Castration and opera

[Misha999 (imported)]

Then you're in for a treat and lots of work. Don G-- can't go wrong with Mozart. However, there are some wonderful composers who are rarely heard unless one is listening closely to movie background music. If you haven't heard of these may I suggest a YouTube search for Nocollo Piccinni Joan Sutherland sings three arias here the second one is Piccinni.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U_BzTt-cJM

and Giovanni Paisiello. Paisiello was Naploeon Bonaparte's court musician. At the time he was best known for his operas but if you can get your hands on his piano concertos (there are at least 8) you won't be disappointed. They are enchanting. Here is one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHImOfeNxTc

If you like the romantics I recommend Saint Saens Samson and Delilah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwynxOAo ... re=related

There's so much more!

M

Yes indeed. I'm no expert though. My favourites are Don Giovanni, Norma and Salome. I've always loved classical music but only got into opera in the last few years.

[eunuch2001 (imported)]

Then you're in for a treat and lots of work.

M

Thanks M. I suspect you've just given me at least a year's work and many hours of pleasure ahead. I already knew that piece from Samson but it's always good to hear it again.

One of my favourite sopranos (alas no longer alive, but thank God for recordings) is Lucia Popp. Her performance of the Four Last Songs under Klaus Tennstedt's baton is the most-played CD in my collection.

Many many thanks and a big hug for your last posting and for all the joys I shall experience as a result.

And for anyone else reading this - go and listen and take pleasure in the music.

[Misha999 (imported)]

You're welcome E. We've wandered off topic. If you or anyone wants any suggestions or links to opera, classical music please don't hesitate to PM me. I may be of some help though I certainly don't know everything-- but some, I think.

Best,

M

ps. Lucia Popp's rendition of The Queen of the Night is sensational!

Thanks M. I suspect you've just given me at least a year's work and many hours of pleasure ahead. I already knew that piece from Samson but it's always good to hear it again.

One of my favourite sopranos (alas no longer alive, but thank God for recordings) is Lucia Popp. Her performance of the Four Last Songs under Klaus Tennstedt's baton is the most-played CD in my collection.

Many many thanks and a big hug for your last posting and for all the joys I shall experience as a result.

And for anyone else reading this - go and listen and take pleasure in the music.

[graylayer02 (imported)]

My taste has lately been tending toward countertenors, though they're kind of hit or miss for me. I'm on an Andreas Scholl kick right now. The Handel Birthday Ode to Queen Anne and the Buxtehude Jubilate Domino are especially good. There was another one back in Chicago someplace that was very good, forgot his name at the moment. It's funny that both of these guys make it a point to be photographed with at least some facial hair or scruff, so as to dispel possible rumors about their anatomical configuration.

Jaroussky, on the other hand, sounds a little bit odd to me, a bit hollow, and he actually does look like he doesn't have to shave. Does anyone have the 411 on his hormonal status?

[Misha999 (imported)]

Buxtehude! another name so often pushed aside in favor of Bach or Handel.

As for Scholl vs Jaroussky one is German and the other is French. Their language intonations must certainly play apart in their "sound" which is clearly different. Jaroussky's tone is thinner while Scholl has a heavier, more solid tone. Add to this they are more than 10 years apart in age. Who can say what J's voice will sound like 10 years hence?

Still, they are lovely, are they not?

Straying from voice, one of the Bach boys is getting a resurgence these days; Johann Christian Bach. He's the only one of the Bach boys to convert to Catholicism. He lived mostly in England. If you haven't hear him give JCB a try.

http://www.youtube.

com/watch?v=

9AWCEUMT-Gs&feature=related

M:)

My taste has lately been tending toward countertenors, though they're kind of hit or miss for me. I'm on an Andreas Scholl kick right now. The Handel Birthday Ode to Queen Anne and the Buxtehude Jubilate Domino are especially good. There was another one back in Chicago someplace that was very good, forgot his name at the moment. It's funny that both of these guys make it a point to be photographed with at least some facial hair or scruff, so as to dispel possible rumors about their anatomical configuration.

Jaroussky, on the other hand, sounds a little bit odd to me, a bit hollow, and he actually does look like he doesn't have to

shave. Does anyone have the 411 on his hormonal status?

[A-1 (imported)]

"...

Hmmm again. Is this the real reason castration, legally punishable by death, was allowed to flourish even in

Rome, even in the Holy City, where church bigwigs thronged the theaters?...

"

WAIT, transward...

How do YOU know that the bigwigs wore thongs in the theater?

[devi (imported)]

It's funny that both of these guys make it a point to be photographed with at least some facial hair or scruff, so as to dispel possi

ble rumors about their anatomical configuration.

Most likely since I too had very little testosterone throughout my life (though I was "intact" but very small), I generally had a small moustache and chin hairs (black) most of my life since I never bothered to shave. And I could probably count the number of times that I had ever bothered to shave throughout my lifetime. One aunt in particular would require me to shave on certain holidays because she did not like my scruff. --Maybe a dozen times a year? You can be partially eunuchoid and have some hair. In fact some women also have scruff which they bleach very meticulously.

[Bagoas (imported)]

Concerning the recordings by Alessandro Moreschi, the last castrato, he cut six sides for the Gramophone and Typewriter Co. in 1902 and 1904. Mr. Gaisberg of G&T sought to record the voices of both "Professor" Moreschi and Pope Leo XIII.

At first, the Pope refused to allow the recordings to be made. Then he allowed Moreschi's voiced to be recorded, and finally he relented and recorded a few words himself.

The Eunuch Archive has repeatedly published a short item stating that the Moreschi recordings were made on a wire recorder. The only wire recorder in the world in 1902 was in Denmark. It had been used, not very successfully, to record court testimony. The G&T masters were cut in wax, as was customary at the time.

Modern copies of the G&T recordings do not do justice to Moreschi's voice. I have two of the originals and can report that the bleating quality of the voice in modern reproductions is partly, indeed mainly, an artifact of the re-recording process. Still, both Moreschi's voice and his style of singing sound strange to 21st century ears.

Alessandro Moreschi was born in 1858 and , therefore, studied singing in the late 1860's and 1870's What we hear in his recordings is the technique of vocal production and style of singing of that period. In this respect, these recordings are a priceless document of long-forgotten vocal technique.