Heartbreak on Losing Voice - A Radio Play

[Sac_mec (imported)]

On Tuesday 9 December, the BBC put out a radio play at 14.15 GMT called

"Heartbreak", written by Sara Maitland. I wonder how many other people here heard it live? It was very moving and about a choirboy, Sam, who is to sing at Christmas in Lincoln Cathedral but soon afterwards his voice will break. Sam is solely devoted to his voice and to Church music and he asks both the Choirmaster and the "ghosts of the cathedral" to make him a castrata.

Maybe this theme is well worn in the fiction here but the play was very moving and full marks go to Charlie Smith who acted as Sam and to Mark Meadows, the Choirmaster.

Maybe this thread will grow if you were moved by it also and heard it?

Like many folk here, I too was a Choirboy once with a lovely voice which resonated around English cathedrals - there was a beauty and innocence in that treble voice that has gone and I understand how Sam felt.

The play "Heartbreak" by Sara Maitland can be heard, probably all this week, maybe longer via the archives and via a Real player from the BBC Radio 4 website. I don't have the correct url but I'm sure a quick search of the BBC

Radio database will find it. Maybe someone more computer literate than me

can post the url in a following thread.

Meanwhile many thanks to Sara Maitland for writing this radio play, which had so much depth and insight and ultimately, sadness. Catch it if you can!

[antonia (imported)]

Hello Sac_mec,

Here is simular and interesing artical on just this topic.

All mouth and no trousers

Castrati had more fun than you might think. Samantha Ellis meets a singer who wishes he'd had the chop:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/edinburg ... 85,00.html

Famous interview with Ernesto Tomasini.

In this article, the famous tenor/counter-tenor Ernesto Tomasini, among others, admits his "secret" wish..."I want to be a castrato!"

Kisses Antonia xxx

[Paolo]

Great article!

That's one to Archive for later.

Danke, Antonia, Liebchien!

[Quillman (imported)]

On Tuesday 9 December, the BBC put out a radio play at 14.15 GMT called

"Heartbreak", written by Sara Maitland. I wonder how many other people here heard it live? It was very moving and about a choirboy, Sam, who is to sing at Christmas in Lincoln Cathedral but soon afterwards his voice will break. Sam is solely devoted to his voice and to Church music and he asks both the Choirmaster and the "ghosts of the cathedral" to make him a castrata.

Maybe this theme is well worn in the fiction here but the play was very moving and full marks go to Charlie Smith who acted as Sam and to Mark Meadows, the Choirmaster.

Maybe this thread will grow if you were moved by it also and heard it?

Like many folk here, I too was a Choirboy once with a lovely voice which resonated around English cathedrals - there was a beauty and innocence in that treble voice that has gone and I understand how Sam felt.

The play "Heartbreak" by Sara Maitland can be heard, probably all this week, maybe longer via the archives and via a Real player from the BBC Radio 4 website. I don't have the correct url but I'm sure a quick search of the BBC

Radio database will find it. Maybe someone more computer literate than me

can post the url in a following thread.

Meanwhile many thanks to Sara Maitland for writing this radio play, which had so much depth and insight and ultimately, sadness. Catch it if you can!

Very grateful for the information and I managed to replay it through the BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play section of the Website. It was very good and rather brave so perhaps everything is not lost yet in the UK! I especially liked the horror of the chorister when it is suggested that the girls take over the Christmas solo- given what goes on these days at Lincoln (and other English Cathedrals) the author must have inside information!

Quillman UK

[Sac_mec (imported)]

Quillman, I'm very pleased my contribution enabled you to catch the play.

It had deep insight didn't it. Don't forget folks it can still be found and played from the BBC Radio 4 website.

Antonia darling thank you also for drawing attention to such an informed and

interesting arts feature. During the fascinating report there is mention of a film, "Farinelli, Il Castrato".

Does anyone know of this film? I assume it is Italian, they do make very good films and maybe it was screened at the Venice Film Festival at that time?

I guess your local video hire store won't exactly be having a copy!

Who knows it might turn up on the Italian Gay Tv which is on Eutelsat at

13 degrees East and broadcast free to air. I'd give full tuning info but that could be seen as SPAM. I'll gladly re-post with transponder details if asked.

(English films are not dubbed, but subtititled).

[antonia (imported)]

Quillman, I'm very pleased my contribution enabled you to catch the play.

It had deep insight didn't it. Don't forget folks it can still be found and played from the BBC Radio 4 website.

Antonia darling thank you also for drawing attention to such an informed and

interesting arts feature. During the fascinating report there is mention of a film, "Farinelli, Il Castrato".

Does anyone know of this film? I assume it is Italian, they do make very good films and maybe it was screened at the Venice Film Festival at that time?

I guess your local video hire store won't exactly be having a copy!

Who knows it might turn up on the Italian Gay Tv which is on Eutelsat at

13 degrees East and broadcast free to air. I'd give full tuning info but that could be seen as SPAM. I'll gladly re-post with transponder details if asked.

(English films are not dubbed, but subtititled).

Dearest,

Here is one online store where you can buy the film " Farinelli, il Castrato" :

http://bizrate.lycos.com/marketplace/pr ... 73916.html

The voice was a morphic mixture of a countertenor (Derek Lee Ragin) and a coloratura (Ewa Godlewska).

How it was done is very complicated so read for yourself:

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/farinelli.htm

The more you step inside of this world, between falsetto or castrato the more you do get addicted.

yours with kisses,

Antonia xxx

küßchen zurück Liebling Paolo.

[Moreschi (imported)]

Dearest,

Here is one online store where you can buy the film " Farinelli, il Castrato" :

http://bizrate.lycos.com/marketplace/pr ... 73916.html

The voice was a morphic mixture of a countertenor (Derek Lee Ragin) and a coloratura (Ewa Godlewska).

How it was done is very complicated so read for yourself:

http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/farinelli.htm

The more you step inside of this world, between falsetto or castrato the more you do get addicted.

yours with kisses,

Antonia xxx

küßchen zurück Liebling Paolo.

I still do not like the voices in that movie- nor the movie itself actually. The "castrati" had 5:00 shadows, the history of it was all shot to you-know-where... just a mess. "Artsy" film? I guess. Good? Nope!

[Kelly_2 (imported)]

Very interesting. Thanks for the links.

Although most or all of us here were snipped as adults, much of the damage can be undone. Facial hair, for instance, can be reduced or eliminated by laser and electrolysis. And the voice--I have had four voice surgeries, including the rather invasive (but effective) vocal cord shortening by Dr. Gross in Berlin. I think that now I usually speak at about 300 Hz or so, even high for a woman.

Perhaps we could start a thread on voice surgeries or regaining what we lost due to T poisoning.

Interestingly, Dr, Gross and others have operated on singers to increase their pitch.

Hugs,

Kelly

[Moreschi (imported)]

Very interesting. Thanks for the links.

Although most or all of us here were snipped as adults, much of the damage can be undone. Facial hair, for instance, can be reduced or eliminated by laser and electrolysis. And the voice--I have had four voice surgeries, including the rather invasive (but effective) vocal cord shortening by Dr. Gross in Berlin. I think that now I usually speak at about 300 Hz or so, even high for a woman.

Perhaps we could start a thread on voice surgeries or regaining what we lost due to T poisoning.

Interestingly, Dr, Gross and others have operated on singers to increase their pitch.

Hugs,

Kelly

What is the quality of your voice now? Would be interesting to hear you sing. I can't sing at the moment- still getting over a cold plus having had ventilator tube down my throat- but usually I'm a soprano.

[stan (imported)]

My own two cents:

one of the most memorable events in my life was watching David Daniels perform in London's Barbican earlier this year. I hear he is quite dark for a counter-tenor, and his range is only a fraction of what a castrato's would have been, but it sure had me spellbound and transfixed: the incongruity of hearing this intense unplaceable voice emerging from a chubby handsome bear of a man was like nothing I had experienced before: I felt I had been introduced to some marvelous secret, that I had laid eyes upon the divine, I was ready to hop on stage, kiss his feet and declare my undying servitude to him etc. When I later recovered I found that such experiences are quite normal in his performances: Daniels has a devoted following, including numbers of groupies (women and gay men) who fly around the world following their star's performances.

So, I can totally understand the kind of adulation the castrati must have aroused: divine boys growing into otherwordly creatures for whom seemingly nothing is phonetically impossible. If Daniels could make me swoon and see visions, the castrati would have unlocked the gates of Paradise - not to mention stirring countless loins ... The Pope had hit upon the most effective promotion device for the Catholic church since creation itself!!

Anyway, Daniels is back next year...

stan