A countertenor is a man who trains his natural tenor or high baritone to sound like a woman's soprano or high alto.
They are countertenors, but may be too embarrassed to let loose with a High C. Countertenors talk like other men and look like other men, but sing in the stratosphere.
Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall hosts the New York recital début of Philippe Jaroussky (Jan . 14, a high-flying countertenor who is renowned for both his coloratura technique and his meltingly beautiful tone.
Michael Maniaci, a male soprano (his range is slightly higher than a countertenor's), is headed for a major career.
A high tenor, almost a countertenor, kind of wobbly around the edges, as though he were working hard to stay on the melody, but in a way that made him seem as if he might be on the verge of weeping, as when he was a miner for a heart of gold, or when he was singing about friends lost to the needle.
Countertenors: Males with very high vocal ranges, into the alto and soprano ranges of female vocals, or who have a strong, clear falsetto, are called "countertenors".
The punishing role mostly lacks the impressive high notes that are a countertenor's stock in trade.
The dictionary definition of "countertenor" is a high male falsetto voice, meaning that it is achieved through an artificial method of voice production involving only partial vibration of the vocal chords.
The countertenor John Holiday, whose high, clear voice is a thing of astonishing beauty, sings, in Hebrew, the tender second-movement solo in Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms," which the composer stipulated could be delivered only by a male alto or a boy treble.
The countertenor John Holiday, whose high, clear voice is a thing of astonishing beauty, sings, in Hebrew, the tender second-movement solo in Leonard Bernstein\u2019s \u201cChichester Psalms,\u201d which the composer stipulated could be delivered only by a male alto or a boy treble.
As Garbarek prowled in and out of view behind the singers, the soprano sax's high register and the voice of countertenor David James often blended into a single, ringing chorus.
