<<  -- 5 --  Roderic Dunnett    A COUNTERTENOR VIRTUOSO

On Hyperion Blaze was involved in more exploration, this time of rare Italian Baroque (Rovetta, Marino, Legrenzi, Castello, Rigatti and Grandi) on CDA 67225 [listen] and, again with Holman, of his own compatriots William Boyce (Peleus and Thetis) or Thomas Linley (The Song of Moses and 'Let God Arise') and, with David Hill, John Blow (fourteen of whose verse anthems are recorded on Hyperion double disc CDA 67031/2).

By contrast, he has performed rather less of French Baroque -- Rameau or Lully, say? 'Yes, that's true : like Monteverdi, the French don't naturally write for what we, in Britain at least, think of as a modern countertenor. Rameau is much more of the old contra/high tenor kind of sound, so he tends to suit singers like Paul Agnew or Mark Padmore; it's quite low for a countertenor. That's not to say that it's completely impossible, but I think you'd need a smallish opera house to be able to carry it off onstage. More and more the way countertenors are pushed, or rather encouraged, these days is towards doing higher roles; whereas certainly the parts I was doing at university were lower. My voice has risen by about a tone since my days at university, just going through the repertoire. And since then countertenors are being heard more and more in the Handel operatic roles, or in Bach -- that kind of slightly higher continental Baroque alto register. I think that's a bit of a shame.'

'My natural singing register now, I would say, is somewhere around A below middle C in falsetto -- in the lowest register I try and mix in a baritone for Gs or Fs, but you need a really intimate surrounding to do that, you shouldn't push it; what you're after is quite a delicate and subtle mix -- and in the upper register, for ordinary aria singing, a top E or an F (although the ornamentation in something like "Vivi tiranno" may go a bit higher).

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