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From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Thu Mar 8, 2001  6:45 pm
Subject:  Countertenor Taboo (was: silence of the lambs (errr... list))


>voice. More than a few times it was implied to me that countertenors were
>not an acceptable topic of conversation at vocalist.
>


In God's name, why not? Aren't countertenors vocalists too? Perhaps it's
because we no longer have our resident countertenor, Jay Wilcox, to wave
the flag for his fach.

I have to admit that I've been somewhat put off by the countertenor voice
over the years. But recently I've been making discoveries among the "new
crop" of countertenors - e.g., sopranos/mezzos Brian Asawa, David Daniels,
Bejun Mehta, and Yoshikazu Mera, and alto Andreas Scholl - that have been
changing my mind. There is a clarity to their vocal sound, and a core of
energy, that one didn't hear in the "old school" of sexless, enervated,
hooty-sounding countertenors epitomised by the legendary Alfred Deller, and
more recently by James Bowman and Michael Chance (what I call the "Deller
Consort/King's Singers countertenor sound") but also apparent, albeit to a
much less offensive extent, in singers like Pascal Bertin, Derek Lee Ragin,
Robin Blaze and Drew Minter.

Then there's Dominique Visse, who sounds to be in a category all his own.


Karen Mercedes



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