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From:  Linda Fox <linda@f...>
Date:  Wed Jun 7, 2000  10:20 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Countertenors/Castrati


Tako Oda wrote:


> I *think* an English cathedral countertenor ("O Death")
> shared the stage with Senesino ("Who May Abide") for the first
> performance of Messiah (anyone know for sure?), but that is an
> oratorio...

I find no record of Senesino ever having been involved in Messiah under
Handel. The first performance featured one female soprano, one
contralto, Susanna Cibber, a great favourite with Handel, and Joseph
Ward and William Lambe, both described as counter-tenors. Lambe,
incidentally, is credited with singing "Thou shalt break them" which is
usually a tenor solo. In the revivals in 1743 and 1745 and 1749 no
counter-tenors are named at all, but a plurality of sopranos - also an
unnamed boy treble in 1749.

12 April 1750: London, Covent Garden Theatre (1 performance) -- with new
settings of "But who may abide the day of his coming?" and "Thou art
gone up" composed for the alto-castrato Gaetano Guadagni.

This was the only castrato to sing in Messiah under Handel's direction,
and in most performances he preferred a contralto.
--
Linda Fox, Cambridge, UK


  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
2245 Handel, was: Re: Countertenors/Castrati John Alexander Blyth   Wed  6/7/2000   4 KB
2246 Re: Countertenors/Castrati Tako Oda   Wed  6/7/2000   2 KB

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