Who Can Resist a Man Who Sings Like a Woman?

[Shana A]

Who Can Resist a Man Who Sings Like a Woman?

By FERNANDA EBERSTADT
Published: November 19, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21soprano-t.html?_r=1

Jaroussky made his professional debut singing Scarlatti at a French summer festival in 1999, when he was 21. He was fortunate in his timing. In the last few decades, much of the Baroque repertory — the operas and sacred music of composers like Monteverdi, Purcell and Gluck, as well as that of lesser-known masters — has enjoyed a widespread revival. And with it, that most startling of voices, the countertenor — a grown man who sings like a turbo-charged choirboy, performing the roles of heroes or saints that were originally written for a castrato and that are often sung by a female mezzo-soprano.

Forty years ago, there were perhaps half a dozen countertenors on the world stage. Today the South Carolinian David Daniels or the German Andreas Scholl fill concert halls and opera houses, and every season brings a new wonder boy from Croatia or the Ukraine. The 32-year-old Jaroussky's exceptionally pure voice, combined with his cherubic good looks, have won him a passionate following.