The art of countertånors in a contemporary cultural space.
The aimof this paper is to reveal the relevance of countertenors’ art in the space of contemporary culture. Research methodology.The research is based on the works of Ye. Kruglova, G. Kaganov, R. Wistreich (authentic vocal performance), P. Barbier (the art of the castrati), Ye. Morozova, Simon Ravens, C. Vaughan, John Richardson, Colton Rh. (countertenors’ art, voice production technique); Steane J. and P. Giles, the authors of the fundamental article in the Grove dictionary and P. Giles, a practicing coun-tertenor, the author of three monographs on the art of countertenors. Results.Countertenor (or contra tenor, contratenore, contre-ténor) is a type of male voice whose vocal range is equal to the range of female contralto, mezzo-so-prano, soprano. The paper reviews actualization of countertenors’ art in the 20 th –21 st centuries culture. It is a privilege of countertenors to perform Baroque operas and orato-rios as well as some works of the first part of the 19 th century (operas by Handel, C. Monteverdi, A. Vivaldi, the parts of Cherubino and Idamante by W. Mozart, Orpheus by K. Gluck, etc.). In the 20th century A. Schnittke, L. Bernstein, C. Orff, B. Britten , P. Eötvös, D. Ligeti, Ph. Glass, etc. wrote for this voice. The art of the twentieth century is represented by several generations of countertenors: Al-fred Deller (Great Britain), Rassel Oberlin (USA), best known for the performance of Bach cantatas and pre-Bach music, Oberon and Apollo parts in B. Britten op-eras. The next generation of countertenors includes James Bowman, Paul Ess-wood (Great Britain), René Jacobs (Belgium), whose creativity is associated with the assertion of the countertenor’s role in the culture of the twentieth century, the appearance of discography, new works written specifically for this voice. A new generation – a British countertenor Michael Chance, Jochen Kowalski (Germany), Jeffrey Gall (USA), Derek Lee Ragin (USA), Gérard Lesne (France) – demon-strates a more spacious and timbrally diverse sound, the acutalization of the early French vocal music in addition to the traditional baroque repertoire, soundtrack recordings for films (Farinelli-Castrato). As for the next generation of singers – Brian Asawa, David Daniels, Bejun Mehta, Andreas Scholl, David Walker, Law-rence Zazzo – we should mention the emergence of new places in the world where art of countertenor singing is taught; the increasing number of premieres, concert performances, participations in international festivals; cooperation with conduc-tors specializing in baroque music. Finally, the work of modern countertenors of the new generation – Max Emanuel Cencic, Iestyn Davies, Christophe Dumaux, Franco Fagioli, David Hansen, Philippe Jaroussky, David DQ Lee, Cezar Ouatu, Xavier Sabata, Valer Sabadus, Terry Wey, Michael Maniaci, Jorge Cano, Aris Christofellis, Radu Marian, Jörg Waschinski, Ghio Nannini, Yuri Minen-ko – demonstrates the achievement of new levels of performance and expansion of the repertoire, the revival of interest in the music of A. Kaldara, J. Ch. Bach, N. Porpora. The paper also highlights some features of the countertenor’s voice physi-ology, since this is the most discussed aspect of modern research. Based on the interview with a countertenor Stanislav Kriuchkov, who studied in the class of the author of this article, the basic principles of the voice training are outlined: 1) gradual expansion of the vocal range; 2) vocal hygiene and voice care; 3) taking into account male physiology in the female type of sound production. Consequently, the study presented aims to reveal the role of the countertenor in contemporary music art which has been studied from the standpoint of historical specificity, cultural references of the modernity and sound production techniques. The historical perspective is connected with the return in the 20th century of sing-ers with high voices, which became known as “countertenors” (the name does not coincide with the known in polyphony definition of the voices accompanying the tenor, but it was accepted in the musicological environment). Actualization of the countertenor’s voice in the twentieth century relates primarily to the development of historically informed performance and return to the principles of performance, and therefore to the sounding standards adopted in the era when this or that com-position was created. And indeed, the most relevant repertory for the counterten-or is the baroque one. Nevertheless, the composers of the 20 th –21 st centuries try to create a new repertoire, which demonstrates the demand for voice within the framework of modern stylistics. The voice of the countertenor is the heritage of the present, and it certainly requires a more systematic study which explains the novelty and prospects for this direction in modern science. The practical significance.The practical perspective of the research is based on the results of the countertenor’s training at major lessons at Kharkiv I. P. Kotl-yarevsky National University of Arts