Handel: Operatic Arias.With his first CD and his upcoming debut at the Metropolitan Opera, countertenor countertenor, a male singing voice in the alto range. Singing in this range requires either a special vocal technique called falsetto, or a high extension of the tenor range. David Daniels is hot Handel: Operatic Arias * David Daniels * Virgin Classics Hunk alert! After stunning audiences in other American cities during the past few years, David Daniels finally makes his debut at New York City's Metropolitan Opera April 10 in Handel's Giulio Cesare. If the mere idea of the countertenor voice summons images of wispy wisp n. 1. A small bunch or bundle, as of straw, hair, or grass. 2. a. One that is thin, frail, or slight. b. A thin or faint streak or fragment, as of smoke or clouds. 3. British gentlemen with carefully manicured goatees and zilch sex appeal, have a look at--and a listen to--Daniels. He may resemble the linebacker you had a crush on during your senior year in high school, but his voice is something else--a sound of unearthly purity, sensitivity, and vigor. Daniels's recital disc, 12 arias from Handel operas, recalls an era when castrati ruled the lyric stage. Although nobody alive knows what those surgically created divos really sounded like, this record, on which Sir Roger Norrington crisply leads the period-instrument Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, may be the next best thing to having been there. Daniels sings with a bold, thrusting, masculine sonority so·nor·i·ty n. pl. so·nor·i·ties 1. The quality or state of being sonorous; resonance. 2. A sound. 3. Linguistics The degree to which a speech sound is like a vowel. and ripples nonchalantly non·cha·lant adj. Seeming to be coolly unconcerned or indifferent. See Synonyms at cool. [French, from Old French, present participle of nonchaloir, to be unconcerned : non-, through the roller-coaster roulades in which the 18th-century music abounds. In addition to showing off, the singer transforms his falsetto falsetto (fôlsĕt`tō) [Ital.,=diminutive of false], high-pitched, unnatural tones above the normal register of the male voice, produced, according to some theories, by the vibration of only the edges of the larynx. into an instrument that in this anthology encompasses the time-honored emotions of rage, regret, and de, sire. The crowd at the Met should swoon. Ulrich is the dance and classical-music critic for the San Francisco Examiner The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th Century. History 19th century The beginning of the Examiner is a topic of some controversy. . |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion