G. F. HANDEL Alcina: Sta nell'ircana

[acanthe83]

c est moins horrible que d ordinaire chez jaroussky

[edem1089]

@acanthe83 oh la je suis pas d'accord ;) mais les gouts et les couleurs....

[fastborzoi]

fabulous da capo

thank you!

[VIVALDItheBEST]

great performances. great music, the singer, and the musicians. BRAVISSIMI QUEST'ARIA E' FANTASTICA.

[AleRoma1968]

Fantastico!

[jeanambr]

I can't stand countertenors (who have nothing to deal with castratos and never were emploied in their place during 18th and 19th century), but ... in this case Jaroussky is nearly acceptable

[sk8nruff]

He's great, isn't he? :D Good thing he was a violinist before he became a singer! Falsetists were employed from the 16th through the 19th century, but you're right they are two very different animals. If you were Handel and had to choose between Carestini and a falsetist there'd be no contest. LoLz!

[jeanambr]

Altogether I agree with you, but I wuold insist: no falsetist was ever employed in any first performance of Haendel, Vinci, Leo, Porpora, Hasse up to Rossini and Mayerbeer's operas; nor there was any custom of employing falsetists at all in the theaters, in Italy without any doubt, but I don't think in England or in Germany either. The French used even to dislike castrati too.

[GliOminiVerdi]

well, they were adored in the south of Italy, in whom Pontifician State had a great influence and where it was forbidden to play music on stage for a woman. But where women could sing on stage, they was rarely on stage, and only in the leading role (tenors were not liked) of the male.

[jeanambr]

Per quanto io ne so, nel ''600/'700, i falsettisti, se furono utilizzati in Inghilterra (fuori comunque dall'ambiente teatrale), non lo furono certamente in Italia: nello Stato Pontificio i ruoli femminili erano affidati a giovani castrati. Se hai notizie diverse dalle mie, basta che tu mi faccia un nome o un ruolo in qualche opera italiana creato originariamente da un controtenore. Con simpatia.

[GliOminiVerdi]

Sì, tu hai ragione. Era molto tardi quando ho scritto la risposta e in effetti i falsettisti erano usati solo in sostituzione dei castrati. Graize mille!

[90lysander]

@jeanambr I thought William Savage, after his bass changed, sang both as a bass and as a countertenor for Handel. Or was he a bass for the operas and a countertenor for the Oratorios? Hmmm.

[jeanambr]

@90lysander According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Savage sang as a treble in three premieres of Handel operas, but after growing up he became a bass. You are right, nevertheless, for very sporadic cases of employment of countertenors in the eighteenth century British musical theatre are reported; none in Handel opera premieres, very few in oratorios. Daniel Sullivan, for instance, created the part of Athamas in Handel’s Semele and appeared in stage works by Purcell, Boyce, Arne, etc

[90lysander]

@jeanambr I did a little more research, too. Savage sang countertenor roles in Handel's Saul and Israel in Egypt. Again, both oratorios. And both performed in English. So you are correct.

[Gudrun74]

Jeanambr, I`m so relieved to read for once an intelligent comment on this topic. I fully agree with you, I suffer a lot in 95% of the operas I attend because these false voices are employed almost everywhere. I simply don`t understand why modern conductors still employ them. I don`t get it.

PS: Jaroussky has selected nice da capo embellishments, this I don`t deny.