Bipolar Hallucidations © 2012-2024: Countertenors & Castrati and the Allegri Miserere

In this entry, I discuss various types of high male voices and some of their repertoire. I’ve included plenty of recordings- both audio and video- along with interviews from various time periods and Wikipedia articles which discuss the artists and some musical contexts.

I’m listening to an album that I didn’t know I had until I sorted through a naked stack of my CDs- Russel Oberlin (1928-2016), “America’s Countertenor”, sings Händel arias. I’ve been revisiting his smooth yet powerful masculine voice with its wonderful controlled rich vibrato from this 1959 recording. It includes two of the Arias that he sings on a 1961 and 1962 DVD recording, Russel Oberlin: America’s Countertenor. It’s wonderful to see him sing “in the flesh”. In the DVD interview, Russel quips “Oh no! They’re very very different!” when asked “Is a countertenor the same thing as a castrato?” He explains how male altos use their falsetto voice but he uses his natural voice which has much more projection. I’d say his vocal range is much larger than any female contralto, both at his top register and his lower register.

As a student, his voice teacher advised him to “Sing where it’s comfortable.” His singing style is exacting yet portamenti can be heard if you listen carefully (see Ah Dolce Nome! below)- every note and every phrase is properly placed and executed flawlessly as he is singing, while simultaneously anticipating the next phrase in his head. He was fond of sentimentality and liked to sing Romantic lieder because it this.

In a 1963 interview (see link below) Russel explains,

I like Schumann s- I like the sentimental Schumann songs. I think “Ihre Stimme”, “Your voice”, it would be fine… “Let me search deep within you; conceal nothing from my gaze. What sort of magic power dwells in your voice? So many words strike our ears unheeded and even as they fade away all are forgotten. Yet, when your voice reaches me, though from afar, I listen to it happily. I can never forget it. I tremble then, burning with all consuming passion. My heart and your voice understand each other so well.” [“Ihre Stimme” plays.] [See Russel Oberlin Recital Part 4]

The YouTube channel “Russel Oberlin - Topic” has the entire album Russel Oberlin Sings Händel Arias, plus a second album A Child’s Garden of Verses in which Russel sings several short children’s songs. There are several interviews with Russel below: one from 2004 and one where he talks about working with the famous Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. An interview with Glenn Gould on Bach is followed by a video of him and Russel Oberlin in a rare historical performance together (from 9:25 to 23.26). There is also another interview with Russel Oberlin in four short parts. Russel sings a 1961 recital in which he sings German lieder- a wondrous change in musical time periods from Händel’s arias. (See above paragraph.). And, moreover, he had another interview in 1963 where his distinctive speaking voice is showcased with the same man who interviews him in Russel Oberlin - America’s Countertenor. In the interview, he talks about the history of the countertenor as well as the castrati and their music. (See above paragraph.)

René Jacobs (b. 1946) is another countertenor which, like Russel Oberlin and Bejun Mehta, had a natural “Mezza-voca technique” (from the Italian “Mixed voice”) where the vocal registers are naturally unified. Rene Jacobs’ countertenor voice has an exceptional range, which he utilizes with ease. This can be heard in the Horn Aria by Händel below. (There is even a René Jacobs YouTube channel. See below.) He takes his upper register sweetly and with ease.

I’ve also included a documentary on castrati- including a 1904 recording! Alessandro Moreschi was the last castrato (1858-1922) and the only one to have made recordings. See Moreschi’s Wikipedia page for two examples of his singing which, not unlike Russel Oberlin, include wonderful sighing portamenti. Keep in mind when listening to these early 1900s wax cylinder recordings that the singing style of the turn of the 20th century was full of scoops down from one note to another (portamenti) along with jumps up from a lower note to a higher one (acciaccaturas). As castrati grew, the ends of the bones never closed. The growth plates remained unfused and therefore their limbs grew disproportionally long. They continued to grow as well as their lungs, giving them their great ability to sustain musical phrases for long periods of time. For nearly two hundred and fifty years, castrati were adored for their clear, powerful voices, which at the peak of their popularity in the 1700s, up to 4,000 boys per year were castrated in Italy before puberty in order to preserve their pre-pubescent voices- only 80 percent survived the operation. Many boys were cut but few made it to the operatic stage. Carlo Broschi - known as Farinelli- is the most famous castrato in history and his operatic singing is legendary. It is said that he could swell a note up to a great volume and then diminuendo back down to a pianissimo while holding the note for several minutes! Others joined church choirs like Moreschi and colleagues in the Sistine Chapel choir - famous for their castrati, their yearly performances of Allegri’s Miserere, and, of course, their 1902 and 1904 recordings. Since castrati had a bigger sound while singing than a boy trebles do, they could produce a more powerful vocal sound, especially as a group. Moreschi’s voice can clearly be heard on the 1904 recording of Oremus Pro Pontifice over the Chorus of Roman Choristers (boys).

It’s not always easy to tell the difference between the countertenor sound, the sopranist sound and the castrato sound. This YouTube channel, Early Music Sources, also has a video on the countertenors, as well as their one on the castrati. I’ve posted a link to a documentary about how the “high C” version of the Allegri “Miserere” came to be. A few measures of the version that Allegri wrote was transcribed and transposed to another key and placed on top of the original key. This gives the piece its haunting color. A recording of this “high C” Miserere is also linked below interestingly enough with a male soprano named Patrick Husson (b. 1960), age about 30 when this recording was made, who is NOT a castrato, but what is called a “Sopranist” a rare wondrous voice of an adult male who went through puberty but can still sing in a soprano’s tessitura. Listen carefully to hear Patrick sing the entire “G” to high “C” then the descent and “turn” ornament in one breath- a feat no boy soprano could accomplish! A castrato might’ve been able to do this and although the Sistine chapel choir is famous for employing castrati for both the alto parts and the soprano parts, - and for keeping the Miserere to themselves, along with their secret ornamentations- Mendelssohn’s version with the high “C” came after their hay day and this is also when the modern version of the Miserere was made public. The rest of the choir, La Maitrise De Garçons De Colmar, is composed of boy trebles, adult male altos (falsettists), tenors and basses. A 2015 recording of the current Sistine Chapel Choir- composed of boys and adult men- performing the “Miserere” in its original 17th-century form including their famous ornaments can be heard in the link below, “Original Miserere”.

There are many male sopranos who can still sing the repertoire written for the castrati.

Philippe Jaroussky (born 1978) is a French soprano countertenor who sings solely in the falsetto register. I have included Händel’s Ombra Cara in contrast to Russel Oberlin’s rendition. I have also included an English interview with him where you will notice his baritone speaking voice- very interesting!

Michael Maniaci’s (b. 1976) voice never fully broke and as a result he can still sing in the soprano range. In the link below of him singing Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate, K. 165 you can hear him hit a very high note indeed, near the end. Like Radu Marian, he has a softer sound than Moreschi.

Radu Marian (b. 1977) is also a man whose voice never changed. He sings with a light tone somewhat like a woman but with a male timber. According to Wikipedia, “ Marian is an ‘endocrinological castrato’ or ‘natural castrato’. A natural castrato is a male singer who never went through puberty and is able to keep his ‘unbroken’ voice intact.”

An unique boy soprano, Bejun Mehta (b. 1968) made recordings of his unusually rich and mature voice when he was 14- only six months before his voice changed! Upon hearing him, one might think that he is what a castrato should sound like. Interestingly, he is now a countertenor.

And just as a bonus, I’ve included a boy contralto- not a soprano or a countertenor- Peter Schreier (1935-2019) in a recording from the early 1950s. His rich tone and wonderful technique show both his mature musicality but his mature boy’s voice as well. He was 13-15 when these recordings were made. As he wished, he became a tenor, after his voice broke at 16 years of age.

Of course, countertenors have their voices break as teenagers and the castrati did not. This allowed the castrati time to develop their maturing soprano or contralto voices. Radu Marian (b. 1977) is one who never went through puberty and so is not a true “castrato” as he wasn’t castrated even though he sings in the soprano range and is not a countertenor. He also is not a Sopranist. Micheal Maniaci (b. 1976) is also an endocrinological soprano castrato, his voice breaking only partially.

In the first interview below (2004), Russel explains that his voice changed “quite late”, too.

I guess my voice changed maybe when I was maybe 15- quite late. Now, you know nowadays kids’ voices are changing when they’re, you know, twelve years old, it seems… In my day- I mean, I was a boy soprano in church choirs and did a lot of other just solo soprano singing. When my voice changed, I was probably a kind of second tenor, really. It wasn’t particularly high. I remember my own first significant voice teacher I had who was- I was born in Akron, Ohio and lived my childhood there- but I studied singing AFTER my voice changed, in Cleveland with a very fine teacher whose name is Gretchen Garnett… She was asked a question about “What was his voice like when he came to you?” and she said, “Well, he didn’t have much of a high voice nor much of a low voice.” It was just sort of a middle kind of whatever. But, I was- I had some very good advice- she and others- who simply said, “Sing where it’s comfortable. Don’t push yourself into a voice category… Your body is changing- the voice will change, too! And let it change where it wants to go- don’t push it into that.” And that’s what happened! By the time I went to Julliard, I was a very high tenor- a naturally high-placed tenor. I looked for repertoire that used that range of my voice, because it was better than the very low stuff. And that’s how I got started.

Russel Oberlin explains in the 1963 interview the difference between his type of voice and the falsetto singers. For example, male altos, which have been used in English cathedral choirs such as King’s College Choir at Cambridge. The cadenza in Ombra Cara, which he interpolated himself, shows off his high range and, wonderfully, his low range.

In my kind of a voice, being a tenor, I also have lots of tenor notes- the lower part of the male voice range- whereas in falsetto singing, the falsetto voice just fades away about A below middle C; maybe an octave and a half in falsetto is fine. Lots of countertenor things don’t encompass any more than that. It’s an interesting point to be able to look- we can look at scores and decide by the range of the piece and by the orchestral accompaniment- if it’s an orchestral accompanied piece, or an aria that I’m speaking of, we can tell what kind of a countertenor that was intended for…. Some of the Händel things- there’s so much accompaniment- almost full orchestra- that the falsetto simply wouldn’t cut through all that…. [In Händel’s “Ombra Cara”, there’s]… a cadenza that is interpolated by me- it’s not written down. But, it’s in the style- in Handel’s day, the artists and singers, were known for their embellishing of the score with this cadenza in the style and tradition of the Händel operas of his day.

In the DVD insert to Russel Oberlin, America’s Legendary Countertenor, Joshua Cohen writes,

At the end of ‘Ombra Cara’…he inserts an electrifying cadenza, racing all the way down to a firm baritone D, then up the scale two octaves and a minor third to a soaring F (above tenor high C), then down again to settle two octaves below. At no point does his tone betray the faintest blip or creak- not even the slightest hint of the dreaded ‘gear shift’. It is one of the most amazing demonstrations of vocal homogeneity on record…. The high F was apparently the upper limit of his range.

Doctor Ian Howell is a countertenor who has given an interview on the specifics of the countertenor voice called The Countertenor Voice- with Ian Howell where he gives information on a variety of qualities of this voice type. A very good detailed interview!

Here’s to the history of the high male singing voices!

This is just a brief introduction to the worlds of the countertenors, castrati, and sopranists. I hope you take your time and really savor the links below. I find the topic of unusual male voices fascinating and I hope you do too!

Castrati on Wkipedia

Alessandro Moreschi on Wikipedia

Russel Oberlin Wikipedia Page

Glen Gould on Wikipedia

Radu Marian, endocrinological castrato on Wikipedia

Bejun Mehta on Wikipedia

Peter Schreier on Wikipedia

Michael Maniaci on Wikipedia

René Jacobs on Wikipedia

Philippe Jaroussky - Wikipedia

Ah dolce nome! Russel Oberlin

Ombra Cara by Handel, singer: Russel Oberlin