Almirena, thank you. I am including the translation, hopefully accurate, of this wonderful interview for fans who speak english.
Philippe Jaroussky, célébration for a countertenor.
His friends will all be there. Or almost. From the soprano Veronica Cangemi to the cellist Gautier Capucon,from pianist Jerome Ducros to the members of the Quatour Ebene, they will party with who has become, in only a few years, the french star of the countertenors. A voice which continues to pose a certain mystery.Perhaps it bewitches. Always intrigues. If technically it is characterized by the emissions of strains in head voice, accomplished by the resonance of different upper organs, such as the nasal and mouth cavities, it is no more the tonal duplicate of a female organ: it possesses undoubtedly a different seed; and its place in baroque drama is not the same any more. "Sopranos are the most frequent choices to incarnate roles of character, of haughty heroines; countertenors are enrolled in characters with a physical profile tinged with a great fragility.", explains Philippe Jaroussky.
Countertenors in the line of castrati? "To consider the countertenors as placed as the continuation of the castrati is a mistake, where with the exception of one recording from the beginnings of the 20th century, we do not have any aural document that permits us assess it. Without a doubt their voice approximated that of countertenors; but the written tracings from the 17th and 18th centuries tend towards the thesis that it was equally more powerful, more robust than that of countertenors."
At 32 young, Philippe Jaroussky can contemplate with satisfaction a full decade of success after climbing one by one the steps of Olympus. In 1999. at the end of a stint singing at Royaumont, he was chosen by countertenor Gerard Lesne to play Ismaele, in the oratorio by Alessandro Scarlatti Sedecia, king of Jerusalem , before producing a recital with Handel's arias from Serse at the Theatre Gevrin. He has not known yet the lean years or (could not translate "couru le cacheton", but I think it is the same as in english "run the gauntlet", have many obstacles)
His career came by storm. Amazing and miraculous fate for him who a few years before had obtained his first prize in violin at the national conservatory in the region
of Versailles. Chances of life.: at 18 , as he attended a baroque concert starring the countertenor Fabrice Di Falco , fascinated by the angelic timbre without equal, he abandoned his bow and decided to follow a singing course and discovered his voice as well as his way. He confesses to having put some time in making his this sound of troubling androgyny. " My parents and my friends have been a precious help. It wasn't so much what others regarded that I was afraid of but the discomfort posed by the sensuality that came from the sound I emitted."
Since those times, Philippe Jaroussky has accepted himself. Even more, he is today the most faithful ambassador of countertenors, exploiting to the limits the italian and german baroque repertoire (Handel, Gluck, Vivaldi, Bach, Graun) and enjoys taking up a group of melodies by Faure, Lekeu or Hahn, written for other tessitures than his. And he loves starting more original and ambitious pieces, such as the work he is presently doing with composer Suzanne Giraud, to bring in scene the LIfe of Caravaggio, with a libretto by Dominique Fernandez.
Stephane Haik.
