Word: countertenors
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...third of Glass's trilogy of operas about remarkable men. A musically luminous treatment of the rise and fall of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh some consider history's first monotheist, it unfolds in gradual waves to reveal two particularly striking moments: a ravishing trio for Akhnaten (a countertenor), his mother and his wife in the first act; and Akhnaten's glorious hymn to the sun disk in Act II. The prevailing mood, though, is dark and brooding, emphasized by Glass's use of an orchestra without violins. Rich in detail and sharp in characterization, Akhnaten...
...style, dry by conventional standards but supple and expressive. Especially impressive was the Nero of Susan Larson, taking a part originally written for a male soprano; the Arnalta of Tenor Karl Dan Sorensen, playing a nursemaid in another of the opera's travesty roles; and the Ottone of Countertenor Jeffrey Gall. Kerry McCarthy made a vocally handsome, icily regal Poppea. Pearlman translated Giovanni Francesco Busenello's masterly libretto into idiomatic, singable English...
DIED. Alfred Deller, 67, self-trained English singer who revived the long-lost art of the countertenor, male singing in the alto range; of a heart attack; in Bologna, Italy. A burly, bearded figure whose womanish voice astounded unaccustomed audiences, the singer and his Deller Consort sextet won the enthusiastic bravos of listeners around the world for their live and recorded performances of medieval, Renaissance and baroque music...
...flexible soprano voices, he would doll up the music with ornaments and, if another soprano complained, he would steal a few arias from the first soprano and slip them to the second. To further befuddle historians, Handel was continually juggling arias to fit whatever boy soprano, male alto or countertenor happened along. As a result, a wide range of different but thoroughly authentic "original versions" of the oratorio came into being...
...blessed souls in heaven." TheGloria, a quodlibet of Lutheran chorale melodies was precisely thought out and excellently proportioned among the voices. As for the seven soloists, the men were more distinguished than the women in regard to vocal blend if not phrasing, with Daniel Collins, the countertenor, David Evitts, the baritone, and Mark Pearson, the bass-baritone, producing the finest singing. The mezzosoprano and soprano, Jan Curtis and Susan Stevens, sounded totally alien, much as if one were simultaneously listening to a barrel-organ and a celeste. The choir was improperly overbalanced by the women, except in the Gloria...