I have a new CD on my machine and, even though I wasn’t going to post a blog today, I couldn’t help letting you all know, if you don’t already, about an amazing new voice on the operatic scene. The young Australian countertenor is, well, frankly, sensational and his debut album is just out where he has recorded an amazing set of Baroque operatic arias written for the phenomenal castrato soprano Farinelli. David Hansen is a true soprano falsettist and his coloratura technique is peerless.

I’m playing this CD every day but if you don’t believe me about this guy, take a look at this video clip recorded this July in Folville, wherever that is. Bravo!

Meanwhile, I’m getting into gear for the imminent publication (in October 2013)  of my novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

You can already pre-order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20love

The post David Hansen, the latest countertenor sensation is actually sensational. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

I’ve been heads down writing this week and enjoying it. Sometimes I do get computer fatigue though and wonder what to do to revive my spirits. Often music is the answer but at the moment I’m involved in some “big” and truly wonderful pieces by Tchaikovsky and Brahms on my journey through the year 1878 and they can be just too absorbing and distracting to work as ‘interlude’ music. I can’t write if any music is playing, unlike some lucky people, but I have an addict’s passion for my music fix every day. The answer arrived in the post this week – a new album, ‘Venezia’,  by the astonishing Croatian countertenor, Max Emanuel Cenci singing operatic music from Venice at the time of that most popular of composers, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). I have always been a fan of Barque vocal music and of the extreme technique required to sing this music originally intended for those castrated male singing stars of the 17th/18th Centuries known as Castrati. Mr Cenci arrived at my house exactly on time.

He was a boy soprano in the Vienna Boys Choir and then, after his voice broke, amazingly, he carried on singing soprano as a falsettist. Later he retrained as a countertenor and revealed one of the most exciting voices around at present. If you are one of those sad people who still can’t accept the male falsetto voice in this music, well, sorry, you’re gonna have to make another effort. This man is truly sensational.

I now take regular Vivaldi breaks and the writing is going swimmingly. Have a listen to this – ‘Io son rea dell’onor’ from the opera Argippo by Antonio Vivaldi. The video has some imaginatively chosen photographs by the artist known as Oltre il barocco.

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