Nicholas Clapton | |
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 Nicholas Clapton performing in Kotor, Montenegro 2001 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | September 16, 1955 |
Nicholas Clapton (born 16 September 1955) is an English countertenor, singing-teacher and author.
Nicholas Clapton | |
|---|---|
| Nicholas Clapton performing in Kotor, Montenegro 2001 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | September 16, 1955 |
Nicholas Clapton (born 16 September 1955) is an English countertenor, singing-teacher and author.
Clapton was born in Worcester, England and read music at Magdalen College, Oxford. He studied singing with David Mason and Diane Forlano, and made his professional debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1984. In the following year, he was a double prize-winner at the Concurso "Francisco Viñas" [1] in Barcelona, and in 1987 won the English Song Award. [2]
Clapton is particularly known for countertenor roles in contemporary opera, the heroic castrato repertoire of the eighteenth century, and romantic art song (in partnership with the pianist Jennifer Partridge). He has performed in major opera houses and concert halls around the world, and has given over forty world premières (including six operas).
Unusual events in his career have included: a Purcell concert in that composer's tercentenary year in a former Palace of Culture in Siberia; playing three different reincarnations of the great castrato Farinelli; and accompanying himself on the castanets in Simon Holt's Six Caprices. In concert and oratorio, as well as major works by Bach and Handel, Clapton's repertoire includes Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder , Elgar's Sea Pictures , Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs and the Verdi Requiem.
Having taught for several years at Trinity College of Music in London, Nicholas Clapton was also a professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music until 2015. He gives regular master-classes at the Dartington International Summer School, and until 2013 was a visiting professor at the Zeneakadémia in Budapest. He has also taught in Prague, Belgrade and the Netherlands. His 2004 biography of Alessandro Moreschi was chosen by the Tablet magazine as one of its Books of the Year for 2005; (it was re-issued in a larger second edition as Moreschi and the Voice of the Castrato in 2008 [3] ). In June 2005 Clapton became a Doctor of Liberal Arts of the Liszt Ferenc Music University. In 2006 he presented the documentary Castrato for BBC Four television, and curated the exhibition Handel and the Castrati at the Handel House Museum, London. [4] His second book, Budapest, City of Music, was published in March 2009. [5]
A castrato is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.
A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a specific kind of countertenor) may match the soprano's range of around C4 to C6. Countertenors often have tenor or baritone chest voices, but sing in falsetto or head voice much more often than they do in their chest voice.
Alfred George Deller, CBE, was an English singer and one of the main figures in popularising the return of the countertenor voice in Renaissance and Baroque music during the 20th century.
Francesco Bernardi, known as Senesino, was a celebrated Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel. He was also involved in a public scandal with the soprano Anastasia Robinson in 1724 which was circulated widely by the satirist Jonathan Swift, and inspired a number of anonymously written obscene, misogynistic, and at times sexually subversive epistles written between 1724 and 1736 which have become a topic of study among scholars of Restoration literature.
Giulio Cesare in Egitto, commonly known as Giulio Cesare, is a dramma per musica in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724. The libretto was written by Nicola Francesco Haym who used an earlier libretto by Giacomo Francesco Bussani, which had been set to music by Antonio Sartorio (1676). The opera was a success at its first performances, was frequently revived by Handel in his subsequent opera seasons and is now one of the most often performed Baroque operas.
Alessandro Moreschi was an Italian chorister of the late 19th century and the only castrato to make solo recordings.
Gaetano Majorano was an Italian castrato and opera singer, who performed under the stage name Caffarelli. Like Farinelli, Caffarelli was a student of Nicola Porpora.
Andreas Scholl is a German countertenor, a male classical singer in the alto vocal range, specialising in Baroque music.
Radu Marian is a Moldavian male soprano (sopranist).
Messa di voce is a singing technique and musical ornament most idiomatically on a single pitch while executing a crescendo and diminuendo. It requires sustained control and masterly singing technique. It should not be confused with mezza voce, meaning to sing at half voice or half strength.
James Thomas Bowman was an English countertenor. His career spanned opera, oratorio, contemporary music and solo recitals. Arguably, he was after Alfred Deller the most important countertenor in the 20th century revival of the voice part. He combined early and baroque repertoire with contemporary work, becoming recognised for his portrayal of Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and performing world premieres.
The Fairy-Queen is a semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a "Restoration spectacular". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. First performed in 1692, The Fairy-Queen was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age of 35. Following his death, the score was lost and only rediscovered early in the twentieth century.
Giovanni Carestini was an Italian castrato of the 18th century, who sang in the operas and oratorios of George Frideric Handel. He is also remembered as having sung for Johann Adolf Hasse and Christoph Willibald Gluck.
Gaetano Guadagni was an Italian mezzo-soprano castrato singer, most famous for singing the role of Orpheus at the premiere of Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice in 1762.
Bejun Mehta is an American countertenor. He has been awarded the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award, Le Diamant d’Opera Magazine, the Choc de Classica, the Traetta Prize, and been nominated for the Grammy Award, the Laurence Olivier Award, and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Michael Stallknecht called him "arguably the best counter tenor in the world today."
Robin Blaze is a British countertenor.
Antonio Bernacchi was an Italian castrato, composer, and teacher of singing. He studied with Francesco Antonio Pistocchi. His pupils included Farinelli, for a brief period during 1727, and the tenor Anton Raaff. Nowadays Bernacchi is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in six of whose operas he sang.
Giusto Fernando Tenducci, sometimes called "il Senesino", was a male soprano (castrato) opera singer and composer, who passed his career partly in Italy but chiefly in the United Kingdom.
A voice change or voice mutation, sometimes referred to as a voice break or voice crack, commonly refers to the deepening of the voice of men as they reach puberty. Before puberty both sexes have roughly similar vocal pitches, but during puberty the male voice typically deepens an octave, while the female voice usually deepens only by a few tones.
Randall Scotting is an American countertenor performing internationally at opera houses and concert venues. As a young singer, he made his American stage debut performing the role of Nireno in Handel's Giulio Cesare at Opera Colorado. Randall's first leading role in an opera was singing Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in New York as part of the Juilliard Opera Center. The next year he made his European stage debut performing the role of Teseo in Vivaldi's Ercole sul Termodonte at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. In December 2019, Scotting made his Royal Opera House Covent Garden mainstage debut in London performing the role of Apollo in McVicar's production of Britten's Death in Venice In May 2022, Scotting made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut in Munich performing the role of Michael in a production of Haas's micro-tonal opera Thomas. On 2 September 2022, Scotting's debut solo album with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Crown: Heroic Arias for Senesino was released by Signum Classics.
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