Recently in Commentary

Tom Moore Interviews Dimitri Cervo

Oct. 25, 2007, Sala Cecilia Meireles

I met the young gaucho composer Dimitri Cervo at the 2003 Bienal of Contemporary Music, where his works for solo flute and strings, Pattapiana [named for Pattapio Silva, a great Brazilian flutist who died tragically young at the beginning of the last century] made quite an impression.

Houston puts final touches on new Heggie opera

There’s still a hint of jest in the comparison, but it’s not without reason that Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally are mentioned now and then in opera circles as “the Strauss and Hofmannsthal of the 21st century.”

‘Polish’ Not Change for Santa Fe Opera

Incoming general director of Santa Fe Opera, Charles MacKay, has made clear he is “in the tradition -- I will not be an agent for radical change,” at the celebrated New Mexico summer opera festival, MacKay says.

Tom Moore Interviews Frederick Carrilho

Composer Frederick Carrilho was born in 1971 in the state of Sao Paulo, and has studied guitar and composition, most recently at UNICAMP in Campinas. His music has been heard at the recent biennial festivals of contemporary music in Rio, with the Profusão V – Toccata making a strong impression at the Bienal of 2007. We spoke in Portuguese.

Tom Moore Interviews Marisa Rezende

October 23, 2007, Sala Cecilia Meireles, Rio de Janeiro

Guanajuato Opera a document of Mexican history

What makes the first visit to Guanajuato’s Teatro Juárez breathtaking is the suddenness of the encounter.

Tom Moore Interviews Nikolai Brucher

Oct. 25, 2007, Rio de Janeiro.

Tom Moore Interviews José Orlando Alves

José Orlando Alves is a young composer, originally from Minas Gerais, but who spent many years in Rio de Janeiro, where he has been active for a decade with the composers’ collaborative, Preludio XXI.

The Pleasures of Presence — The Small Loudspeakers of Richard Sequerra

In the long ago, when the best source of music reproduction in the home was a handsome piece of furniture, fitted with hidden audio components, and usually called radio-phonographs, my family had one — from Avery Fisher I believe — that had among its controls a switch labeled ‘presence.’

An Interview with Canadian mezzo-soprano, Kimberly Barber.

Uncut with Canada’s Mistress of the trouser-role: the multifaceted Kimberly Barber.

Glimmerglass Opera 2007 — An Overview

Glimmerglass Opera is in a watershed year. With the departure of Paul Kellogg, who had considerable success developing that annual festival, General and Artistic Director Michael Macleod has chosen to begin his tenure with a variation on the usual four-opera-season, namely a thematic collection of pieces based on the “Orpheus” legend. “Don’t look back” is the marketing catch phrase.

Jan Neckers on Recently Reissued Historicals

Almost thirty years ago a century old tradition ended with the last performance of I Maestri Cantatori.

Santa Fe Opera in Changing Times

Santa Fe Opera’s announcement August 10 that English-born impresario, Richard Gaddes, General Director of the company since 2001, will retire at the end of season 2008, took the local opera community by surprise.

The Week that Was for Opera: Santa Fe — Dallas — Denver/St Louis — Toronto

The week just ended was certainly of historic moment in the world of North American opera companies.

Countertenor David DQ Lee: Winning Hearts and Minds at Cardiff Singer of the World

Perhaps it is a sign that, at last, the countertenor voice has come of age in the hearts and minds of both audiences and the opera establishment.

New Frocks for Old – Cardiff Singer of the World, 2007

Back in the early 1980’s two good ideas came to fruition: the much-needed new concert hall for Cardiff, capital city of Wales, and plans to hold within it the first “Singer of the World” competition.

Opera on the move at Spoleto USA

Charleston, S.C. — For over 20 years it was two operas a season here at Spoleto USA, the all-arts festival brought to this cultural capital of the Old South by Gian Carlo Menotti in 1977.

Rising to the occasion – Michael Maniaci saves the day at La Fenice

It is every young opera singer’s dream.

SANTA FE TO CHANGE MUSIC DIRECTORS

On May 9th, when Santa Fe Opera finally announced that Alan Gilbert had left his post as Music Director of that company, a long-standing rumor was made official.

Kelly Kaduce sings Anna Karenina

Robert Gierlach wishes he could rewrite “Anna Karenina,” the Tolstoi whopper turned into an opera by librettist Colin Graham and composer David Carlson. It’s not that Gierlach, who sings Vronsky in the world premiere of the work at Florida Grand Opera on April 28, has misgivings about the author’s artistry; he simply wishes that the story could have a happy ending.

OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »

Commentary

12 Apr 2005

An Interview With Michael Maniaci

Michael Maniaci has a fight on his hands. In the world of baroque opera he’s a young singer who seems to have it all: he’s intelligent, immensely talented, well-trained, committed and surprisingly wise for his 29 years. On top of that he’s already been successful in the USA winning prestigious competitions, and recently gaining significant roles at such proving grounds as Glimmerglass, New York City Opera and Santa Fe.


Michael Maniaci (Photo: Lake, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The Rise of the Male Soprano?

Michael Maniaci has a fight on his hands. In the world of baroque opera he’s a young singer who seems to have it all: he’s intelligent, immensely talented, well-trained, committed and surprisingly wise for his 29 years. On top of that he’s already been successful in the USA winning prestigious competitions, and recently gaining significant roles at such proving grounds as Glimmerglass, New York City Opera and Santa Fe.

So what’s the difficulty? The problem — and it’s perhaps only one for the more conservative of baroque directors — is that Maniaci is a true male soprano. He is not a countertenor with a falsetto head voice above a tenor or baritone chest voice, and the roles he wants to make his own are the great Handelian ones which were written for that most high-flying of long-lost vocal types, the soprano castrato, and normally sung by female mezzos or sopranos today: Xerxes, Ariodante, Sesto, Tirinto, not to mention Mozart’s “pants” role of Cherubino which Maniaci has already performed with critical success at Pittsburgh Opera working with Christopher Alden in a ground-breaking production of Figaro. Phrases such as “thrilling agility and musicianship” and “pure tone, perfect trills and exquisite legato in the soprano range” abound in his press clippings.

I caught up with Michael Maniaci in Copenhagen, where he was dipping his toe into mainstream European waters with the small but significant role of Nireno in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare”, alongside the likes of Andreas Scholl, Inger dam Jensen and Christopher Robson. I was intrigued to hear more from the man himself, and to find out just how much of a fight might lie ahead for him before he gains his vocal goals.

Coming from the Midwest of America, his Baptist parents had hoped that he might join his sister in becoming a teacher and although happy enough to encourage the young Michael at school choir and in church singing, they were not a musical family in the accepted sense and were worried about him following a career in music, let alone one in the high octane world of opera. But a love of singing, and of the theatre, was in his blood from somewhere, and from high school he progressed to college in Cincinnati and then on to the renowned Juilliard School in New York where 5 years scholarship study brought him to a place on their elite Opera Centre programme.

However, it hasn’t all been quite as simple or easy as that may sound. From his teenage years he has fought to be accepted at all these places because, simply, he sings in the soprano range and heard over and over again from directors and teachers “you don’t fit any of our programs”. He explained to me how his voice came about in a natural, if unusual way: “During puberty my voice just stayed where it was; it didn’t change with the rest of me, although it’s got stronger and fuller. Doctors examining my throat found that the larynx and vocal cords had not lengthened and thickened in the normal way; I don’t have an Adams apple, and yet in every other way I’m a normal male”. On top of that, this young man has also had to cope with another problematic “spin” ball, as he was born with a slight facial palsy. However, in the same way that he has capitalised on his unusual vocal gift, he has also overcome any minor disadvantage of this potential difficulty by putting even more effort into the dramatic side of his art — and his ability to hold the eye, to inhabit his mainly non-singing but ever-present character of Nireno in “Cesare” was as admirable as his effortless, full-toned and dramatic single aria. He found the part rewarding: “It’s been extremely challenging, but I’ve learned a lot here”. The Royal Danish Opera was obviously convinced as to his potential as they restored his character’s one aria in their revival of “Cesare” in order to ensure his acceptance of the role. In his turn Maniaci gave up the, on the face of it, much more attractive role of Medoro in NYC Opera’s “Orlando” in order to sing here. “I was willing to turn down the Medoro, knowing that the opera would be a huge success in Lincoln Centre, because I was thrilled to come here and do something very small and work with these people, get my feet wet, and of course benefit from the upcoming DVD exposure. I’m convinced I made the right choice”.

Taking that sort of calculated risk comes naturally to Maniaci and he did the same when he recently took on the role of Cherubino, with Christopher Alden directing, at Pittsburgh Opera. “It’s a fascinating experiment” said Alden before the first night, and of course there were a few voices raised against Maniaci taking on a role written by Mozart for a female soprano to sing dressed as a boy. However, the local, usually conservative, press were warm in their praise on first night and Maniaci defends his decision, saying “it was right for me, and you have to remember I’m not going to put myself up for anything that I feel I can’t fully serve”. He also admits to harbouring a desire to sing Octavian and the Composer, although they might be a further into the future, and will probably take second place to the Handel roles in major houses that he covets more immediately.

If Michael Maniaci no longer has to sing auditions in his native country, and will shortly be singing the “secondo uomo” role of Lucio Cinna to Susan Graham’s Cecilio in Mozart’s “Lucio Silla” at Santa Fe Opera this summer, his profile this side of the Atlantic is not so defined. Also, he is quite aware that he will have a struggle on his hands to get accepted by some of the big guns of European baroque opera — the likes of Jacobs, Minkowski and Christie on the musical side and the more conservative opera intendants who have scarcely yet admitted to the pulling power of the countertenor revolution in the past ten years, let alone to the existence of a true male soprano. He has already auditioned for Rene Jacobs and found that although the much-feted conductor and ex-countertenor praised his musicianship and technical expertise, the very fact of his voice’s soprano range “confused” Jacobs entirely. It will take daring and far-sighted musical directors to pick up the reins of Maniaci’s European career and run with a voice that must be a unique embellishment to the Baroque revival over here. Luckily for him there are already just such people who do have that faith, and Maniaci is grateful to them for as he says “I started singing and performing so young …… I love it, I’m thankful for it and — frankly — when I don’t have the chance to communicate with people on stage I can feel it affecting me in a negative way, and I do feel that is what I must be doing. I am based in New York City at the moment but I have a feeling that I could easily become an ex-patriot!” Judging by what I have heard and seen of Michael Maniaci to date, it would be our gain, and America’s loss.

© S.C.Loder 2005

Comments

John W. — April 13, 2005 5:29 AM

Re: “The Rise of the Male Soprano”

I read this story (dated 12 April) with interest; I have saved the
web-page. I would certainly like to hear his forthcoming CDs and DVD.

The web-page says, in part:

” He explained to me how his voice came about in a natural, if unusual
way: “During puberty my voice just stayed where it was; it didn’t change with the rest of me, although it’s got stronger and fuller. Doctors examining my throat found that the larynx and vocal cords had not lengthened and thickened in the normal way; I don’t have an Adams apple, and yet in every other way I’m a normal male”.” (cut)

That last part is rather hard to believe, if he is in fact hormonally average. (As a male soprano myself, I do not consider the average testosterone level in men to be “normal”, just plain “average”). The only way this could happen is if the tissues of his larynx, and surrounding tissues, do not have any dihydro-testosterone receptors.
This is a condition affecting all the body tissues of “XY females”, who are chromosomally male, but are entirely female in appearance and have hidden testicles (the estrogen secretion of which is sufficient to result in breast growth), a vagina, but no uterus or fallopian tubes or ovaries, because their tissues cannot respond to testosterone. In the
case of Michael Maniaci, it is possible that he could be a chromosomal “mosaic”, with the tissues of his larynx and surrounding areas being
chromosomally different from the rest of his body.

Send to a friend

Send a link to this article to a friend with an optional message.

Friend's Email Address: (required)

Your Email Address: (required)

Message (optional):