Gender Stories – Gala Concert With Vivica Genaux & Lawrence Zazzo

In Italian opera, castratos were regarded as something perfectly normal.They originally sang the female parts, but from the 1630s at the latest, they took on more male roles. The female singers sang both parts. And if the opera role required that a woman should search for her beloved or relation disguised as a man, the criss-crossing gender game was complete. Baroque theatre audiences found these gender stories hilarious. With the magnificent mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, whose profound, warm timbre constantly gets her cast in male roles, and the US countertenor Lawrence Zazzo, this hilarity is transferred to a 21st-century context.