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8 years ago

Volume 9 Issue 1 - September 2003

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • September
  • Festival
  • Sept
  • October
  • Theatre
  • Musical
  • Arts
  • Instruments

Poppea conducted by Jane

Poppea conducted by Jane Glover in Chicago, a tour of St.Matthew Passion in Holland, a Prairie debut tour with Les Voix Baroques and another set of Handel's Rodelinda at the Glyndebourne Festival. Three follow-up questions: one, will you be back in Toronto again this season; two, how will your description of the voice as "a developed falsetto" sit with fellow practitioners; three, you say "in the right space and repertoire". What are examples of "right and wrong"? 0 Please send me a FREE copy of your New Brochure! ________ Postal Code: _____ _ Fax this form to: 905-415-7538 Visit our website at: www.city.markham.on.ca Drop this off at our Box Office: 171 Town Centre Boulevard, Markham, Ontario L3R SGS Box Office hours: Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. I will not be back in Toronto again until a year from this Christmas when I will be doing Tafelmusik's Messiah. Some of my colleagues have suggested that what they do is not falsetto singing. This seems patently wrong to me. I know only one guy in the whole world who sings in the mezzo range using his natural voice and it is abundantly clear when you hear him. He is unique and a physical oddity. The rest of us use a developed falsetto and reinforce the bottom register by selectively and delicately using our chest voices. The proof is in the fact that I know no countertenors who speak in the same range in which they sing. Most of us are naturally baritones or tenors who have chosen to develop our falsettos. Some people feel that this implies that the voice is false. What false means exactly I am not sure .... the technique is clearly different, but when done well, the sound produced can be both alluring and beautiful. It is my opinion that singing counter-tenor is similar to playing, for example, the recorder. The sound is limited in both range and colour but is also unique to the technique and thus still very much worthwhile. I am not really concerned about what other practitioners will say because I don't see how this relates to the artist. It is a purely technical question and, in the final analysis, unimportant. Whatever one does technically to communicate seems less important to me than whether or not a point has been made. The right space and repertoire? I have found that countertenor singing is most effective in smaller halls where the basic size of the voice is less important. Counter-tenors have less natural heft than say a contralto ... we do, however, make up for that in the flexibility and brightness of tone. These qualities shine through in a smaller hall. I am not saying that it does not work well in a big hall...it can ... but it can work extremely well in smaller venues. The same thing is true in terms of the repertoire. I think counter-tenors tend to sound best when singing repertoire that does not by its nature necessitate more size and colour than the voice can produce comfortably. Julian Kuerti. I was born in Toronto, into a musical family - my father is a pianist, my mother a cellist, and so naturally during my formative years I was exposed to incredible amounts of music. In fact, I remember distinctly the very day that I discovered that not everybody's parents are musicians, and it took me quite by surprise. For my seventh birthday, I received a 3/4 sized violin, which proceeded to occupy my days and evenings for the next 15 or so odd years. I did feel limited on the violin - most probably due to the very limited time I spent practising it - so when I began my university studies, I decided against going directly into music. After four years at the CONTINUES ON PAGE TEN www.thewholenote.com September 1 - October 7 2003

Audi ''~)11 George \eston Limited ,. Fiarvest House furniture for life Deutsche Bank I/I september 25 Beethoven, Bach, Schubert Jeffeeij Swonn piono october 16 Carmina Burana The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir october 30 Beethoven, Bach, Betts, Mozart Michoel Esch piono november 13 Last Night of the Proms december I Donizetti Bizet · ' ' ' Lehar, Mozart Michoel Schode. Norine Burgess decem~er 14 (2 pm mc;itinee) Christmas in Vienna . Louro Who/en soprono Jc;inuc;ir!1 22 Rossini, Barber of Seville 'fibruc;ir!1 12 Beethoven Bach Boris J

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