- Description
Anthony Roth Costanzo’s book Countertenor (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), is an exploration of the history of the countertenor. The acclaimed singer takes readers on a journey through his life, his education in art, and the history of his extraordinary voice type. Countertenors, he tells us, have helped define contemporary opera for more than half a century, having inherited a repertoire originally written for castrated men in the baroque period. Part oddity, part divinity, the castrati were surgically altered before puberty. They are key to understanding the development of opera as a form, from its very origins to its expansion in the public sphere. Hardcover.
Anthony Roth Costanzo’s book Countertenor (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), is an exploration of the history of the countertenor. The acclaimed singer takes readers on a journey through his life, his education in art, and the history of his extraordinary voice type. Countertenors, he tells us, have helped define contemporary opera for more than half a century, having inherited a repertoire originally written for castrated men in the baroque period. Part oddity, part divinity, the castrati were surgically altered before puberty. They are key to understanding the development of opera as a form, from its very origins to its expansion in the public sphere. Hardcover.