Modern “farinelli” are now trained not on the operating table, but in conservatories, and are called completely differently - countertenors. A countertenor is a male voice, equal in pitch to a female contralto, mezzo-soprano or soprano, but different in sound from female voices due to differences in the structure of the male and female vocal apparatus.
Unlike castrati, the countertenor’s voice has an absolutely natural origin: after age-related mutation of the vocal apparatus, such singers retain the ability to sing soprano or alto, and, in most cases, this has nothing to do with hormonal problems or sexual orientation.

Popular about countertenors

At first glance, this is the easiest way to explain what a countertenor is to a person who has never heard such a voice. However, it should be taken into account that, firstly, this statement is essentially incorrect: a man’s voice, no matter how high it is, will always be in fact a man’s voice and will always sound different from a woman’s due to differences in the structure of the female and male voice apparatus; secondly, such a formulation incorrectly guides listeners - traditionally considering a high singing voice to be the prerogative of women, they often draw conclusions about the effeminacy or some kind of physical inferiority of countertenor vocalists. Based on these considerations, the use of the phrase “a man singing in a woman’s voice” should be abandoned.

Countertenor = castrato?

Many, hearing a countertenor sing for the first time, mistake the singer for a castrato, believing that only a castrato can sing so high. It's a delusion. The falsetto voice register, through the use of which an adult and physiologically full-fledged man can produce high-pitched sounds, is present in all men without exception, and the ability to sing in this register in the vast majority of cases is the result of the development of the innate vocal abilities of singers.

Many fans of countertenors are convinced that such voices are unique and extremely rare, to which skeptics often object something like this: “Yes, it’s just a falsetto - every man has it, every man can sing like that, and there’s nothing special or unique about it.” " Undoubtedly, every man has a falsetto voice register. However, it is worth considering the following:
Not every man, in principle, has the ability to sing;
Not every vocalist’s falsetto register has qualities that allow it to be adapted to perform a certain repertoire in a certain manner (let us remember that in the modern sense, a countertenor is a professional academic vocalist);
Not every vocalist has the desire to sing primarily in the falsetto register, develop it, and learn to sing falsetto professionally.
Alfred Deller, in one of his interviews, voiced the following observation: singers who would like to learn to sing as a countertenor often do not have the ability to do so, and those who have these abilities do not want to develop them, because they consider this style of singing effeminate. In addition, today countertenors are in much less professional demand than those with more “traditional” male voices. In particular, in the domestic musical culture there were no phenomena similar to the Italian tradition of castrate singing or the traditions of falsetto singing in England and Germany (Handel wrote 21 operas for countertenor, Mozart - several works for castrato Senesino, and Schnittke and Bernstein wrote for the same voices , and Monteverdi. Previously, the score did not include a “countertenor,” but a “soprano.” But the parts are male!), as a result of which in the works of Russian composers there are no parts for male altos and sopranos, and there are also no methods for training such singers, equally as well as interest in such voices and in the music that was written for them in a professional musical environment. This is the main reason for the notorious rarity and uniqueness of modern countertenors.

The repertoire of countertenors is most often based on the music of the Baroque era, the time of the meteoric rise of European vocal performing arts.

Here are some names: Javier Medina, Michael Maniaci, Jorge Cano, Aris Christofellis, Radu Marian, Jörg Waschinski, Ghio Nannini.
Paul Esswood is considered one of the best.
British countertenor Michael Chance has an incredibly well-crafted voice with a very special timbre.
The name of the German Jochen Kowalski stands apart. For many years now he has held the title of the most stellar countertenor, whose CDs sell in circulation unprecedented in classical music.

According to known historical facts, in Russia the existence of countertenors was not suspected until the end of the 80s of the twentieth century, and throughout the world the singing of men who naturally had such high voices was initially perceived as a pseudo-imitation of castrati. By the way, a countertenor is a rarity among opera singers. There are just over 20 vocalists in Russia who have similar superpowers. What all modern countertenors have in common is their growing popularity. Increasingly, they are becoming a decoration for concerts, including concerts of pop stars.

Russian famous countertenors: Evgeny Argyshev, Oleg Bezinskikh, Yuri Borisov, Nikolai Gladskikh, Alexander Gorbatenko, Evgeny Zhuravkin, Konstantin Zbanychuk, Yaroslav Zdorov, Igor Ishchak, Vyacheslav Kagan-Paley, Grigory Konson, Artyom Krutko, Eric Kurmangaliev, Yuri Minenko, Evgeny Munko , Igor Retnev, Oleg Ryabets, Oleg Usov, Bagdasar Khachikyan, Vasily Khoroshev, Nikolay Shilintsev, Rustam Yavaev.

A little about some of them

Eric Salimovich Kurmangaliev(Kazakh Erik Salimuly Kurmangaliev, December 31, 1959, the city of Kulsary, Guryev region, Kazakhstan - November 13, 2007, Moscow, Russia) - opera singer (countertenor) and actor, owner of a unique timbre. According to some sources, the first countertenor in the USSR. In 2005, in Riga, he took part in a gala concert of five countertenors, on the basis of which the documentary film “Farinelli. Show must go on" with the participation of Eric Kurmangaliev.

Oleg Kasper has unique vocal abilities (4 octaves) - from baritone male notes to countertenor (female soprano).

Oleg Ryabets. The publication Diena called the vocalist “one of five such voices in the world, the period of mutation of which has successfully passed...” Ryabets performed in the opera halls of Lyon and Hamburg, Riga and Paris, in the royal houses of England, and in prestigious halls in Japan. Starred in the documentary film “Farinelli. Show must go on!” Oleg Ryabets has a countertenor of rare timbre and height. A recording of his voice is stored in the British National Sound Archive next to a unique recording of the last castrato of the 20th century, A. Moreschi. At the Prince of Edinburgh's 75th birthday celebrations, HRH Prince Philip awarded the singer the title "Mr Soprano".

Oleg Bezinskikh. He has a truly unique voice: his range is more than three octaves (from baritone to soprano). In the West, for several years now it has been called nothing less than the “Russian miracle.” He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (class of Professor Viktor Yushmanov), for the first time in its 148-year history (opened in 1862) becoming a graduate with a diploma of “countertenor-soprano.” When he sang the Fool's aria from Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov at the St. Petersburg Opera, a huge scandal broke out. A whole controversy arose in the press on the topic - “Is it possible to use such voices in opera?”

Nikolai Gladskikh has such a unique voice timbre that he is compared to the great Farinelli. Experts predict a great future for Nikolai Gladskikh.

A countertenor, or, as it is also called, a countertenor, is the voice of an academic vocalist specializing in the performance of alto and/or soprano parts.

The countertenor is sometimes called the male soprano.

Initially in European polyphonic XIV-XVI centuries. A countertenor was a secondary vocal part that complemented the treble. Starting from the middle of the 16th century, with the spread of four-voices, the countertrenor was divided into two: one was performed below the tenor and was called contratenor-bassus, the second was performed above and was called contratenor altus. Soon the term was no longer used in its original meaning, instead in Italy contratenor-bassus began to be called simply bass, contratenor-altus - alto, in France the term haute-contre was established, and in Great Britain - countertenor.

There has long been a widespread myth that men who have a countertenor and are able to sing in a female tessitura suffer from some kind of anomaly, and that their vocal apparatus is constructed according to the female type. It's a delusion. In reality, the ability to sing in a high voice is achieved by developing the upper vocal register.

Differences between countertenor and altino and falsetto

Altino tenor is often confused with countertenor. Altino is a type of lyric tenor with a high tessitura, differing from the countertenor primarily in that it is clearly identifiable as a high masculine voice, while the countertenor sounds effeminate. The altino vocalist has a range up to the note E of the second octave.

Tenor altino is a rarity, the owners of such a voice sing with a full-voiced closure of the chords.

Finally, falsetto, or, as it is sometimes called, fistula, has nothing to do with the classification of timbres of vocalists, but is the upper head register: the owner of any singing voice can sing in falsetto. In essence, falsetto is achieved through specific sound production.

To sing in falsetto, you need to put your vocal cords in a mode in which only the layers of Mucosa tissue closest to the gap will vibrate. The fistula is used in exceptional cases to give the sound a special coloring, however, some composers use it to create a certain image. Thus, Figaro’s part is performed in falsetto in the episode where he imitates Rosina’s voice.

Typically, countertenors perform the roles of male heroes originally written for castrati in the Baroque era (e.g. Julius Caesar And Rinaldo in Handel's operas of the same name) or somewhat later (early Mozart and even Rossini), male parts written for female voices, as well as folklore, in particular English. Composers of the 20th century, in particular Britten, began to write parts specifically for countertenors.

Examples of countertenors in modern popular music are Barry Gibb (“Bee Gees”), Mitch Grassi (“Pentatonix”), Vitas, Adam Levine (“Maroon 5”), Tyler Carter (“Issues”).

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Excerpt characterizing the Countertenor

The Russians stood in dense ranks behind Semenovsky and the mound, and their guns continually hummed and smoked along their line. There was no more battle. There was an ongoing murder that could lead neither the Russians nor the French anywhere. Napoleon stopped his horse and fell back into that reverie from which Berthier had brought him out; he could not stop the work that was being done in front of him and around him and which was considered to be guided by him and dependent on him, and this work for the first time, due to failure, seemed unnecessary and terrible to him.
One of the generals who approached Napoleon allowed himself to suggest that he bring the old guard into action. Ney and Berthier, standing next to Napoleon, looked at each other and smiled contemptuously at the senseless proposal of this general.
Napoleon lowered his head and was silent for a long time.
“A huit cent lieux de France je ne ferai pas demolir ma garde, [Three thousand two hundred miles from France, I cannot allow my guard to be defeated.],” he said and, turning his horse, rode back to Shevardin.

Kutuzov sat, with his gray head drooping and his heavy body slumped, on a carpeted bench, in the very place where Pierre had seen him in the morning. He did not make any orders, but only agreed or disagreed with what was offered to him.
“Yes, yes, do it,” he responded to various proposals. “Yes, yes, go, my dear, and have a look,” he addressed first one or the other of those close to him; or: “No, no, we’d better wait,” he said. He listened to the reports brought to him, gave orders when his subordinates required it; but, listening to the reports, he seemed not to be interested in the meaning of the words of what was said to him, but something else in the expressions of the faces, in the tone of speech of those reporting, interested him. From long-term military experience, he knew and with his senile mind understood that it is impossible for one person to lead hundreds of thousands of people fighting death, and he knew that the fate of the battle is not decided by the orders of the commander-in-chief, not by the place where the troops are stationed, not by the number of guns and killed people, and that elusive force called the spirit of the army, and he watched over this force and led it, as far as it was in his power.

At first it’s even hard to believe your ears, the contradiction between the sound and its performer is so vivid. Most likely, you have at least once heard how men reach heights in their singing that are usually only accessible to soprano women. At least falsetto is familiar to many. But the classic countertenor (countertenor), powerful and incredibly clear, is something that can bewitch the listener. This is a unique and impressive phenomenon that cannot be forgotten! The history of such vocals stretches back many centuries, but even in the twenty-first century, such singing occupies a very special place in music.

Return of old traditions

This style of singing arose as an independent phenomenon in the twentieth century, when the world was conquered by singers Alfred Deller, James Bowman, David Daniels and Andreas Scholl. They received recognition in the world of classical music. However, men who sing professionally as women remain a rarity. Forty years ago, only a few countertenors could be found on the international stage. In recent years, interest has increased again - coinciding with a revival of the Baroque repertoire, which requires a high voice. In earlier times, this role would have been performed by a castrato, and in more humane centuries, by a woman with a mezzo-soprano voice. Among the stars of the new wave are thirty-three-year-old American Anthony Roth Costanzo, thirty-eight-year-old Frenchman Philippe Jaroussky and Indian Bejun Mehta, a Grammy Award nominee and member of one of India's most famous musical families. We must also mention Iestin Davis, winner of a Grammy and other awards, who finds himself among the most captivating international stars in opera, even ahead of such celebrities as the conqueror of hearts Jonas Kaufman or the diva Anna Netrebko. Not a bad achievement for a simple English guy who sings like a girl! So what is a countertenor and why is it so great?

Features of singing by a countertenor

This is a sound that is produced without the aid of the normal spoken voice, at a high frequency, which can be achieved by the joint effort of the muscles of the throat and vocal cords. They must be arranged in a certain way so that the air passing through the vocal cords vibrates only the thin outer layer of them. Many people mistakenly believe that it is just a woman's voice. In fact, all men are also capable of speaking in falsetto, it’s just that only a few always do it. And those with a countertenor are the elite, they are always able to use the highest pitch of their voice. In pop music, performers simply sing higher, using their tenor or baritone voice, and when a note is too high, the falsetto breaks through.

History of talent development

Davis has a fairly deep natural voice, which he uses when speaking, and his singing voice is a bass-baritone, the lowest possible. In his youth, he began experimenting with singing, rehearsing a role with the school choir. He had to sing quite high, his friend said it sounded great and was worth a serious try. Davis tried. He gained a place at a prestigious singing college, then graduated from Cambridge and then became a member of the Royal Academy of Music. He is in demand in the best opera houses around the world, large concert venues await him, he is constantly making new recordings - Davis has never regretted the choice he once made.

Dark stories of the past

These days, a career as a countertenor seems exciting enough for a young singer, but in the past it was a much darker pursuit. Many of the parts for church and opera singing that Davis and vocalists like him can perform today were originally created in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the legendary castrato Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, and other similar singers. Boy vocalists were castrated before they reached puberty in order to maintain high, clear voices. In our time, it is difficult to imagine that such barbarism can be justified by the lofty goals of art, but once upon a time there were no opponents of such a technique either on the papal throne or at court. Women were not supposed to sing church parts at all - it was believed that they were only supposed to be silent in church.

Prohibitions and mysteries

In the seventeenth century, women were prohibited from performing on stage. The laws of decency in society did not allow them to appear as opera performers. Opera music as a genre began to actively develop, so castrati received role after role. In the following century, the popularity of opera increased even more, and hence the demand for castrati. Singers like Farinelli were the rock stars of the day. They were adored throughout Europe. There was even a phrase in use: “There is one God and there is one Farinelli!” However, these days the singing of castrati remains a mystery. This practice does not exist now, so we simply cannot imagine exactly how these vocalists performed their parts.

Disgust for countertenors

The element of disgust persists even in days when the grim practices of castration are a thing of the past. Philippe Jaroussky notes that his angelic voice repels some people - the fact that such singing comes from a man's body seems ridiculous. People believe that the countertenor is a third-gender trait or something half-feminine. Davis has a more pragmatic view: he is sure that everything unusual inevitably causes fear and problems in people with prejudices. In the fifties of the last century, when Alfred Deller began working, he had to deal with even more criticism. People believed that he should not be allowed on stage as a soloist. Fortunately, society has changed its view and now you can easily enjoy the flow of Davis’s voice on stage. He performed the role of Oberon in Benjamin Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream - this role was originally written for Deller. In addition, many of the new possibilities for countertenor work are borrowed from church music and the world of opera of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Modern composers are also interested in creating parts for the countertenor. Perhaps future generations will see even more impressive performances than those available to us now.