Domenico Mancini (in quartet) - Benedicta et venerabilis [Antonelli] - 1936
I'm happy to present two very rare recordings of Domenico Mancini (here age 45), a falsettist soprano who in his youth studied singing with the famed "last castrato" Alessandro Moreschi. As the old Italian school is a school of imitation, Mancini learned to sing not only the "sound" or Moreschi but also with the style of the castrati (which was not peculiar to Moreschi). Mancini did this so completely that Perosi believed he was a true castrato. At around 14, Mancini's voice changed and it was at that point that he joined the falsettisti. Please listen to/read an interview with him here: • IL CANTO SI FA PER IMITAZIONE - Intervista...
Falsettists had always had a place in Roman choral singing—even in the Sistine Chapel choir, who employed them to fill in the soprano ranks as the castrati's numbers declined and to sing the bulk of the contralto choral parts. Nevertheless, with the advent of the Pope's Motu proprio of 1903, admission of true castrati was strictly forbidden, and there began the effort to train young boys to sing the soprano and contralto parts. As the falsettisti were aging out of the choirs, an entire tradition began to disappear entirely. There were, luckily, a small handful of records made where we can hear this kinda of vocal emission, which is verrrry different from male falsettists today. It is penetrating, silvery, yet mellow sound—never throaty or hooty.
One of these I have published before—the Quartetto Vocale Romano, who soprano was also a falsettist who had studied with Moreschi. The bass of the quartet is the same bass heard in the present quartet with Mancini. • Quartetto Vocale Romano [w/ a student of M...
Each of these soloists of these 1936 recording had, in his own time, been a student of the Schola Cantorum school for boys at San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome and had been steeped in the ancient practices of Roman vocal style and choral singing. They each variously held positions as soloists and choral singers for the Sistine Chapel, Cappella Giulia, the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, in the Quartetto Vocale Romano and/or the official pontifical soloist quartets.
Domenico Mancini (age 45) – soprano
Eugenio Travaglia (age 61) – contralto
Armando Fantozzi (age 32) – tenor
Augusto Dos Santos (age 55) – bass
Maëstro Armando Antonelli (age 50) – organ
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This channel is primarily about vocal emission—aural examples of basically correct singing, correct impostazione—chiaroscuro, vowel clarity, firm and centered pitch, correct vibrato action, absence of throatiness or thickness, sounds free from constriction and from the acoustic noise that accompanies it—with occasional video examples that demonstrate what the body, face, mouth, jaw, and tongue look like when used with correct impostazione—the vocal emission of the one and only Italian school.
Caveat: I'm biased in favor of baritones and baritone literature, but if you want to learn about and listen to all the greatest singers in the old-school tradition, explore this spreadsheet (voice parts are separated by tabs): https://bit.ly/2W4qmE3
#DomenicoMancini #Falsetto #HeadVoice