If you don’t love countertenors (and some don’t) the opening weekend of the Aldeburgh Festival wasn’t for you – because it was a celebration of the high male voice, and demonstrated how diverse this kind of singing has become, now it’s no longer an exotic rarity.
Two totally dissimilar star countertenors were in residence, starting with Andrew Watts whose big, dramatic, fruity tone leans more towards contemporary repertoire than the expected Bach and Handel. And it was with contemporary music that he shone in two recitals, one of them a showcase for pieces specially written for him and including contrasted song settings (texts by John Donne and William McGonagall, if you can imagine such a pairing) by the quirkily sharp Anglo-Chinese composer Raymond Yiu.
