What To Do With A Boy Soprano

[bvy]

My son, 12 in April, sings pretty well. He's been in a professional local ensemble for almost five years and recently performed a short solo at a Jewish music festival here. He and his voice coach have explored most of the repertory: "Pie Jesu" (Faure and Weber), Adonai (Bernstein), parts from Bernstein's Mass. He even performed Britten's Canticle "Abraham and Isaac" in a casual recital with tenor and pianist.

I'm interested in some of the lesser known gems for boy soloist. I know Britten wrote a lot for this voice part (did the treble in Albert Herring sing anything memorable, or was it mostly recit?). We're also exploring Rameau's Hymne a la Nuit. What else is there?

Also, I'm wondering how to explore and discover opportunities for boy soloist. More than anything, I'd like some professionally produced recordings of him (clock's ticking), but I'm not sure how to go about that either.

Thanks for anything!

[Lilas Pastia]

Speaking of Britten, A Ceremony of Carols should be on his menu, either as a soloist or as part of the treble ensemble. A beautiful work. Mahler's 4th symphony has a soprano finale, but it's been sung by boy soloists (under Bernstein). And if he's really good, Allegri's Miserere.

[bvy]

Thanks for the feedback. We're checking out "For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffrey" from Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb. Easy to perform with solist and organ. Now I need an inexpensive recording set up or something I can rent.

[M forever]

"For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffrey"

That sounds like it is from a Monty Python sketch.

[Holden]

Time for your son as a soprano is short - at 12 he's going to hit the puberty blues quite soon. I'd concentrate on getting him a teacher who can develop his voice after it breaks. A number of excellent boy sopranos have had their voices compromised by trying to keep them in the upper registers for too long. Do him a favour and provide him an opportunity to develop his voice after it breaks.

[bvy]

Time for your son as a soprano is short - at 12 he's going to hit the puberty blues quite soon. I'd concentrate on getting him a teacher who can develop his voice after it breaks. A number of excellent boy sopranos have had their voices compromised by trying to keep them in the upper registers for too long. Do him a favour and provide him an opportunity to develop his voice after it breaks.

Certainly that's the plan. And no one's pushing him to the breaking point, least of all his teacher. For now, he's comfortably in that range and willing to try some new things, so I'm simply helping him explore. (And it's only the "proud father" in me that wants something captured on tape for posterity.)

[pjme]

Britten's "Missa brevis"

and there's another "Pie Jesu" by Lily Boulanger


P.

[scarpia]

Also, I'm wondering how to explore and discover opportunities for boy soloist. More than anything, I'd like some professionally produced recordings of him (clock's ticking), but I'm not sure how to go about that either.

There are recording labels which will produce recordings for a fee, employing engineers and producers in various geographic areas.  You pay for production, royalties for any sales are shared by the label and the artist.  One example is MSR. 

http://www.msrcd.com/
http://www.msrcd.com/mission.html

[M forever]

Time for your son as a soprano is short - at 12 he's going to hit the puberty blues quite soon.

I don't know much about the subject, but I read somewhere that if the boy is castrated, his voice stays like that. Maybe that would be an option here to extend his soprano career.

[techniquest]

It's a long shot, and may not be what you or your son are looking for, but I know that both Bernstein and Nanut have performed Mahlers 4th with a boy soprano rather than female singing the solo part in the final movement. The Nanut version was sung by Max Emmanuel Cencic and is absolutely delightful; the Bernstein was sung by Helmut Wittek and is less so. Good luck.

[M forever]

What do you find "less delighting" about Bernstein's recording? BTW, Wittek is now an engineer for Schoeps microphones.

[(poco) Sforzando]

That sounds like it is from a Monty Python sketch.

No. It is from Jubilate Agno, a wonderful poem by the 18th-century British poet Christopher Smart, who was confined (probably unjustly) to an insane asylum during its composition:

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1945.html

[mn dave]

I'd like to know what to do with a drunken sailor.

[Drasko]

I'd like to know what to do with a drunken sailor.

Two options really:

1) Give him piano to play and advertise him as The New Paderewski
2) Shanghai him.

[mn dave]

Two options really:

1) Give him piano to play and advertise him as The New Paderewski
2) Shanghai him.

Thanks!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks!

Always the gentleman, is Dave.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I'd like to know what to do with a drunken sailor.

Wish I could find a larger image of Paul Cadmus's once-controversial "Sailors and Floozies," which hangs in the Whitney in NYC:


(A far cry from a boy soprano . . . )

[Dax]

This may be of interest

http://musicalpointers.co.uk/other/simon_lps.htm