Steven Rickards is tired of being asked ”if my voice is so high because I`m wearing tight underwear.”
Jeffrey Gall hopes he never again hears the question, ”Are you really all male?”
And Jeffrey Dooley swears he`ll do harm to the next person who asks,
”Are you actually a castrated tenor?”
Over the years, these excellent vocal artists have ”heard it all,” says Dooley, from concertgoers who don`t quite understand the high art–and bruised ego–of the countertenor. When the uninitiated listener sees a ruddy male singer take the stage, lift up his score, open his mouth and emit a tone that sounds something like a diva in full cry, he is likely to be a tad surprised. ”The only reason I don`t get really mad at the reactions,” says Dooley, ”is because things are changing rapidly for the countertenor. We are everywhere.”
Indeed, within recent years countertenors have been bringing their high pitches and sweet sonorities to recitals, oratorios and even grand operas with a frequency never before matched in the United States. America`s growing passion for early music and authentic performances has spawned a generation of countertenors who are finally reaching the top levels of cultural recognition. Gall, for instance, won glowing praise for his performance in Handel`s
”Orlando” at Lyric Opera last season and will be making his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in fall of 1988 in ”Julius Ceasar.”
Rickards has distinguished himself in oratorio performances with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, as well as in stage work with the Philadelphia Opera. And Dooley has ennobled early music programs by Chicago`s superb City Musick, as well as on record with the distinguished early music specialist, Joshua Rifkin.
Yet for all their triumphs, these countertenors yearn for the day when the public will know what a countertenor really is–and act accordingly.
”Even reviewers have said shocking things about us,” says Dooley, still smarting from the blows. ”A critic in New Jersey once wrote, `Jeffrey Dooley sounded like Tiny Tim, but didn`t look like him.` Can you imagine?
”Occasionally, even the compliments come out as insults, such as when a critic writes, `countertenors aren`t that bad at all.`
”One reviewer had the nerve to call a concert of mine `hormonal waywardness!` ”
For the record, then, the countertenor represents ”the highest possible male voice, or a male alto,” says Rickards, knowing the issue is a bit thornier than that. ”The complexity arises when people begin mistaking a countertenor for other things.”
Rickards hastens to add that the countertenor is not:
— A castrato, the male Renaissance/Baroque singer who was castrated at the onset of puberty to keep his voice high. The practice went out of fashion more than a century ago.
— Someone who takes hormones to make his voice high. Most countertenors started their careers as tenors or even baritones, but found they had an affinity for singing in the upper range. The art was learning to develop control over the high notes.
— A singer whose voice was so small, he had to settle for singing falsetto. If anything, it takes more effort to develop this delicate instrument. The singer must learn to use portions of the larynx rarely employed in the standard register.
Though debate still rages over which repertoire is appropriate for the countertenor, most experts agree it covers a remarkable range, including English lute songs of the 16th and 17th Century; various oratorios and operas by Handel; lyric suites of Purcell (who was a countertenor); 20th Century opera by Dennis Russell Davies, Michael Tippett and Philip Glass, among others; and, of course, the voluminous literature for alto castrati.
”The tricky thing is that we don`t always know for certain whether a piece of early music was intended to be sung specifically by countertenor or soprano or alto or castrato,” says Gall.
”But when it comes to the volumes of music for the castrato, the countertenor is about as close as you`re going to get these days. Obviously, it is no longer socially or morally acceptable for males to preserve their high voice through castration.”
In recent years, the subject has become increasingly controversial, for
”it affects who gets work and who doesn`t,” says Rickards. ”I know any number of mezzo-sopranos who wish that all the countertenors would walk off the face of the Earth, never to return again.
”As far as they`re concerned, we`re taking away their jobs, such as Handel`s `Messiah,` which, like other early music, is being given to more and more countertenors every season.”
The mezzos, however, are waging a losing battle, as the alluring sound of the countertenor ingratiates its way into the American consciousness.
Unlike England, which has enjoyed an unbroken countertenor tradition since Purcell`s reign in the 17th Century, the U.S. didn`t latch onto the sound until the LP brought to these shores the exquisite art of Alfred Deller. His recordings revealed a voice that was high but full, nearly unmatched in its ability to spin long, silvery phrases, and holding as much warmth and fervor as any Italian tenor.
In English lute songs, Deller`s simplicity of delivery conjured up a sweet era of antiquity. In liturgical repertoire for castrati, Deller
”created an eerie, other-worldly sound that no other vocal range could imitate,” says Gall.
Deller`s art, preserved on record (he died in 1979), represented a pinnacle that the new generation of American countertenors, among them Gall, Rickards and Dooley, aspired to reach. The critical difference for the American artist was that often the audience could hardly refrain from snickering.
”But it didn`t take long for me to figure out how to take care of that,” says Dooley. ”Whenever I see someone in the audience who seems to be laughing, I look him in the eye for the duration of the concert–I force him to pay attention to me, to let me communicate with him. It always works.”
And with successive seasons, resistance has been diminishing. It`s nearly impossible, in fact, to attend an early music concert these days without encountering at least one countertenor on the program.
”Finally, American audiences are just beginning to realize that there`s nothing un-macho about being a countertenor,” says Gall. ”Listen to some rock bands, and you`ll hear male singers who can hit high notes that even I can`t reach, after 13 years as a pro! That`s not so different from what we countertenors do, and the public is just beginning to realize it.
”So we`ve never been busier. Perhaps it won`t be long before we begin moving into the big romantic operas.
”Why should we stop at Handel? Sopranos love to sing Strauss–and so would I.”
