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non-proletarianized Black music is the way to go
Andreas Scholl, counter-tenor, singing Handel's Ombra Mai Fu. This is my favorite period for music. Whenever I feel out of sorts mentally or emotionally, I turn to this kind of music. It soothes my soul.
I hate to admit it but now that I'm more familiar with the counter-tenors I prefer them to sopranos for this music. Could Farinelli and the other castrati have sounded more like angels than this man? It's hard to believe.
I have really tried, but the most I can do is to enjoy the voice of a countertenor, though still getting that thinking "oh this note would've been sung with such better vocal dynamics and effortlessness by a soprano or mezzo-soprano!" It's unavoidable, many times I am loving an entire performance until some higher note or higher fioritura is necessary in the score, and that thought "Oh if he were just a soprano!" comes to my mind again. LOL! I love some countertenors, mainly Andreas Scholl (what a divine "Ombra mai fu" you posted there!), Franco Fagioli and Emmanuel Cencic... but still I miss that fuller and more "colorful" core of the sound of a good mezzo or contralto. As wonderful as a countertenor is, the top notes are never as free and ringing as that of a soprano or mezzo, it's almost impossible, and the lowest tones are seldom as vibrant and effortless as that of a good contralto (but then what can we do when true contraltos have almost vanished these days?). Tallking about contraltos and their imminent disappearance, I was so happy to find this young girl singing AMAZINGLY in a true and seamless lyric contralto voice. This kind of voice, when assisted by an excellent technique, transports me to another realm.
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