I will confess right off the bat that male falsetto singing is not my favorite idea of a musical evening. Chanticleer is programed as 'An Orchestra of Male Voices', and I guess that's as good a definition as I could come up with. It is directed by William Fred Scott.
William Fred ScottTonight's program went from Plainsong, through Gabrieli, Gousset, Holst and ended with an arrangement of Spirituals. The singing is very precise, sometimes so controlled rhythmically and pitch-wise as to sound robotic. The intonation is alarmingly pure. When a high straight open fifth was sung with the sharp male soprano voices on top, it hurt my ears. The arrangement of spirituals was a la Fred Warring.
ChanticleerI have taught several counter-tenors in my career and worked with several others. Russell Oberlin was the first American counter-tenor to have a major career. We both studied with the same voice teacher in New York City- Mrs. William E. Neidlinger, and often performed together. Five of her students sang at the Met. I performed with her niece, Gertrude Neidlinger, a concert comedienne, for many years .
Russell had a remarkable voice, in that he could sing F above tenor high C in true voice with ease.
More recently, my favorite counter-tenor was Brian Osawa, who sang with Lorraine in Xerxes at the LA Opera. He sounded like Helen Traubel! One of the male singers tonight had a beautiful voice that was much like his.
All in all I prefer either women or boys to take the high notes in the program we heard tonight.
