Countertenor

Many listeners react with shock when they first hear a countertenor: a high, sweet contralto voice emerging from an adult man. It’s certainly unusual, and for long periods of musical history it was almost unknown. In all-male medieval religious orders it made sense for men to cultivate their higher, “falsetto” register. But it was, and remains, a rare and highly skilled technique. For several centuries a similar result was achieved by castrati—men who were surgically mutilated before puberty in order to preserve their high boyish voice. A true countertenor can sing the same music as a castrato without resorting to such drastic methods; and with the mid-20th century rediscovery of Baroque opera, the voice experienced a major revival. Today, countertenors have reclaimed the great Baroque castrato roles including princes (like Nero in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea), heroes (in Handel’s Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare), and mythological figures (as in Gluck’s Orfeo). And they bring new life, too, to Tudor lute songs and classical cantatas. Meanwhile, the countertenor’s unique, sometimes unearthly, sound has been exploited with delight by a range of modern composers including Adès, Britten, Ligeti, Glass, and, in Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber.