My first time hearing a countertenor in concert was a singularly disorienting experience. As I strolled toward Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall on a warm summer evening in 2007, I heard a vocal sound that transported me backward through time to the age of J.S. Bach and early opera.
“That’s a castrato!” I exclaimed confidently.
“No, it’s not,” I answered. “It’s a countertenor. The last castrato died nearly a century ago.”
I had to admit that I was right.
Like castrati, countertenors sing comfortably in the same range as altos and sopranos. But they don’t sound like altos or sopranos (or even tenors, for that matter). A countertenor’s full-bodied vocal timbre is distinctive and immediately recognizable even if you don’t know what to call it.
If you have even the slightest interest in Baroque music but have never heard a countertenor in concert, here’s the chance you’ve been waiting for: On Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, at Saint James Place in Great Barrington, Close Encounters With Music will present countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen performing music by John Dowland, Henry Purcell, and George Frideric Handel. Opening the show with J.S. Bach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba will be CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani (cello) and Michele Levin (piano).
Is this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Certainly not. It is a twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But only if you are young and lucky.
