> maybe the break was just accepted in that era (like the awful
> scooping he does)?
It was a feature of the period: Teresa Tietjens used the scoop to push her
voice up, and so did
other singers; it was a fashion and an aid, evidently.
> even though his break sounded
> grotesque... perhaps it was much smoother when he was younger?
Here one only judge Moreschi by what he is reported to have performed; namely,
his
show-piece: the Seraph's aria from Beethoven's "Christus am Oelberge", and less
seriously, a
salon performance of the Jewel Song from Gounod's "Faust" !!
It also strikes me that G.B. Rubini, the chief exponent in his day of the use
of falsetto to
extend his tenor voice, may have been trying "replicate" the sound of the
disappearing
castrati since high notes were their stock-in-trade and "high"chest notes were
regarded as
odd, as depicted in a famous cartoon showing one of them on the point of
explosion in the
act of reaching ever higher.
As Rossini wrote for tenors using falsetto, likewise Donizetti and Bellini, it
is not surprising
that there was a reappearance of these in the latter part of the last century;
the 20th !
For interest's sake, I have tried to find sopranos willing to attempt
Farinelli's famous arias
lulling Philip V of Spain to rest; and have only come up with one.
For women interpreting the Vivaldi arias, Cecilia Bartoli does a wonderful job.
> For further reading on the subject of castrati- pick up Rodolfo
> > Celletti's book, A History of Bel Canto.
Do you want to borrow a copy ?
Elsa
http://www.cix.co.uk/~velluti
Award: September 2000
Modified: Jan. 2001
Historian: not musician
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