A new disc from Virgin Classics entitled CALDARA IN VENICE/Forgotten Castrato Arias features counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky and the Concerto Koln led by Emmanuelle Haim (singer and conductor are pictured above).
While I was working at Tower there was a wave of counter-tenor madness that swept thru the world of classical music. A renaissance of interest in the voice type, earlier exeplified mainly by Alfred Deller and James Bowman, produced a multitude of voices: Jeffrey Gall, Brain Asawa, Bejun Mehta, Jochen Kowalski, Drew Minter, David Walker, Michael Chance, Yoshikazu Mera, Axel Kohler, Derek Lee Ragin, David Daniels, David DQ Lee and Andreas Scholl, among others. Customers would come in searching for any recording that featured a counter-tenor; they would debate the various attributes of each singer (including whether or not he was gay) and quiz me about my whose rendition of a given work I felt was superior. It seemed that new counter-tenors cropped up on a weekly basis.
For a while many of these individual singers had fairly sizeable sections in the alphabetized solo vocalist bins. Mera, Mehta, Kowalski and David Daniels sometimes came in to see how their recordings were doing and to listen to their competitors.
At the time the film FARINELLI and its soundtrack were on-again-off-again in terms of availability. Any copies we might get as imports flew off the shelves. (In the film, the imagined voice of the great castrato Farinelli was manufactured by electronically morphing the singing of Derek Lee Ragin with that of soprano Ewa Malas-Godlweska.)
In accordance with the popularity of the counter-tenor voice during the late 20th and early 21st century, opera companies and record labels began unearthing all manner of works originally conceived for the castrato voice. Handel of course led the way; among the lesser-known names to feature in this revival was Antonio Caldara.
In 1715, the Venetian-born composer Antonio Caldara (above) secured an appointment in Vienna as vice-Kapellmeister of the Imperial court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. In Vienna, Caldara's new position required him to compose many large and small scale dramatic works each year, including numerous operas and oratorios. While fulfilling his court duties, Caldara also accepted outside commissions, composing operas for nobles in Salzburg and Monrovia. Upon replacing Johann Fux as the Emperor's Kapellmeister, Caldara's reputation as a well-respected and well-paid composer in Vienna reached its zenith and he continued to compose until his death in 1736.
Caldara was chiefly known as a composer of vocal music, and most especially for his operas, though since his death they have been neglected. The present disc unearths some rarities in a handsomely sung and played programme.
The Martinique-born counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky was just coming to prominence as the demand for this type of voice began to fade somewhat. After I left Tower I spent a couple of years hardly ever listening to music at home and ignoring news of new releases, and in fact weeding out my CD collection substantially. But a chance spotting of the new Jaroussky/Caldara disc last week prompted me to buy it (I'm very fond of Caldara's oratorio MADDALENA AI PIEDI DI CRISTO) and I've been really enjoying it. Having taken a break from the counter-tenor voice and now hearing it anew has been a refreshing experience and I love the gentle beauty of Jaroussky's voice, his expressive qualites and the sexual ambiguity of his sound.
There are thirteen selections on the disc, all from long-forgotten operas and each very attractive in its own right. Of particular appeal are two arias from LA CLEMENZA DI TITO, set to a Metastasio libretto, as well as the gorgeous 'Vado, o sposa' from ENONE in which Jaroussky's singing can only be described as exquisite. The unusual (and brief) final number is from ACHILLE IN SCIRO in which the singer is accompanied by pizzicato strings to imitate the sound of a lyre, and the chorus chimes in between verses. Very original.
Despite the shifting tastes which swept the latest counter-tenor hysteria aside - at least in this country - Jaroussky's career seems to be thriving with a full calendar and new recordings coming along at regular intervals.
Listen to Philippe Jaroussky singing Handel's 'Ombra Mai Fu' from SERSE here. And he's featured here.