What is a countertenor?
Q: What is a countertenor?
A: A countertenor is a male singer who uses a falsetto voice to sing high notes like a female contralto or mezzo-soprano.
Q: When were countertenors used?
A: Countertenors were used a lot in the Renaissance and Baroque periods when females were not allowed to sing in church choirs.
Q: Why were countertenors not normally used in opera?
A: They did not have big, dramatic voices like castrati, so they were not normally used in opera.
Q: What happened to countertenors in the 18th and 19th centuries?
A: People forgot about this way of singing in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Q: Who made countertenors famous in the 20th century?
A: In the 20th century an English countertenor called Alfred Deller became very famous.
Q: What did Alfred Deller sing?
A: He sang many songs from the Baroque period that had been written for the countertenor voice, for example songs by Henry Purcell who sang countertenor himself.
Q: What type of music is countertenor voice used for today?
A: Today there is a lot of interest again in using this type of voice for performing early music like Renaissance and Baroque music.
