http://www.naive.fr/artiste_coll.php?id=567 (http://www.naive.fr/artiste_coll.php?id=567)
I can't wait for this to come out; there's a preview on YouTube.
I'm in love with Jaroussky. Lemieux is a very talented contralto from my hometown... her Orlando furioso and Griselda recordings were praised by critics. The release date for North America is somewhere in the second half of February :(
Anyway, let this thread be about my favourite countertenor!
A really nice countertenor! Singing all that baroque, reviving and bringing it to people!
BUT!!
Nothing can be more terrible than a man singing with woman's voice. For me, of course...he has a beautiful timber, but since I know he's not a child or a girl, it drives me crazy, making an unexplainable feeling of disgusting. :( All my friends like him....except me. Daniels, Manzotti and others make me feel the same. :'(
Quote from: Sarastro on January 11, 2008, 06:23:35 PM
Nothing can be more terrible than a man singing with woman's voice. For me, of course...he has a beautiful timber, but since I know he's not a child or a girl, it drives me crazy, making an unexplainable feeling of disgusting.
Just don't think to much while listening. ;D
Jaroussky sings in this recording - marvelous! And that goes for the opera and the others singers as well (star line up). Further comments
HERE. (http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,1322.msg67214.html#msg67214)
(http://multimedia.fnac.com/multimedia//images_produits/ZoomPE/9/3/9/0709861303939.jpg)
Q
Well some people react very hefty to a countertenor, singing that voice myself I should know.
So I switched to Bass...... ;D
I get immense pleasure from Jaroussky's voice. He has a real facility for getting round the notes and has constructed a really beautiful sound with strength from top to bottom. I have several of his discs; new ones would be great to get hold of. But, I do have Daniels, amongst others, in the Vivaldi Stabat Mater. Daniels' version is exquisite, very subtle.
It is good to hear these new-generation countertenors who seem to have more to offer the ear than some of the older ones; I am especially thinking of James Bowman. I have never understood his popularity. Amazingly he is still working.
I think there is a vital difference between some of these singers. Mera I don't get along with. To me he does sound like a girl and there is no muscle to his singing. The issue of muscle is not a male/female one. For instance, Marlyn Horne displayed plenty of it. I think it is the difference between gentling your way through the music, just as Mera does, and the range of tone and the weight of tone Jarrowsky deploys; it serves the music so much more fully. Having all that extra range of colour and technique allows the singer to really interpret the music.
Mike
O, don't start me up about Mera, that is my most favourite Counter Tenor, and I am quite honest about that. :)
I am quite happy to get you started on Mera. I have a disc of his and looked forward to it. What a letdown. He provides almost no range of volume whatsoever. He sings Handel, Refiner's Fire from the Messiah. What a wet weekend, the notes are all there, but he entirely misses the vigour and the concepts of warning and challenge within both words and music. He is completely passive, content merely with making a lovely sound. He should stick to crossover and leave the demanding music to people who convey insight into what they are singing.
Right after listing to his Messiah aria, I then put on Brigitte Fassbaender singing the same piece, in German, she tore into it and the fire and brimstone inherent in the music was brought out very completely.
Mike
Quote from: knight on January 12, 2008, 02:27:54 AM
I am quite happy to get you started on Mera. I have a disc of his and looked forward to it. What a letdown. He provides almost no range of volume whatsoever. He sings Handel, Refiner's Fire from the Messiah. What a wet weekend, the notes are all there, but he entirely misses the vigour and the concepts of warning and challenge within both words and music. He is completely passive, content merely with making a lovely sound. He should stick to crossover and leave the demanding music to people who convey insight into what they are singing.
Right after listing to his Messiah aria, I then put on Brigitte Fassbaender singing the same piece, in German, she tore into it and the fire and brimstone inherent in the music was brought out very completely.
Mike
I am truly shocked that you find his voice to be a disappointment. When the Bach cantatas series on Bis began, I could not get enough of his voice, and I think still, it is without doubt he best counter I ever heard, and he should replace that awful Robin Blaze forthwith.
It is the girlish quality, and this almost ephemeral element that makes me hear in awe, much more as a lovely sound.
What about Andreas Scholl? I think he is the best. I agree with the russian though, it took alot of getting used to listening to a man singing like a woman.
Mera; To an extent his Bach is slightly more satisfactory, but really by accident than by artistry. He can do slow, contemplative and a bit sad...his natural default setting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNbbVHnTecw
Here in Handel; nothing is expressed, this is an instrumental sound....he has constructed this strange stage persona that fits his skills. I bet if you heard an entire disc of him singing Bach you would feel like you had been stuffed for an hour with cream cakes. The odd aria he might sustain and it seem in keeping, but purely fortuitously. He is a low-key exhibitionist, not a serious singer.
Mike
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wnLM2QhCPPs (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wnLM2QhCPPs)
A funny scene in which Lemieux and Jaroussky interpret the aria "Nel Profundo", from Orlando furioso, as a duel between two Orlandos ;D
Quote from: Sarastro on January 11, 2008, 06:23:35 PM
A really nice countertenor! Singing all that baroque, reviving and bringing it to people!
BUT!!
Nothing can be more terrible than a man singing with woman's voice. For me, of course...he has a beautiful timber, but since I know he's not a child or a girl, it drives me crazy, making an unexplainable feeling of disgusting. :( All my friends like him....except me. Daniels, Manzotti and others make me feel the same. :'(
It took me a long time to get used to the "countertenor" surge and actually like some of the singers but I still have some lingering doubts. Between the Baroque when some composers wrote with the possibility of castrati singing their operatic roles and modern compositions for an etherially high male voice, there was virtually no special repertoire for them, as singers were supposed to use their "chest" voices together with the "head", women and men alike.
In the Baroque, when music was not necessarily specified for what instruments, it didn't really matter very much if a man sang a woman's role or vice versa. But from the Classical period through to and including the Romantic (which dominated the standard operatic repertoire of the 20th century and still onwards), roles were NOT written for high male voices, because men were not expected to sound that way (without chest resonance, that is).
ZB
Quote from: Sarastro on January 11, 2008, 06:23:35 PM
Nothing can be more terrible than a man singing with woman's voice.
Though this has totally captured my heart - http://stream.ifolder.ru/5223949 (to download, enter the numbers, press "Далее" and then "скачать" which is on the right under the bar, or there is also a direct link) Sorry, that was not me who uploaded this.
Here is Andreas Scholl singing the same aria from Rodelinda:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=asBIeYlkJzo (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=asBIeYlkJzo)
Who's singing in your recording? It sounds like a real woman :|
Quote from: Figaro on February 07, 2008, 06:40:49 AM
It sounds like a real woman :|
Maybe it is a reason why I liked it. Sounds more like woman that a man trying to sing like woman. >:D
It is Russell Oberlin...isn't he just an haute-contre?
Thanks, I really enjoyed Scholl. :D
BTW, I've got his album with Mozart, Haendel, Gluck heroes.
Hahaha! I have a version of this aria by Daniels also, he's quite good with the technical singing.
I suppose your problem is that you see countertenors has people who emulate a female voice. I like to see it like a very high male voice. But the difference between the two can be minimal at times. For example, many people think Daniels sounds a lot like Marilyn Horne.
Quote from: Figaro on February 07, 2008, 08:03:34 PM
For example, many people think Daniels sounds a lot like Marilyn Horne.
No way!
I hope they don't consider him to sound like Elena Obraztsova? Because she is a baritone. :D
Oh, here I uploaded a piece with Elena Vasil'evna and Franco Bonisolli in Azucena and Manrico roles. Such a frenzied passion and chest register. :D
http://rapidshare.com/files/67720643/Mal_reggendo_all_aspro_assalto.wav
Quote from: Sarastro on February 07, 2008, 08:36:51 PM
No way!
I hope they don't consider him to sound like Elena Obraztsova? Because she is a baritone. :D
More like a lady bass on occasion. ;D
I agree, Daniels does not sound like her to my ears. The voice production is very different and emanates from a different foundation.At one point Karajan became enamored of Obraztsova. I think he described her as being like a wild beast. I tended to agree, though that was not a plus point for me.
Mike
Quote from: knight on February 08, 2008, 10:56:11 AM
I think he described her as being like a wild beast. I tended to agree, though that was not a plus point for me.
I hear people saying that, about her being vulgar...but for the roles she sang, like Carmen, Amneris, Princees di Bouglion (that sounds funny in Russian, like Princess of soup :D), Konchakovna, and etc., it fitted, I think. Beasty wild Carmen. :D
I read that she had a small voice of soprano but applied her best to get this output. I like her dense chest sound.
I liked her when I first heard her, it was an exciting voice. But quickly, I felt her approach became somewhat rough and ready. Some roles yield to various approaches, Carmen is one, but she attacked it crudely in my veiw.
Horne, who could occasionally bray, was really a very subtle singer with a marvelous technique.
Mike
Quote from: Figaro on January 13, 2008, 01:11:48 PM
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wnLM2QhCPPs (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wnLM2QhCPPs)
A funny scene in which Lemieux and Jaroussky interpret the aria "Nel Profundo", from Orlando furioso, as a duel between two Orlandos ;D
It is indeed very funny, but also an amazing vocal feast. And very cleverly done, with Lemieux taking the lower phrases, and Jaroussky the florid soprano runs :D. Both are great artists.
Another great countertenor is Daniel Taylor, but his is a less expressive voice. Taylor cultivates an instrumental quality that never fails to melt the heart. In the right repertoire he is unmatched. I heard him in Messiah and his account of
He was Despised was the highlight of the whole concert.
Hi Lilas,
I heard Taylor in Ottawa last december. He was singing the Bach Christmas Oratorio under Pinnock! He was quite a discovery, indeed.
Vivaldi - Nisi Dominus//Cum dederit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHJYNYi5N7o
Well, in the first degree I get excited by such voices. Such a Nachtigall like voice, this must be a very beautiful woman. BUT THEN: ARGGGH, a Countertenor ;) I honestly feel a big uncomfortable when listening to Countertenors, I try to forget it's a male voice.
Apart from all this I'd say he's gorgeous.