threw myself into singing musical theatre. I also started playing in orchestras and wind ensembles. Oddly enough, trombone and euphonium were my instruments - the lowest end of the spectrum. But when I went through puberty, my voice simply didn’t drop.
 
‘I didn’t know what was going on. My voice was getting bigger and rounder and warmer, but I wasn’t losing my top notes. I tried to force my singing voice down into a male register. But I lost my voice and became really sick. Later I forced my speaking voice as low as I could, trying to talk like a man and be accepted as normal. By the time I turned 18 I finally said, “To hell with it, this is who I am, for better or for worse!”  This is my only voice -  I don’t have any other options.
 
‘I’m sure this must happen to plenty of men. The thing is, how many of them know anything about music? You do come across guys with high speaking voices. Pop singers like Michael Jackson and the Beach Boys have a different way of singing. They would have made great countertenors.
 
‘Now that I’m doing this, I hope more true male sopranos will emerge - it could only help. What James Bowman accomplished as a countertenor is exactly what I’m trying to do as a male soprano. For the first time he gave validity to his voice type on operatic stages and in major concert halls. That’s exactly the challenge that I have ahead of me – it’s fun, interesting, and exciting, but sometimes scary!’
 
Notwithstanding his unique voice, Maniaci had a solidly traditional music education. ‘Juilliard wouldn’t accept me as an 18 year old because I was too weird for them. But when I returned to audition as a graduate student after five years at the Cincinnati Conservatory, there were by then a number of internationally successful countertenors, so they thought, “Maybe that’s what he is, so, okay, we’ll take him.”  They were very supportive and gave me a full scholarship. I started working with Marlena Malas, and still do. So my technical approach has been that of any soprano.’ Maniaci also studied for a summer at the Banff Centre with the prominent University of Toronto teacher, soprano Mary Morrison. ‘She’s a lovely, lovely lady. I had a fabulous experience working with her.’
 
Maniaci first worked with Tafelmusik when he sang Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Opera Atelier in 2003, the year he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
 
‘I absolutely love coming to Toronto. The music scene here is fabulous.Tafelmusik plays with a genuine, non-jaded intent. They have remarkable passion and glorious style. To be able to make music with them is a gift - especially because most of my career so far has been with mainstream opera companies, using modern instruments.
 
‘I haven’t had the opportunity to do much concert work. I’ve sung with modern orchestras at Carnegie Hall, in gala concerts, and on the Met stage when I won the prize. But this is the first serious concert work I’ve done with a baroque ensemble playing period instruments. I’m on cloud nine.’
 
All the works on Maniaci’s Tafelmusik program were written for castrati. ‘Mozart is an interesting case because he wrote for both castrato and countertenor. When he was quite young castrati were still in vogue. Shortly thereafter audiences started rejecting them, and they had a depressing demise.’
 
As the only man who can sing the soprano motet Exultate Jubilate today, Maniaci feels his voice best represents what Mozart would have wanted, since he wrote it for a man. ‘It’s too high for countertenors. Countertenors do the alto castrato roles. But I specialize in soprano and high mezzosoprano castrato roles that countertenors can’t sing. My voice is so much higher. These works go up to soprano high C, though I can go even higher. But the high C that’s often sung at the very end actually wasn’t written by Mozart, so Jeanne (Lamon) has specifically asked that I not do it.’ In the concert Maniaci popped it up when they repeated the final Alleluja as an encore.
 
The two opera roles represented on the program, Sifare in Mitridate and Cinna in Lucio Silla, are both young men. ‘I love these roles, and they feel wonderful. They are hard to cast because they are high for mezzos, but many sopranos don’t want to touch them because they dip too low. That’s where singers like Cecilia Bartoli  flourish. But until me there haven’t been any men who could perform them. No countertenor could.
 
‘ My voice is quite sizable. In rehearsal Jeanne Lamon, the violinist-leader of Tafelmusik, went into the house to listen to levels. She laughed and told the orchestra my voice was covering it up, so they should play much louder. That actually makes it much easier for me. The more support I feel from the orchestra, the more I’m buoyed by that energy.’
 
Maniaci travelled to Houston Grand Opera and Cleveland Opera with Opera Atelier. He’ll be back in Toronto with them in April. ‘I love Opera Atelier to death. I wasn’t turned on by them initially as a concept. I thought they would be academic and boring. But from the moment I met Marshall Pynkoski and had some rehearsals with him I was thrilled. Their style isn’t bound to a treatise or stuck in a museum – it’s living and breathing, with honest, genuine emotion. He and Jeannette Zingg use a specific, informed style, but it’s always directly associated with the text to bring out the drama and the subtexts. To see audiences in places where they don’t have an established relationship, such as Houston and Cleveland, go just as crazy as Toronto audiences is proof positive that the style absolutely speaks to a modern audience.
 
‘The mainstay of my repertoire will always be the baroque. But I have fantasies of performing the pants roles that were written later for women. I’m one of the very few men who ever could do these roles. You would think there would be an explosion of desire in having
a guy play a young man like Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro or Siébel in Gounod’s Faust, but actually that hasn’t been the case. The resistance isn’t from the audiences or the critics, it’s from the company heads and artistic directors.
 
‘Last year I had the chance to play Cherubino for Pittsburgh Opera, which was a dream come true. I’d been dying to sing that role forever. It was because of Christopher Hahn, the artistic director. He is a great modern artistic administrator because he takes risks, and truly trusts in the intelligence of his audiences.
 
‘Cherubino is a perfect role for me. If I didn’t feel that way, I wouldn’t touch it. As an artist I’m not dumb enough to put myself forward for any role I don’t think I can properly serve.  So why shouldn’t I do it? Especially since it was a huge success for the company. The audiences went insane - because they saw a boy playing a boy. There was no disconnect.  I don’t think most countertenors should be singing the role - it should be a case by case basis. But if your voice and style are appropriate, then why not?
 
‘The argument that Mozart never intended a man to sing Cherubino doesn’t make sense.  Handel never intended the title role of Julius Caesar to be sung by a woman – or a countertenor, for that matter. It was written for alto castrato. But when you hear Daniels or Scholl sing it, it’s obvious that is exactly what they should be doing.
 
‘I would love to do Richard Strauss’s Octavian. That would be an even greater leap of faith for people - but why not? For the curtain to come up at the top of Der Rosenkavalier to show an actual man in bed with the Marschallin would be dramatically so interesting. I can create a wholly believable character.
 
‘It’s been more challenging than I thought it would be to convince companies to give me opportunities…..’ Here Maniaci becomes upset, and his voice breaks up.
 
When he first started his career, he was concerned about the mild facial palsy that affects one side of his face, but it has motivated  him to hone his dramatic delivery. In fact, his lopsided smile just adds to his charm and attractiveness.
 
‘The exciting thing for me is the response I get from audiences. That’s how I know what I’m doing is valid, and that’s when companies figure out it’s valid. I just made my debut with Boston Baroque playing Nerone in Handel’s Agrippina. When I first auditioned for them about four years ago they felt Boston wasn’t ready for a male soprano. This is a city steeped in a brilliant baroque tradition - you have countertenors singing there all the time. Finally they thought, “Okay, Nerone, he’s crazy, evil and weird, so maybe it’s all right to hire this guy.” I did it, the audiences went insane, the critics were wonderfully supportive, and they instantly asked me back.
 
‘There are baroque conductors and directors in Europe who still refuse to grant me an audition. When they hear “male soprano” they expect a terrible falsettist who forces his voice very high because he can’t make it as a countertenor. The biggest challenge is convincing them that I’m valid. They get it when they hear me, but often times it’s challenging just to get heard.’
 
Last year he sang Nireno in Handel’s Julius Caesar with the Royal Danish Opera. Scholl was Caesar. ‘Andreas was unbelievable - you listen to that man make music and your entire body goes to putty. He’s a brilliant human being - one of the sweetest people you could meet. After he heard me do my aria, he said, “O, mein Gott! You really are a soprano! But you have a hard road ahead of you, because everyone thinks male sopranos are these terrible countertenors that cannot sing. You are the real thing. But, oh, it’s going to be hard.”
 
‘And that perfectly summarizes my experiences in convincing people that what I do is valid, and that there can be a good, legitimate male soprano. If Mozart were sitting here right now and I sang these  arias to him, I’m convinced he would put me up on stage.’
 
Maniaci sings Speranza in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Opera Atelier from April 15 to April 23 at the Elgin Theatre.

 

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