Alessandro Moreschi News
Italian castrato singer
- soprano
- opera, church music
- Kingdom of Italy, Italy
- singer, opera singer, musician, castrato
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2024-04-20
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2022-02-26 10:15:50
The Last Castrato: Max Hoehn and Torsten Rasch on their new collaboration as part of Opera21's platform for new opera
Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922) The British-Swiss director Max Hoehn created Opera21 last year. A response to the pandemic, the new company aimed to offer a laboratory for developing new works and is designed to support composers and the sector by offering a new commissioning model and using the website as a digital showcase for works-in-progress. One of the new works is The Last Castrato, an opera based on the life of the last castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, with a libretto by Max and music by the German composer Torsten Rasch. Torsten has written 18 minutes of music, and this has been recorded by countertenor Andrew Watts and soprano Rebecca Bottone, with CHROMA Ensemble conducted by Gerry Cornelius, and is available on Opera21's YouTube channel and the Opera21 website. And Max hopes this sample of the work can tempt producing partners to commission the full work from Torsten in the future. I recently […]
2020-11-02 09:54:18
A Life On-Line: Lawrence Brownlee & friends in Philadelphia, Diana Damrau & Joseph Calleja in Caserta, Goldberg Variations in Brecon
[…] Schumann's lovely song Liebest du um Schoenheit sung with an impressive combination of clarity of word and beauty of line. A group of spirituals followed, then a group of lighter numbers including songs by Victor Herbert, George Gershwin, Irvin Berlin and Isham Jones' It had to be you. [Opera Philadelhia] The latest in the Met Stars Live was an altogether grander affair. Soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Joseph Calleja were accompanied by pianist Roberto Moreschi in a performance which came live from the Cappella Palatina of the Royal Palace of Caserta near Naples. A very suitable setting for a scene from Act One of Puccini's Tosca, though hearing the opera with just piano accompaniment made you realise quite how much weight is carried by Puccini's orchestration. Damrau is nowhere near a spinto soprano and I doubt whether Tosca is a role that she would ever sing at the Met, […]
2020-04-17 23:00:00
Vocal Music - Nilsson - Von Stade - Tragicomedia - Moreschi - Lesne - Dominguez - Tourel
Birgit Nilsson Lieder and Songs Schubert Wagner Grieg Sibelius Leo Taubman piano RCA 1961 digital download, cover Dominick Argento (1927-2019)Casa GuidiIn Praise of MusicClarinet ConcertoFrederica Von Stade mezzosopranoBurt Hara clarinetMinnesota OrchestraEiji OueReference Records 2002flac, cue, log, scans Domenico Mazzocchi (1592-1665) Lacrime Amare Madrigali, Motetti e Arie Suzie Le Blanc Barbara Borden Paul Agnew Harry van der Kamp Tragicomedia Teldec 1996 flac, cue, log, scans Le Temps des CastratsArias by Purcell, Handel, Bach,Hasse, Porpora,Caldara, Mozart, RossiniJ. Bowman, A. Deller, A. Christofellis, A. MoreschiEMI 1994flac, cue, log, scans O Lusitano Portuguese villacetes, cantigas and romances Gerard Lesne Circa 1500 Nancy Hadden Virgin 1992 flac, cue, log, scans Vaughan WilliamsSongsFive Mystical SongsOn Wendlock EdgeAnthony Rolfe Johnson tenorSimon Keenlyside baritoneGraham Johnson pianoThe Duke QuartetCollins 1991flac, cue, log, scans Gerard Souzay Arias by Handel, Lully and Rameau (plus Monteverdi and Gluck) Raymond Leppard Serge Baudo Robert […]
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Faces of classical music
2019-12-13 17:20:00
Jakub Józef Orliński: A Millennial Countertenor's Pop-Star Appeal
[…] mastering them. "These pieces need the height of Mozart's Queen of the Night and the lowness of the contralto", François told me. "They were specially written for someone – perfectly made, like a glove, for a special singer."The castration of boy singers fell into decline, though the practice persisted well into the nineteenth century, including among singers destined for choral duties in the Vatican. The only known recordings of a true castrato are of Alessandro Moreschi, who was born in 1858 and died in 1922, having spent his career in the Sistine Chapel's choir. The most famous recording, of "Ave Maria", was made in 1904, when Moreschi was past his prime; his voice, thin and reedy, sounds less blissfully celestial than tragically spectral. Even by the time Moreschi was born, the castrato voice had long since gone out of fashion in the world of opera. Although the high, powerful voices […]
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