David Hansen will be performing Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at the end of the month – as a woman. The silver-voiced countertenor tells Veronica Stivala he hopes that once any shock value subsides, audiences can sit back and enjoy what he does.
When David Hansen was once asked how he first came to the profession, the question made him revisit his schooldays.
In his reply, he explained how, although his mother claimed he had been singing from before he could even talk, it was a schoolteacher who pointed out his rare talent to him.
Following this revelation, Hansen’s mother took him to see a performance featuring (unusually) four countertenors. The Australian tenor recalls how he sat at the Sydney Opera House, sinking deeper and deeper into his seat as he listened to four men singing. As the voices that sounded like mezzo-sopranos (i.e. women’s voices) wafted through the air, Hansen gingerly thought to himself, “so this is what I am”.
The ‘virile’-voiced singer reiterates how “the realisation of wanting to become an opera singer came in my mid-late teens and is, fortunately, what I have been doing ever since”.
His choice of word – “fortunately” – is pertinent. One can imagine that a man singing with what essentially sounds like a female voice can result in some odd reactions.
“Audiences react differently to my voice every time,” Hansen says. This, of course, depends on what they have been exposed to. Either way, Hansen confides that “regardless of whether people are bewildered, amused, shocked or excited by my voice, I hope that once any shock value subsides, they can sit back and enjoy what I do”.
Enjoying his voice is perhaps putting things mildly; critics have spoken of Hansens’s “pure, agile countertenor (which) produced gleaming sword-like high notes and dramatic cascading scales” (Michael Shmith, The Age). Writing about his performance of Handel’s Arias, a critic in the same magazine describes of his “electrifying reading of Vivi, tiranno from Rodelinda, packed with fire, risky virtuosic flights and a breath control that bore witness to his ingenuity and stamina. Here is a young artist whose career is clearly on the up”.
Some Maltese who were fortunate enough to get tickets will have already heard him perform at last year’s Valletta International Baroque Festival at the Manoel Theatre. Music lovers this year are lucky enough to get a second chance at hearing this extra-ordinary voice at the end of the month, again at the Manoel, where he will be singing in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, the composer’s last opera.
The opera was written especially for the new Emperor Leopold with whom it, unfortunately, did not go down too well. Pietro Leopoldo had been grand duke of Tuscany for many years and Mozart thought that to get the kapellmeister job he sould compose in the antique, Italianate style. The empress, Anna Maria Ludovica, called it a ‘porcheria Tedesca’; Mozart’s hopes were dashed. Despite its cold reception, the opera remained popular for many years after its composer’s death and was even the first Mozart opera to reach London.
The role of Sesto will be performed by a woman on the two days when Hansen is not performing
This opera has a lot of firsts associated with it: this will be the first time La Clemenza di Tito has reached Malta, as well as Hansen’s first production in the same opera. It was also the first opera Hansen ever heard at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, with Anne Sofie von Otter singing the role of Sesto.
He is excited about his role as Sesto and explains: “I’m looking forward to reclaiming a wonderful, youthful role that has been sung by women for so long because there simply weren’t any countertenors technically equipped to sing such roles. It is exciting to think that, with the evolution of the countertenor voice, I am one of two countertenors singing Sesto this season. That just goes to show how far countertenors have come.”
In fact, the role of Sesto will be performed by a woman – mezzo soprano Sian Cameron – on the two days when Hansen is not performing.
Hansen’s voice is too extraordinary to not discuss further. Naturally, he has to be technically very strong to sing the way he does. What does his practising regime involve?
Hansen usually sings between three to four hours every day. He spends about 30 minutes warming up (which is probably longer than most singers, but this is because he is warming up muscles that, unlike other voice types, couldn’t be further from the muscles he uses to speak with). Explaining further, he notes: “Singing is all about muscle memory so I practise the way I do to keep those muscles both strong and flexible.”
Speaking about strength and flexibility, and his piercing blue eyes, readers may or may not be disappointed to learn that Hansen is married to a Norwegian lady. Although this is lost in English interviews, Hansen is fluent in Norwegian. In a You Tube interview made some time ago, he switches effortlessly between the two languages.
Despite the obvious connection, one cannot but wonder how an Australian counter tenor has come to live in Norway.
And this is precisely why: Hansen came to Norway in 2007 to perform Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Norwegian Opera. “It was there I met my (now) wife and just over a year later, I moved to Oslo and have been here ever since.”
La Clemenza di Tito runs between March 20 and 23 at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta.
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