At 06:56 PM 5/26/00 -0400, Peggy Harrison wrote:
>Axwell@a... wrote:
>
> >What I don't understand is why is there any need for a man to
> > sound like a woman. Aren't there more than enough women to
> >play these parts ? What is the advantage of having female sounding men.
>
>It's historical. In the baroque, the castrato was a popular voice
>category, and
> great
>composers wrote music for them, like Handel. The "why's" can be a
>sociological
> or
>psychological discussion, but I'm only dealing with the fact of it.
Interesting thing about Handel - he also wrote roles for female
contraltos, including some *male* roles, and then roles sometimes got
shuffled around, depending on who was available to play them. Not only did
he seem to enjoy playing off the sexual ambiguity that was so popular, but
he was pragmatic as well!
Leslie J.
Leslie Jones, D.M.A.; Contralto
Dept. of Music, Southeast MO State Univ.
LJones@s... - (573) 651-2339
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