Contralto —Nathalie Stutzmann, alto & conductor; Orfeo 55 (Erato 520955)
Nathalie Stutzmann shines a light on the deep-voiced female singers of the Baroque era, often overshadowed these days by the extravagant talents and reputations of famous castrato singers like Farinellii. Her program of Handel, Vivaldi, Porpora, Bononcini, Caldara and Gasparini displays the variety of operatic roles – both female and male – assumed by singers of less renown like contraltos Vittoria Tesi and Anna Marchesini. “We must remember that the opera composers of the early 18th century saw the female contralto and the male castrato as vocally interchangeable,” says Stutzmann, “and that the voice most closely resembling a castrato is not the countertenor – produced using a falsetto technique – but the contralto, which is a natural voice.” This disc displays two sides of Ms. Stutzmann’s artistic gifts, as she both sings with and conducts Orfeo 55, the instrumental ensemble she founded more than a decade ago (and which had to disband in 2019).