Heavenly Voices

Castrati - these are those male singers whose bell-clear voices easily reach the pitches of the soprano, thus impressing the audience time and again. Max Emanuel Cencic and Philippe Jaroussky, two of the most important singers of our time, lead us through the Baroque era, when the practice of castration reached its peak with operas by renowned composers such as Monteverdi, Cavalli, Handel and Gluck, and artists such as Farinelli, Senesino, Caffarelli and Carestini were highly regarded. Today the countertenors take over the legacy of the castrati. Some of them have their say in "Heavenly Voices" - among them Jochen Kowalski, Andreas Scholl, David Daniels, Daniel Behle and Valer Barna-Sabadus. It is thanks to these heavenly voices that the opera repertoire is expanding and we are being given fantastic music that moved audiences to tears 200 years ago. In their documentary "Heavenly Voices" Gino Pennacchi and Alessandro Scillitani trace the phenomenon of the castrati. Pictures and engravings from that time, but also current concert footage bring us closer to this era and make history come alive.