October is Baroque Month here at Bachtrack. Recent years have seen the unstoppable rise of the countertenor – they're everywhere! We thought it was about time we caught up with some of today's leading countertenors to find out more.
Christopher Ainslie started his singing career as a chorister in Cape Town, his home city. In 2005 he moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music, where he graduated with distinction. Recent and future engagements include Orfeo ed Euridice for Opéra de Lyon and for Opéra National de Lorraine, Agrippina for the Göttingen Handel Festival, Saul for Glyndebourne, Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Ulster Orchestra and with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and Orff’s Carmina Buranawith the Choir and Orchestra of Radio France.
How do you explain the explosion in popularity of countertenors?
The baroque revival of the last few decades created some demand for countertenors in the industry. As they stepped up to fill this demand, the voice type began a path of discovery of its own, as singers began to explore the voice's technical and musical potential. And as they did this, the public was exposed to some extreme beauty and dramatic power, and more singers considered the countertenor voice as a career option. There is something magical about a man singing in this tessitura, but I think the popularity of the voice has more to do with the timbre and sound world it unlocks. The voice can be etherial and also unpredictable (in a good way), and as singers begin to apply conventional bel canto techniques to the voice, the potential of the voice is, more and more, being unlocked. How wonderful that contemporary composers have also pricked up their ears to this potential, and we see more roles being written for the countertenor.
Which is your favourite opera role and why?
Gluck's Orfeo is hard to beat, although numerous Handel roles are up there too, including the title role in Amadigi, Arsace in Partenope, and Ottone in Agrippina. Each role has its unique musical and dramatic magic, but the thing that puts these at the top of my list is the way they tap into the deep melancholy, even despair, which the alto voice is so perfectly suited to expressing. I love these roles also for their range of emotions, and the tessitura: rich, juicy alto lines with some beautiful higher sections to relax into.
When did you discover your countertenor voice?
I sang as a treble in a boys' choir in Cape Town and, when my voice broke, I sang alto or tenor for a while, depending on what was needed. But the alto range always felt more special to me, and I began training my countertenor voice just to keep up with the demands of the choir. When my teacher suggested that perhaps I should think a little more seriously about singing as a career choice, I didn't think much of the idea, as I was well on my way to qualifying as a chartered accountant and I was stubbornly a violist, not a singer! Fast forward five years and I found myself studying with Mark Tucker at the Royal College of Music, and I never looked back. I feel like I am still discovering my countertenor voice, as I am still actively exploring what this voice type has to offer. There are so many approaches to this voice and sub-fachs are being more clearly distilled all the time. But the exploration is far from over, and I find it fascinating and thrilling to be part of it!