# Sopranista



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

An adult male soprano (no, not a counter-tenor).

Interesting the things I sometimes come across in the New York Times, such as this. I listened to a small part of the recording and am not at all sure what to make of it.

‘I Would Love to Sing Lucia’: A Male Soprano Comes Into His Own


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Becca said:


> An adult male soprano (no, not a counter-tenor).
> 
> Interesting the things I sometimes come across in the New York Times, such as this. I listened to a small part of the recording and am not at all sure what to make of it.
> 
> ‘I Would Love to Sing Lucia’: A Male Soprano Comes Into His Own


The Times wants me to pay to read it.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Samuel Mariño is a rarity in opera: a true male soprano.
Rather than relying on falsetto as a countertenor would, Mariño, 28, is able to comfortably sing high notes with his chest voice. Now he is branching out from Baroque parts originally written for castrati. A big step in that direction: “Sopranista,” his debut album on the Decca label, which is out on Friday.
He has his eye on a variety of roles, including Sophie, the ingénue of Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier,” and Dvorak’s Rusalka, he said in an interview, with the aim of sending a message that classical music should be “open to all communities,” including a multiplicity of genders. And “Sopranista,” named after the Italian term for a male soprano, offers a glimpse at that more fluid future.
...
Mariño, who was born in Venezuela and is based here in Berlin, didn’t lose the boyish aspects of his voice at puberty; it only “partially broke,” he said. With a high speaking voice, life as a teenager — a gay one, at that — was difficult. “Everyone was making jokes, bullying me,” he said.
So he sought help from his mother; she took him to doctors who offered surgery or vocal therapy. But one suggested he could be a singer. After studying at the Paris Conservatory, he took lessons with the soprano Barbara Bonney. He then spent his early career specializing in castrato roles.

*When you started studying voice in Paris, were you training as a male soprano?*
The teachers were trying to treat me as a countertenor. I had to sing lower when I could sing much higher. Being a countertenor is an established thing, and they were trying to put me into that box. Then, in 2017, I met Barbara Bonney. A friend told me that I sing very much like her. I wrote to her and said: “Hi. I’m Samuel and I want to take lessons with you.” I went to Salzburg, Austria, and Barbara was like a fairy godmother. She told me to sing how I speak, to just put notes to my speaking voice. And that is what I do today.

*Your new album starts with a famous Mozart aria written for a woman who is playing a man. What do you bring to the role as a male singer?*
My voice is a light lyric soprano, with a bit of coloratura. In the score, Cherubino is a soprano role, but today it’s for mezzo-sopranos and their male-ish colors. If you talk to any mezzo, they will tell you it’s very hard to sing Cherubino, because it’s quite high — not super high notes, but sitting all the time in a high tessitura. Cherubino is a young teenager, and I do him as a boy who is innocent and confused. It’s a totally different vision of how the role can be sung.

*Other than Lucia, are there other traditional female roles that you would like to try? What about the Queen of the Night or Carmen?*
Technically speaking, I can sing the Queen of the Night, but I don’t have the dramatic voice. So it would be like a kid singing. And I cannot sing Carmen, which is not about the voice, but the personality. I would love to sing a soprano part in a Mahler symphony. Barbara always told me: “Darling, you can sing that. You have a bigger voice than I do.”


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

^^^Thanks. I've been checking him out on YouTube. He has a funny little voice. If it belonged to a female I doubt anyone would listen to him, maybe outside of Baroque music where thin little voices have come to be considered acceptable. Here is his Mozart:


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## Ludwig Schon (10 mo ago)




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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Becca said:


> An adult male soprano (no, not a counter-tenor).
> 
> I listened to a small part of the recording and am not at all sure what to make of it.


I listened to a bit on Spotify. I'm not quite sure, either, except that I know that it's not anything I want to hear again.

He may not be a countertenor, but he's still a falsettist, with all of the limitations that result from that.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

He sounds somewhat like a boy soprano and would be wonderful in some sacred music. Pleasant, but nothing more than that.

N.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I wouldn't mind being able to sing Lucia also, but...


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should. This is nothing new as anyone who has heard La Gran Scena Opera company will know.

Paradoxically his Cherubino sounds less sexy than most women I've heard playing the part, rather like a boy soprano. I don't think I'd want to hear him as Lucia, but those soprano castrati roles would no doubt sound great.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

"She told me to sing how I speak, to just put notes to my speaking voice. And that is what I do today." - for the record, this is absolutely some of the worst teaching around but not at all uncommon nowadays.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

His speaking voice doesn't generate any thought of singing, to do it mildly. It's baroque that he sings well enough, and there he can find as much stuff as he wants. But Lucia? Only as one time performance, maybe. Things like this are good as far as first impression.


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## davidscalvini (Jan 1, 2018)

The only male soprano I know who sounds good is Leonidas Miklos :


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I don't want to be rude, but that's gonna be a big _nope _from me. I know I go on about lack of chest voice a lot, but....this is one of the worst offenders I've seen in awhile. 
You want to sing soprano? Fine, but soprani still have thyroarytenoid muscles just like baritones, tenors, etc. 
You want to sing baroque? Great, but baroque doesn't mean small, pulled back singing. I really have never understood this one, even when I was 15 and knew next to nothing about vocal technique. They say this is supposed to be "expressive"_, _but expressive is supposed to mean *more *voice, *more *variation, a sound that sounds like normal *human emotion. *

I'm sorry, but...this 12 year old boy sings baroque with more power and real voice than that.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I'm sorry, but...this 12 year old boy sings baroque with more power and real voice than that.


The kid is a singing angel, but it's hilarious that this is considered wedding or church music, especially with the words still atttached. Ah, Hollywood.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> The kid is a singing angel, but it's hilarious that this is considered wedding or church music, especially with the words still atttached. Ah, Hollywood.


I figured someone else would point that out. I found this singer over a decade ago, and remember listening to this piece like "That was wonderful singing...wait, _what_?!" Then again, when I see what passes for "modern adaptions" these days, it's hardly the weirdest selection.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I take it this guy identifies as a sopranista rather than a countertenor, because he’s not singing a _trouser role_, but a female character (Cleopatra). Bizarre, but I think purposefully so,


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

MAS said:


> I take it this guy identifies as a sopranista rather than a countertenor, because he’s not singing a _trouser role_, but a female character (Cleopatra). Bizarre, but I think purposefully so,


If his mustache was even just a little bit better, he could probably nail the lead in "Frida Kahlo - the Musical"...


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## Philidor (11 mo ago)

After all, he is opening doors for modern stage directors ... Violetta sung by a man, completely new ways to tell the story in another context ...


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## OffPitchNeb (Jun 6, 2016)

Philidor said:


> After all, he is opening doors for modern stage directors ... Violetta sung by a man, completely new ways to tell the story in another context ...


Well, I wonder if he can do Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

OffPitchNeb said:


> Well, I wonder if he can do Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.


The question isn't whether he could do it, but what he would do _to_ it. Are you really curious?


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

MAS said:


> I take it this guy identifies as a sopranista rather than a countertenor, because he’s not singing a _trouser role_, but a female character (Cleopatra). Bizarre, but I think purposefully so,


Cesar in this production should be a contralto, who disguises to make a male carrier. Tolomeo could be whoever he wanted.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

OffPitchNeb said:


> Well, I wonder if he can do Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier.


It would be like the old adage about a dog walking on its hind legs...


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## OffPitchNeb (Jun 6, 2016)

Woodduck said:


> The question isn't whether he could do it, but what he would do _to_ it. Are you really curious?


Yes, I am curious. Can't be any worse than a mezzo singing Don Jose, right?









Chicago Opera Theater Breathes New Life Into Carmen


Jill DeGroot reviews Chicago Opera Theater's reimagining of Carmen featuring Jamie Barton in the title role and Stephanie Blythe as Don José.




icareifyoulisten.com


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

^^ Aaaargh ... not something I'd want to be watching


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

OffPitchNeb said:


> Yes, I am curious. Can't be any worse than a mezzo singing Don Jose, right?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


"Can't be any worse" is always a resounding recommendation...


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