Gay Countertenor David Daniels at Chicago's Lyric Opera this Season

Published July 22, 2010 at 4:23 p.m.
A countertenor
is a male alto who sings with a falsetto,
a technique that until the 20th century was synonymous with castration. Countertenors, despite having their manhood snipped away from them, were enormously popular and essential to Baroque opera, a style that enjoyed its heyday centuries ago. In the last 50 years, the Baroque canon has become popular once again, and David Daniels has been leading the demand for countertenors for the better part of the decade.



Audiences are taken aback the first time they hear Daniels sing. He told TIME OUT CHICAGO ,  “I’m a guy with facial hair and pretty stocky and then you [hear] this high voice coming out. The comment that I hear is that most people are shocked, also I hear that it seems incredibly natural to my body and to who I am for the sound to be coming out.”


Daniels has also been credited as the first openly gay opera singer, something he typically shrugs off. “People have made such a big deal about me being the first openly gay, not really countertenor, but openly gay singer, in the press and on television, that type of thing…It’s not necessarily easy to be a gay man in any instance, [but] it has not been a difficult road for me in that way.”
Read more: Time Out Chicago

He joins the Lyric Opera  this season in the November production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as Oberon and will also be appearing in their  production of "Hercules" as Lichas in March 2011. Get Tickets Online...If you would like information about group tickets or have any further questions, please contact Joel Friend, Group Sales Manager, at 312.827.5927 or e-mail .



Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1966, David Daniels is one of the world's most respected operatic singers and has singularly broadened the appeal of the countertenor voice for contemporary audiences. Making his professional debut in 1992, he initially achieved renown as a superb interpreter of Handel and other Baroque composers. A charismatic presence in both opera houses and recital halls with unmatched vocal dexterity, Daniels continues to expand the countertenor repertoire with exciting forays into the works of Britten, Berlioz and Bernstein among others.


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