Handel's Altos....

 As a preface to a few concerts I'm giving with the Baroque Band and Harry Bicket here in Chicago in March I composed a few thoughts on the background to the programme. A version of this, or in fact this article will appear in the programme.

Handel’s Altos.

When we think of Baroque music and Baroque opera in particular we tend to make an automatic association with the castrato; the male singer, castrated on the eve of puberty to preserve his treble register in the promise, met by few, of a career as one of the operatic superstars of his day.  In attempts at authenticity over the past half a century, baroque musicians have had to concede that it ‘takes balls to sing like a castrato’ (as one journalist recently put it) and our closest modern day equivalent is the male alto or ‘countertenor’. Many of Handel’s operatic roles, especially those written with the alto castrato Senesino in mind suit the range of a modern countertenor. However, as fashions and tastes change the argument returns again and again that it is in fact inauthentic to employ a countertenor at all in these roles; Handel himself replaces absentee castrati with female altos. This misleads some into banishing the countertenor voice altogether from the 18^th century stage. On the contrary, Handel did employ solo countertenors in his Oratorios that dominated the latter part of his creative life; countertenors such as ‘Walter Powell’, ‘Daniel Sullivan’, ‘Brent’ and ‘Russell’ premiered major roles in five works; Joad (Athalia), David (Saul), Athamas (Semele), Joseph (Joseph and His Brethren) and (Hamor) Jephtha. Sullivan in particular should be noted for singing solo roles in works by other composers such as J F Lampe’s “The Dragon of Wantley” produced by Sheridan amongst others. Garrick describes Sullivan as “looking gay and sensible” whilst Mrs Delany calls him “a block with a very fine voice” who puts Handel “mightily out of humour”. So whilst Handel would have had most contact with countertenors through choral establishments such as the Chapel Royal or Westminster Abbey he was perfectly aware of the potential of the voice type to be a solo instrument on the stage at Covent Garden and the King’s Theatre, Haymarket and as always exploited this.

The cantata form further enabled Handel to write for an alto. We cannot always be certain for whom a cantata was composed or who might have performed it, but thanks to research that pinpoints a date of composition and location of composition we can make tantalising assumptions. For instance, ‘Splenda l’alba’ celebrates St Cecilia the patron saint of music. Written around 1711/12 in London it could be argued that one of the cast of Handel’s new opera ‘Rinaldo’ was in London sometime around November 22^nd (St Cecilia’s Day) perhaps preparing for the revival of the opera in early 1712. The castrato Nicolini may have wanted the music a tone or so higher than written and this perhaps suggests a female singer, maybe even the Goffredo at the time Francesca Vanini-Boschi. The cantata and the role of Goffredo sit in a similar compass.

By 1730 the castrato in Handel’s company, the second Royal Academy of Music, was Antonio Bernacchi, who had stepped into the formidable breeches of Senesino, soon to  defect to Porpora’s ‘Opera of the Nobility’. Bernacchi created roles in Lotario and more famously as Arsace in Partenope. Praised as an intelligent singer by Charles Burney, he was unfortunate not to emulate the same success with the London audiences as had Senesino. “Bernacchi has a vast compass, his voice is mellow and clear, but not sweet as Senesino, his manner better; his person not so good for he is as big as a Spanish friar”- (Mrs Delany).

Handel’s genius was to write so convincingly for all voice types and ranges, especially the three “C’s” – castrato, contralto and countertenor. His compositions were consistent in their quality and the variation of voice type can be explained equally by his awareness of changing tastes and fashions as to the constraints of finances and resources at his disposal. The modern quest for authenticity often casts a shadow over the great versatility of Handel. His own example shows that any evolution in style and performance needs to be adaptable to our own time. We can therefore only be truly authentic by adapting.