Philippe Jaroussky 2
Philippe Jaroussky is like a vine of potatoes. The more you pull, the more bountiful of crops just keep coming out of the uncultivated soil (Baroque music).
He’s very much an ardent enthusiastic charming music geek. The stories he talks in interviews are very interesting and fascinating though some of them, it’s like taking musicology classes, which can go over the top of my head.
I saw very interesting scene in one of his recording session clips (aria “Pianti Sospiri”) where his singing teacher was there. At one moment while he was singing, she was giving him the hand gesture with her two pointing fingers going to the upper opposite directions like a baseball coach is sending a sign to a player during the game. And he did exactly what he was told. The top of his vocal cord separated and his voice went to the two upper opposite directions. That was very fascinating because I didn’t know a human vocal cord is capable of doing something quiet like that (she gave him thumb’s up.)
Philippe Jaroussky was not my first encounter with countertenor and I knew little about the history of castrato. So it was not really surprise for me to hear someone sing in head voice. But I guess there are some people who have trouble with it even though there are many pop/rock singers use their head voices.
Because he sings mostly cantatas or arias from male roles in operas written for castratos, many times I hear his voice as male voice. And because child-like quality of his voice, sometimes I hear voice of child. And then, because of silky beauty of his voice, there are times I hear female voice. Other times, I don’t know what he is. And it’s good. Because at this moment, he’s the only singer I don’t have to think about gender while I’m listening. I like such “neutrality” and wide inclusiveness for his voice and music have the universal appeal beyond gender, age and time.
He never seizes to amaze me. The amount of concentrative power and intensity in his music are clearly standing out when you compare the same arias sung by others. He has wonderful music instincts. He interprets, internalizes texts and scores at such level that when he expresses them, he has no fear for letting his emotions to take over: which is very important in operas, otherwise if feels fake, mechanical or monotone. Audience has to feel whatever feeling a singer expresses. And not many opera singers have this ability even though no matter how beautiful voice they have or how technically outstanding they are. In this area, Jaroussky is very original and I think this is the one of main reasons many people loves about his music. In other words, he can connect with people internally through his music.
The great example of this is his aria, “Alto Giove”. The text is simply praising and thanking the Greek God, Jupiter and while you’re listening to this very short boring text (I’ve not seen the opera yet) and simple slow quiet music, you don’t feel like it’s a great song. It is just when the moments after the last sound of the instrument of the aria disappeared into air, the sudden overwhelming emotions of joys would just burst within your soul and you heard yourself saying, “Wow! That was amazing!” It’s like you just got to the mind-blowing spiritual height of your life and you didn’t even know it until everything is over.
In the beginning, I thought this must be the result of a genius composer (Porpora). So I listened to the same aria by other singers. Some of them are good. But none of them have the same child-like, intensive spiritual quality as in Philippe’s. Every time I listen to this aria by him, my chest tightens. I have never ever been hypnotized and felt immense feelings by a song like this before.
He’s very much an ardent enthusiastic charming music geek. The stories he talks in interviews are very interesting and fascinating though some of them, it’s like taking musicology classes, which can go over the top of my head.
I saw very interesting scene in one of his recording session clips (aria “Pianti Sospiri”) where his singing teacher was there. At one moment while he was singing, she was giving him the hand gesture with her two pointing fingers going to the upper opposite directions like a baseball coach is sending a sign to a player during the game. And he did exactly what he was told. The top of his vocal cord separated and his voice went to the two upper opposite directions. That was very fascinating because I didn’t know a human vocal cord is capable of doing something quiet like that (she gave him thumb’s up.)
Philippe Jaroussky was not my first encounter with countertenor and I knew little about the history of castrato. So it was not really surprise for me to hear someone sing in head voice. But I guess there are some people who have trouble with it even though there are many pop/rock singers use their head voices.
Because he sings mostly cantatas or arias from male roles in operas written for castratos, many times I hear his voice as male voice. And because child-like quality of his voice, sometimes I hear voice of child. And then, because of silky beauty of his voice, there are times I hear female voice. Other times, I don’t know what he is. And it’s good. Because at this moment, he’s the only singer I don’t have to think about gender while I’m listening. I like such “neutrality” and wide inclusiveness for his voice and music have the universal appeal beyond gender, age and time.
He never seizes to amaze me. The amount of concentrative power and intensity in his music are clearly standing out when you compare the same arias sung by others. He has wonderful music instincts. He interprets, internalizes texts and scores at such level that when he expresses them, he has no fear for letting his emotions to take over: which is very important in operas, otherwise if feels fake, mechanical or monotone. Audience has to feel whatever feeling a singer expresses. And not many opera singers have this ability even though no matter how beautiful voice they have or how technically outstanding they are. In this area, Jaroussky is very original and I think this is the one of main reasons many people loves about his music. In other words, he can connect with people internally through his music.
The great example of this is his aria, “Alto Giove”. The text is simply praising and thanking the Greek God, Jupiter and while you’re listening to this very short boring text (I’ve not seen the opera yet) and simple slow quiet music, you don’t feel like it’s a great song. It is just when the moments after the last sound of the instrument of the aria disappeared into air, the sudden overwhelming emotions of joys would just burst within your soul and you heard yourself saying, “Wow! That was amazing!” It’s like you just got to the mind-blowing spiritual height of your life and you didn’t even know it until everything is over.
In the beginning, I thought this must be the result of a genius composer (Porpora). So I listened to the same aria by other singers. Some of them are good. But none of them have the same child-like, intensive spiritual quality as in Philippe’s. Every time I listen to this aria by him, my chest tightens. I have never ever been hypnotized and felt immense feelings by a song like this before.
posted by MV at
9:19 PM
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