Michael Maniaci: Exsultate, Jubilate - Alleluja

[AgnesRegina]

Wow -- what an impressive voice! I never heard of Maniaci before, but I'm glad I discovered this. Lovely.

[classictomatosoup]

sigh! I could listen to this all day. I have the hugest operacrush on Michael Maniaci. :)

[jeslee123]

I really love his voice~~

[primohomme]

I like this version better than the one in his debut album.

[cubanowicca]

I prefer Radu Marian´s voice

[GoblinInventor]

interesting. Marian has never been to my taste, not for any technical reasons, just I have a certain vision of how the countertenor/male soprano should sound, and Maniaci better captures that for me

[AndresSopranista]

maniaci is wonderfull, he is number 1

[AndresSopranista]

i will learn this piece in some time

[poperagurl]

I love Michael's voice, especially in this piece.

BTW I've heard versions with sopranos and trebles too and I don't think any voice sounds "wrong" for the piece, just different. Max Emanuel Cencic's treble version is also very good.

[45r2d2]

Was this work really written by Mozart for a male soprano? I think the female voice fits better here!

[Thrax1982]

This was written for castrato Rauzzini, how did he sound like we will never know. Some say he was soprano some say mezzo.

Anyway, it is a sacred composition, no woman could have sung it (at least not in a church).

[45r2d2]

Ah thx, I didn't know that women weren't allowed to sing in churches at that time.

[hanzelheidi]

OMG! Please hold your tongue.

A true male castrati had the lung capability to hit the high notes at 6 octaves, as the infamous Farinelli could.

There was a reason aria's were specifically written for male castrati's.

Michael gives us an insight and glimmer of what it must of been like at the height of the 'rock super stars of Opera' such as Ferinelli, but Ferinelli he is not.

We can only image from the literature written aqbout him.

Woman could never achieve the sound of a true castrati.

[Thrax1982]

"Woman could never achieve the sound of a true castrati."

I disagree, for example Nancy Storace was known across Europe for her ability to sound exactly like Luigi Marchesi when she wanted to.

[hanzelheidi]

Sorry, I disagree.

Castration before puberty prevents a boy's larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. As the castrato's body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his epiphyses (bone-joints) did not harden in the normal manner.

[hanzelheidi]

Thus the limbs of the castrati often grew unusually long, as did the bones of their ribs. This, combined with intensive training, gave them unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity. Operating through small, child-sized vocal cords, their voices were also extraordinarily flexible, and quite different from the equivalent adult female voice, as well as higher vocal ranges of the uncastrated adult male.

Therefore, women could never match the octaves, nor the unique sound of a castrati.

[Thrax1982]

This is all generally correct but tells us little of specific abilities of certain men or women. Women were common in male parts even in Italy, even in Naples where there were castrati everywhere. For example Pergolesi's 'Adriano in Siria' - 3 parts for high male voice but only one castrato was involved.

[skwaller]

True! The reason being, Storace was taught by Rauzzini, for whom this piece was composed.

[SergioFloresa]

I definitive will do... I like to listen to singers that can surprise... thanks....

[BayAreaBiker2001]

Maniaci is about as close to a castrato as we can get. His choice of reperatoire would give us a good idea of what castrati must have sounded like. Alessandro Moreschi was a real castrato, but a rather poor example, especially with the recording equipment available in 1902-1904.

[soprana53]

Have you ever listened to Radu Marian? There are several videos of him here on yt. Oddly, he is quite unknown. Its obvious that HIS voice never broke at all. Maybe interesting! Greetings!!!

[SergioFloresa]

You got that right. He is the closest we will ever get to a castrato voice. Compared to counter-tenors he can modulate his voice in the high notes. Meaning he can sing piano in the high range. I have the Moreschi recording you mention in cd. The only document we have of a real castrato singing art music. Probabably not the best, nor representative of the castrati when they could embelish with improvisations.... but a historical document non the less.

[Thrax1982]

Listen to Javier Medina, whatever you may think of the his voice it's the closest thing to Moreschi

around today.

[TrebleB4Mi]

The clear difference between a Maniaci or Daniels and Aris Christofeles is that Maniaci and Daniels retain a chiaro scuro tone, balancing the dark creamy timbre with bright resonance. Even Jaroussky, though his tone is brighter, keeps the beauty of the tone but Christofeles just sounds breathy and anemic to me. In my opinion Maniaci and Daniels are the best countertenors/sopranists around at the moment

[gamgee87]

Does he have any CDs out?

[Timrath]

Holy crap! I never heard of Maniaci before, but after listening to this, I never want to hear a female soprano again. This is so much superior to any female voice.

[janiscortese]

I know -- women totally suck, don't they? *sarcasm*

[Timrath]

Now, now, don't exaggerate. There's a big difference between sucking and merely having someone being better than you. I would have thought this to be obvious. Why on earth would you assume I'm implying that women suck? You just erected a strawman. *no sarcasm at all*

[janiscortese]

Of course he's better than me, you idiot -- I don't sing.

It's just really pitiful that, when surprised by a beautiful miracle like this man's voice, your first instinct is to use it as an excuse to badmouth an entire group of others. Typical of humanity, but a damned shame nonetheless.

I imply nothing. I just restate what you said, with no ornament or exaggeration. You obviously haven't got a clue about fine voice, hon ...

[Thrax1982]

No name calling please, otherwise feel free to continue the discussion.

My personal oppinion - while Maniaci's voice in unusual and quite beautiful there are still many many considerably better female singers in the world.

[Timrath]

You shouldn't call people idiots. I hope I don't have to explain to you why this is inadvisable.

You also should learn how to distinguish between cases where the word "you" functions as a personal pronoun, and when as a means of making a general statement. Once again, I would have thought it obvious that "better than you" doesn't mean "better than you, janiscortese." Was this another strawman, or did the meaning of my sentence genuinely elude you?

[lucy0loves0music]

damn girl! you're so mean!

he just wanted to show his surprise with Michael's voice,it's sooo obvious... people needs to study more (a lot more) text interpretation...

you sound like a radical feminist...

[Timrath]

FFS, do we need to attach a disclaimer to everything now? Anyway, here goes:

---- DISCLAIMER ----

1. Female voices do not suck. By carefully reading my original statement, you can easily see that I made no such implication.

2. Yes, of course I continue listening to (and enjoying) female singers. People have the right to make enthousiastic exaggerations.

3. Nonetheless, I still Maniaci's voice better than any female's I've heard to this day.

4. You still got a problem? Speak to my lawyer! :-p

[delauge]

his coloratura is very good, but there are still little problems, he don´t sing every notes... But i think, this is the best male version.

[EmeraldSky33]

You're right about the coloratura, but I still just love his voice.

Em

[altodivo]

Good for him. Still nowhere near as beautiful as a female voice. Arno Raunig also has a good recording of this, which I prefer to this one.

[Thrax1982]

I prefer this to vast majority of female versions. BTW, many people say that his voice is more beautiful than any woman - I'm not so sure about that but I definitely perfer his voice to most female sopranos. Don't even try to compare a falsettist like Raunig to him :P Raunig has a good voice though, compared to other sopranists.

[EmeraldSky33]

Really? I actually think the high male voice in general is more pure and more beautiful than the high female voice. Just my opinion.

Em

[janiscortese]

Eh -- I tend to like high male voices and low female ones. A male soprano or counter and a good female contralto often has a "best of both worlds" thing going in with their voices, but talent and beauty are pretty evenly spread between genders IME.

[bleetenor]

Nice job on this overall. My vote for best Mozart Alleluia is Shirley Verrett singing in E-flat. By the sound of the strings in this, it sounds like a period instrument orchestra. Usually these groups play at A = 415 instead of A = 440, so the high C sounds like our modern high B.

[jowox]

why does he only hit a high B here instead of the soprano C? Which version is this? From a CD?

[Thrax1982]

I think it sounds like a live recording made by some member of the audience. He is probably singing with an orchestra performing on period instruments, that would explain the lower pitch.

[agnellodei]

Exactly, this is tuned to Mozart's tuning of 430

[philomelodia]

Eat your heart out, Bartoli! Nothing beats a male's power in this piece. Not even Christofelis pulled it off so effortlessly and with such projection. The range of a woman and the strength and power of a man! And, he's not been surgically altered. doesn't get any better than that.

[Thrax1982]

Best woman on this piece is young Kiri Te Kanawa

she sounds like a powerful boy soprano there.

watch?v=xcmcYa8GqIs

[fringelily]

I think Maniaci is very exciting, but the Kiri version is a desert island disc.