better stick to the piano.

[doversoul1]

Pianorak
We are not alone. Here’s Tim Ashley giving five stars in The Gordian.

But the singing is epoch-making, above all from Fagioli, who seems to redefine the capabilities of the countertenor voice and take it beguilingly into territories new. Listen to him, and be seduced.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/14/vinci-artaserse-fagioni-cencic-review

I think I'd better stick to the piano.

Oh, I wouldn’t suggest you listen to the harpsichord next, but don’t go away from this. Not that I expect you to start listening to Andreas Scholl & Co., as I think this performance is an odd one off kind.

[ed] I don’t mean Fagioli is not particularly good any other time, but this is one of those rare occasions when something spectacular happens.

[amateur51]

well you know this

Precisely, MrGG!

Courage, pianorak, courage!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I've only just arrived at this, via Tim Ashley's Grauniad review. Fagioli's voice sounds very mezzo-ish - it could almost be Cecilia Bartoli - but it's an incredibly exciting sound and performance. I suppose for this opera, containing five counter-tenor roles, Diego Fasolis was looking for as much contrast between his singers as possible. I think he's probably succeeded!

[Pianorak]

Thanks, Am51 - I'll have a Courage Iechyd da!

[Don Basilio]

Whose the composer? It isn't Thomas Arne translated into Italian.

[mercia]

this would be too high for a [conventional] countertenor to sing, I assume. is the role normally sung by a soprano en travesti ?

[doversoul1]

Don
Leonardo Vinci

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Virgin/6028692

mercia
First performed in Rome in 1730, Leonardo Vinci's Artaserse has the reputation of being one of opera's greatest castrato-fests. Women were banned from Roman stages in the early 18th century, so Vinci deployed castrati as his heroines as well as his heroes

From The Guardian’s review