Just for fun, I rented "Dangerous Liasons" yet again, which sports a
"hormonal castrato" - Paulo Nascimento. He sang "Ombra mai fu".
It was in the original F major, but at baroque pitch. He never seemed
to stray from what I consider a lyric mezzo's registrational
strategy... All head with perhaps a few dips into tastefully
disguised chest tones for the bottom notes.
Now this isn't to say that this proves *anything*. Castrati of
yesteryear may have used a lot more chestiness - I suppose we'll
never know. What I did notice, however, was that his tone, produced
in the typically "classical female" way, sounded much more like a
countertenor than anything else I've ever heard.
Point is - maybe Farinelli used more chest in his singing than the
women singers in the same period. Taylor certainly has brought up
some good arguments supporting this theory. If he didn't, however,
it's entirely possible he just sounded like an astounding
countertenor at least in basic timbre.
Tako Oda
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