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THE IMPROBABLE APPEAL OF MEN SINGING VERY HIGH… Soul/Funk singers Marvin Gaye and Al Green did it; R & B superstar Michael Jackson did it; Disco Bee Gees heartthrob Barry Gibb did it; Pop phenomena Prince, David Bowie, and Elton John did it; Rockers Mick Jagger and Robert Plant did it. Even now English Alternative Rocker Thom Yorke of Radiohead does it… They have all flung their voices into canary heaven at moments of passion. The seemingly unnatural sound of men singing up in soprano territory as a vehicle for expressing love, longing, desire, pain, and discontent is nothing new, as anyone who attends the upcoming Apollo's Fire concerts Love and Rage will quickly hear. Cleveland's inimitable baroque orchestra will present a fiery program of arias by Vivaldi and Handel, who pulled out all the stops when writing for male soprano singers, those rock stars of the 18th Century. Groupies of the era went so far as to wear medallions bearing the portraits of their favorites, a fashion not dissimilar to the pins and tee shirts worn by fans of rock stars today. From the beginning of the 17th Century young men who had undergone surgery to preserve their prepubescent voices sang exclusively in religious choirs, where the presence of women was forbidden, however, they soon became used in musical dramas. Their particular brilliance, their unusual degree of expression, flexibility, purity and the ease with which they moved from one register to another resulted in a musical form known as “Opera Seria”, created especially for them in the 18th Century as a vehicle in which castrati could show off their vocal acrobatics to crowds from all walks of life. The practice of surgical alteration had died out by the 19th Century, and the spectacular arias have now mostly been reassigned to countertenors (tenor and baritone men whose falsetto range is extraordinarily developed) and to female singers. Apollo's Fire will welcome special guest Michael Maniaci to star in its Love and Rage concerts. Luckily for him and for listeners around the world, Mr. Maniaci's larynx never developed during puberty, making him that rarest among the rare, a fully grown man whose vocal range is from C to shining C – in the treble clef! Called “one of the greatest singers of his generation” by the Toronto Globe & Mail, Maniaci will delight the curious, adventurous, and fortunate northeast Ohio audiences with selections from Handel's operas Imeneo and Ariodnate and Vivaldi's operas Catone in Utica and Giustino. Instrumental baroque superstar soloists violinist Olivier Brault and cellist René Schiffer will round out the concert with Apollo's Fire, led by its rocking founder and director, Jeannette Sorrell – whose soul and passion are quickly becoming known ’round the world. Margi Griebling-Haigh is a freelance composer, oboist, music copyist, editor and artist residing in Cleveland Heights. TICKETS PRE-CONCERT TALKS LOCAL CONCERTS |