What is Countertenor?
A '''countertenor''' is a male singer who uses a [[falsetto]] voice to sing high notes like a female contralto or mezzo-soprano. Countertenors were used a lot in the [[Renaissance]] and [[Baroque music|Baroque]] periods when females were not allowed to sing in church choirs. They did not have big, dramatic voices like [[castrato|castrati]], so they were not normally used in opera. People forgot about this way of singing in the [[18th century|18th]] and [[19th century|19th centuries]], although male altos continued to sing in English cathedral and church choirs. In the 20th century an English countertenor called [[Alfred Deller]] became very famous. He sang many songs from the Baroque period that had been written for the countertenor voice, for example songs by [[Henry Purcell]] who sang countertenor himself. Today there is a lot of interest again in using this type of voice for performing [[period music|early music]] like Renaissance and Baroque music. [[Category:Vocal ranges]]