Just for fun, I rented "Dangerous Liasons" yet again, which sports a "hormonal castrato" - Paulo Nascimento. He sang "Ombra mai fu".
It was in the original F major, but at baroque pitch. He never seemed to stray from what I consider a lyric mezzo's registrational strategy... All head with perhaps a few dips into tastefully disguised chest tones for the bottom notes.
Now this isn't to say that this proves *anything*. Castrati of yesteryear may have used a lot more chestiness - I suppose we'll never know. What I did notice, however, was that his tone, produced in the typically "classical female" way, sounded much more like a countertenor than anything else I've ever heard.
Point is - maybe Farinelli used more chest in his singing than the women singers in the same period. Taylor certainly has brought up some good arguments supporting this theory. If he didn't, however, it's entirely possible he just sounded like an astounding countertenor at least in basic timbre.
Tako Oda
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