Russell Oberlin, male alto, Handel: Dove sei

[ryan33bttm]

I am a natural male contralto and, for me, Oberlin's version of "Dove Sei" most closely matches the descriptions that we have of Senesino's actual vocal timbre. There is something about his rendition of this aria that has an "ah...that's how Senesino sounded" vibe.

[tamerlano236]

Very nice. Great aria. But I agree the best version on YT is Nicholas Spanos's.

[pianomags]

God this is truly sublime. Well done you on such a great upload. The images are gorgeous. Makes me wish I'd done art History instead of music. well almost :)

[AndresSopranista]

the best male alto ever ( well , the only true one, besides castrati )

[serenaluce]

@AndresSopranista Nonsense! It's only your subjective opinion. You can't declare who is the best male alto ever or how is the only true one. How many people, so many opinions! You can only express yours! In MY opinion the best natural male alto is Jochen Kowalski! I don't like Oberlin's timbre at all! But it's a matter of taste. The most beautiful version of this aria I've ever heard is Nicholas Spanos's!

[AndresSopranista]

@serenaluce I can declare WHAT THE F# I WANT TO

[serenaluce]

@AndresSopranista OK, you really can declare whatever you like! It's just when someone sounds too categoric, the other people can disagree and reply to him. The beauty of YT is that people can share opinions on the same rendition, which are very different. I don't declare anything. In my opinion Oberlin is not that good at all. This is not sublime. There are versions much better than this, e.g. Daniel's...

[AndresSopranista]

@serenaluce You say ppl can share different opinions....WELL MY OPINION is that OBERLIN is the best male alto ever. There are others that are good also, but i think his voice is specially nice sounding and 0 % falsetto. So i like him more than the rest. Its freedom of opinions.

[serenaluce]

@AndresSopranista Of course, your opinion is your opinion if you like Oberlin's timbre. I just think that it's not so important who sings in his natural unbroken voice like Maniaci, Marian and who in falsetto. What's wrong with falsetto? For me the main thing is BEAUTY of singing. So, based on this criteria I find that the best version of the aria is Spanos's, then Daniels', then Scholl's. They are all very beautiful , though sung in falsetto. IMO

[AndresSopranista]

@serenaluce well i like more the natural male high singers and not falsetto because i like ppl who sound like me, in timbre, because i am natural too ( male soprano )....so i like to NOT feel so lonely in this world. But some non naturals are very good too, i like for example ALL sorpanists, no matter if natural or not, but altos, i rather prefer a more natural sound, or a quite natural, like mehta or cencic. Or daniels, daniels is quite natural.

[77Opera]

Merveilleux!!!

[CubbyNH]

Always lovely singing from Mr Oberlin. Does anyone know why he retired from singing at such a young age? (36)... I have my suspicions.

[velvetcaress]

Always beautiful to hear Russell's amazing voice. I would love to have a singing voice like his! Lovely!

[mradaChris]

Love it.

[Nibelungenfrau]

and a lot of thanks for the text passages - wonderful!

[Nibelungenfrau]

What a wonderful voice! Incredible. Thank you very much for the video.

[secretmax07]

wow...I find his voice timbre very...distinct...initially I thought a woman is singing. i like it