Cara speme - Vivica Genaux LIVE - Giulio Cesare - Handel

[tamerlano236]

Nice. Great aria. The best version on YT is Nicholas Spanos's.

[justasondheimbaby]

her voice is ugly-beautiful and that's just why I love it.

[serenaluce]

Such a strange, unpleasant voice to my ear. It doesn't sound beautiful at all. Sorry. The best versions of this aria are countertenors', especially that it's a MAN's aria. SHE is NO Sesto! And the very best are either of 2 renditions of Nicholas Spanos! THAT  is REALLY beautiful and enchanting!

[Gudrun74]

Sorry to disappoint you but the role of Sesto was written by Handel for Margherita Durastanti, a female soprano. That's baroque!

[serenaluce]

Sorry to disappoint you too, but you should know that sometimes Handel dealt with female singers in men's roles because he had constant financial problems, and castrati were the highest payed! An approximate substitution for castrato voices female mezzos were much cheaper. That's baroque too! Nowadays there are enough good countertenors for castrato roles and I prefer them. I don't treat opera as an abstract stuff. Women's roles should be sung by women, and men's - by men only. It's my opinion.

[jovi1715]

Un controtenore non è un castrato, e non ha le stesse caratteristiche vocali di un castrato (e non può averle!). Sorry to disappoint you!

[serenaluce]

Sorry to disappoint you as well, but why do you presume that I don't know that a countertenor isn't a castrato and has different vocal charasteristcis?! Don't you think that castrato roles still can be sung nowadays, and the only logical alternative is countertenors? Or you personally prefer women in pant roles? Or you think that nobody should sing castrato roles and that kind of baroque music just should be forgotten?! By the way, thanks for blocking me and not explaining why! Happy New Year!

[jgonnerman85]

@serenaluce I'm pretty sure that Handel never had a castrato sing Sesto. It was only sung by a woman or a tenor. As far as I'm concerned, if the role was never sung by a castrato, that cuts out any semblance of a reasonable claim that the role should be restricted to countertenors.  Which is even assuming that "countertenor" is the modern equivalent of "castrato," which is itself pretty dubious.

[serenaluce]

Well, you are no Handel and can't know for sure why he gave Sesto's role to a woman. It's a soprano part. As I said before Handel could have a financial problem or at that particular time no suitable soprano castrato was available, or he quarelled with someone of the cast. If later this roled was transposed to be sung by a tenor or even a baritone doesn't mean that countertenors aren't the best vocal and logical option for castrati now. They also sound more beautiful! Have you heard Spanos?

[serenaluce]

Have you heard Cencic's audio version of this aria? I didn't say that a countertenor is an absolute equivalent of castrato nowadays. Of course, they have different vocal characteristics. Nobody can't absolutely replace castrati, but don't you think that the closest replacement to a man is a man? There is a specific tone, magic that only can be found in high male voices if only people have sensitive enough ears. Absolutely no female singer has this magic no matter how wonderful she can sound!

[KozenaFan]

Thanks again, Gudrun! You attend all the best Baroque concerts and operas.