Aris Christofellis - Real or what?
JDavis6627
Lately have been listening to recordings of Aris Christofellis who is
billed as a Sopranist. I assume that's another word for Countertenor.
Now, I have heard many countertenors, but none have sounded much like this
one.
The voice seems much higher, and also seems to have more strength. So,
the inevitable question arises - is this a real Castrati or a voice
classification I have somehow missed.
I realize that a true authority would necessarily need a search warrent -
but maybe someone out there knows more about him than I do. Would
appreciate any real information. Anyone?
JON DAVIS
Jim Parrott
In article <19970908192...@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
JDavis6627 <jdavi...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>Lately have been listening to recordings of Aris Christofellis who is
>billed as a Sopranist. I assume that's another word for Countertenor.
>
>Now, I have heard many countertenors, but none have sounded much like this
>one.
>The voice seems much higher, and also seems to have more strength. So,
>the inevitable question arises - is this a real Castrati or a voice
>classification I have somehow missed.
Have a look at Andreas Kopp's Male Sopranos on CD website at:
http://www.mpae.gwdg.de/~kopp/disc/
I have corresponded with Andreas Kopp by email; he has actually attended a
performance by Christofellis and spoken with him at length afterwards.
There is no indication that Christofellis is endocrinologically different
from the "average" male.
Christofellis does have a most unusual voice. It is not only high enough
to sing the Baroque soprano repertoire, but is extraordinarily flexible as
well. His vocal tone is very piercing (or, has a very "hard edge", as some
people say). I much prefer his voice to softer-edged voices, but I know
that some people dislike it. It is obviously a question of taste. For
those of you who haven't heard him sing: listen to him first before buying
anything. People seem to either love him (as I do) or can't stand his
vocal tone.
For what it's worth, in the golden age of the castrato, the glass
harmonica (and other instruments with a very piercing tone) found
considerable favour with many concert-goers of the day. I can't help
thinking that 18th century audiences would have enjoyed hearing
Christofellis sing. Of course, it's no more possible to prove that
statement than it is to prove that they wouldn't have liked it....
I'm just happy that Christofellis is singing today. I only hope that I
will be able to attend a performance of his some day. But he seems not to
venture outside of Europe....
Jim Parrott
Davis Centre Library
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L 5G6.
>
>I realize that a true authority would necessarily need a search warrent -
>but maybe someone out there knows more about him than I do. Would
>appreciate any real information. Anyone?
>
>JON DAVIS
--
Giovanni Christen
Jim Parrott, jrpa...@library.uwaterloo.ca writes:
>For what it's worth, in the golden age of the castrato, the glass
>harmonica (and other instruments with a very piercing tone) found
>considerable favour with many concert-goers of the day. I can't help
>thinking that 18th century audiences would have enjoyed hearing
>Christofellis sing. Of course, it's no more possible to prove that
>statement than it is to prove that they wouldn't have liked it....
The usual baroque "duel" was between singer and trumpet, not
glass harmonica! I did read a report of such a contest between
Farinelli and a renomated trumpet player (Farinelli won).
Yes, I can imagine a similar contest between Christoffelis and
a glass harmonica, but I can not imagine 18th century audiences
interested to attend it.
Personally I do not consider Christoffelis reminding in any way
the singing of castrati. He chirps, while castrati were famous for
huge dynamic range, unbelievable messa di voce, and extremely
long breaths (up to 50 secs). And, maybe the worst, he sings
vocalises instead of interpreting poetic textes.
Giovanni
Dave Zechman
The term sopranist refers to male sopranos, usually falsettists. This
would be similar to a countertenor with a higher range although a few
self-described c-t's do not use falsetto (e.g. Russell Oberlin), at
least not exclusively. I consider myself a sopranist (without proper
falsetto training as of yet) and am "naturally" a baritone, as is the
case for many sopranists. Randall Wong, Arno Raunig, Oleg Ryabets,
Mikael Bellini are some voices I'm familiar with on recordings.
Currently my favorite is Angelo Manzotti. Bear in mind, the voices of
these singers vary in tone from one another as much as any other voice
grouping by range (i.e. Nilsson to Gruberova to Ponselle...).
Long live Farinelli!
--Dave
JDavis6627 wrote:
>
> Lately have been listening to recordings of Aris Christofellis who is
> billed as a Sopranist. I assume that's another word for Countertenor.
>
> JON DAVIS
Jim Parrott
In article <5v48oc$1hp$1...@ubnnews.unisource.ch>,
Giovanni Christen <gchr...@bluewin.ch> wrote:
>Jim Parrott, jrpa...@library.uwaterloo.ca writes:
>>For what it's worth, in the golden age of the castrato, the glass
>>harmonica (and other instruments with a very piercing tone) found
>>considerable favour with many concert-goers of the day. I can't help
>>thinking that 18th century audiences would have enjoyed hearing
>>Christofellis sing. Of course, it's no more possible to prove that
>>statement than it is to prove that they wouldn't have liked it....
>
>The usual baroque "duel" was between singer and trumpet, not
>glass harmonica! I did read a report of such a contest between
>Farinelli and a renomated trumpet player (Farinelli won).
>Yes, I can imagine a similar contest between Christoffelis and
>a glass harmonica, but I can not imagine 18th century audiences
>interested to attend it.
I wasn't actually suggesting a contest. I meant that I felt that 18th
century audiences might enjoy Christofellis' voice because it, like the
glass harmonica, has a rather piercing tone.
>Personally I do not consider Christoffelis reminding in any way
>the singing of castrati. He chirps, while castrati were famous for
>huge dynamic range, unbelievable messa di voce, and extremely
>long breaths (up to 50 secs). And, maybe the worst, he sings
>vocalises instead of interpreting poetic textes.
I suspect from your remarks above about Christofellis that you may be
thinking of the single excerpt of his singing on the EMI sampler CD
entitled "Le Temps des Castrats". That excerpt is indeed a performance of
a vocalise (a solfeggio written by Porpora for Farinelli). That
particular vocalise does indeed have a "chirpy" quality to it.
But in two later albums of his, "Farinelli et son Temps" and "Superbo di
me Stesso", all the pieces are arias -- the majority of them taken from
Baroque operas. The pieces included on these CDs range from slow majestic
noble arias like Gluck's "Se mai senti spirarti sul volto" and Handel's
"Scherza infida" to several arie di tempesta like Lampugnani's "Superbo di
me stesso" and Handel's "Sorge nel alma mia".
If you are assessing his vocal technique on the basis of a single
solfeggio, then you may be in for a considerable surprise when you hear
the above-mentioned CDs. But perhaps I am mistaken, and you have already
listened to these two CDs where he sings no vocalises?
Best Regards.
Jim Parrott
Davis Centre Library
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada.
>
>Giovanni
--