Anthony Roth Costanzo - Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo

Nonesuch Records releases the label debut from acclaimed singer Anthony Roth Costanzo, Countertenor. It is a companion to a book of the same name written by Costanzo, out October 27, from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

On the album's 10 tracks, which feature an ensemble conducted by Dan Schlosberg, Costanzo delves into a wide-ranging survey of falsetto. The record comprises a world premiere recording of a new song by Osvaldo Golijov; arias by Philip Glass, W. A. Mozart, Antonio Vivaldi, and Claudio Monteverdi; a traditional Hawaiian song; an early Baroque song by John Dowland; a Renaissance song by Thomas Morley; a Klaus Nomi-inspired interpretation of John Madara and David White's You Don't Own Me; and the classic Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons tune Walk Like a Man.

"This album, along with the book, is a history and a personal history. You'll hear the register I speak in, my chest voice, juxtaposed with the register I sing in, my head voice, sometimes in rapid succession as in the frenzied duet with myself from The Marriage of Figaro," Costanzo says in the album's liner notes. "When I slide between the two sounds, like the steel guitar in a Hawaiian song I love, you can hear a yodel pop forth as I bridge the divide. That voice crack is the gateway to the tessitura that has transformed my life and career and shaped the way I think about creating art and inhabiting my authentic self.

"For me, being a countertenor means having access to a remarkable instrument that's unique – not just for the sounds it makes and for what it allows me to express, but also for what it comes to represent to the listener and how it can permeate realms of the conscious and the subconscious," he continues.

Costanzo's book, Countertenor, is an exploration of the history of the countertenor by "one of opera's biggest stars" (The New York Times). Costanzo takes readers on a journey through his life, his education in art, and the history of his extraordinary voice type. Countertenors, he tells us, have helped define contemporary opera for more than half a century, having inherited a repertoire originally written for castrated men in the Baroque period. Part oddity, part divinity, the castrati were surgically altered before puberty. They are key to understanding the development of opera as a form, from its very origins to its expansion in the public sphere.

The striking beauty and sheer otherness of the high male voice provide fertile ground for creative invention and innovation, evocatively challenging conventional notions of gender, sexuality, and identity. With wit, humour, and irrepressible energy, Costanzo offers insights into the contours of the countertenor and his own artistic career as both an opera singer and a producer and curator.

‘Vocally brilliant and dramatically fearless.’ – New York Times
‘A bona-fide star.’ – New Yorker
‘A perfect musician.’ – Le Monde
‘Otherworldly.’ – Wall Street Journal
‘One of the world’s most important singers.’ – Los Angeles Times