Vocal Fachs in Early Opera & The Rise of the Castrato
In this hour long presentation led by Liz Kiger, we will touch the surface of vocal fachs in Baroque opera across various countries and the different characterizations preferred for specific vocal colors & range, in particular highlighting the roles portrayed by castrati singers. We will then use this as a jumping off point to deep dive into the history of the castrati, the zeitgeist of their creation, the different procedures, the after effects, and the success of a few specific performers.
Liz Kiger is a Turkish-American non-binary soprano and opera director specializing in Baroque performance practice. They are the founder and director of the Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society, one of the first primarily digital opera companies, focused on providing queer emerging artists with opportunities reinterpreting Baroque operas as feature films, thereby bringing opera to new audiences through inclusion and accessibility. They are currently Director in Residence for NJ’s Opera Atlantic and have previously taught as an adjunct professor of early vocal music at Columbia University (where they conducted Collegium Musicum) & New York University. They have most recently directed The Eleusinian Rites: Persephone Immersive by Soyoung Hwang & Abe Amy Chang, an immersive theatre & queer retelling of the Persephone myth this October in NYC. They also won Best Music Video at Short Sweet Film Festival on the Lower East Side for their version of Mozart’s Porgi Amor starring GaDa Lambert this past September. Liz is currently working as a freelance theatrical & opera director, voice teacher (with specialization in working with vocal pathologies), and violin teacher.