Sopranista

A sopranista is a male singer who uses special vocal techniques to perform music written in the soprano range. These techniques apparently require the use of only of a part of the vocal chords, and do not use the falsetto voice.

There is a quite large body of music written for male soprano, though this was written when it was common to use the services of a castrato. Sopranistas are very rare, and do not have the power of voice which a castrato would have had.

Present day sopranistas include:

• Simone Bartolini[?]
• Ouatu Florin Cezar[?]
• Radu Marian[?]
• Javier Medina[?]
• Angelo Menzotti[?]

A famous sopranista from earlier times was Giovan Battista Velluti[?], for whom Rossini wrote the role of Arsace in Aureliano in Palmir[?].

External Links Velluti (in Italian) (http://81.72.160.202/corriereproposte/index.php/article/articleview/1699/1/18/)