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Kylie Knott

In the world of classical music, some singing voices steal more of the spotlight than others.
Sopranos – female singers who reach impressively high notes – tend to be well-known thanks to divas such as Greek legend Maria Callas and Spanish operatic star Montserrat Caballé, while the Three Tenors (Italian Luciano Pavarotti and Spaniards Plácido Domingo and José Carreras) made people familiar with their voices’ register as well as changing the way they saw classical music.
Less familiar, however, is the countertenor – a male singer with a range above the tenor who can sing as high as a soprano. Stories about countertenors refer to theirs as “the rarest of all voice types”.
Hong Kong singer Kari Ding, who shifted from a tenor to countertenor in 2019, says it is a somewhat misleading label.












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“It is not so much that a countertenor is rare but that the style of singing is rarely pursued,” Ding says.
Consider a falsetto, he says of the voice used by male singers – in particular tenors – to sing notes above their normal range. Everyone, he says, is capable of hitting high notes but some choose not to.

“If you see a mouse running across the floor then you might let out a high-pitched scream,” says Ding, 25.
Ding, who holds a Masters in Musicology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, in Britain, and a BA in Music from the University of Hong Kong, also likes how countertenors defy audience – and societal – expectations.
People often link pitch with gender, he says. Many who hear a countertenor might assume they are listening to a woman.
“People expect females to have high voices and males to have lower ones – that happens often in our daily life,” he says. “It is not bad that a man might sing or speak in a high voice, or a woman in a low one; people just don’t expect it.”
There are many examples of male artists who have carved successful careers by embracing falsetto – and not just in opera.


American singer Justin Timberlake loves to go high, as did the late Michael Jackson (“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”), Prince (“Kiss”, “Soul Sanctuary”) and Queen frontman, rocker Freddie Mercury.
In the 1960s and 1970s, British pop trio the Bee Gees used falsetto for many of their songs, with “Staying Alive” a perfect example. Even Bruce Dickinson, lead vocalist of 1980s metal rockers Iron Maiden, hit some high notes.
The golden age for the countertenor, says Ding, was in the 15th and 16th centuries, when women were banned from performing on the stage, opening the door for men to fill roles that were typically reserved for women.
But sustaining a high pitch came at a high price – and a painful one.
To preserve the pure, angelic voices of prepubescent choir boys, they underwent castration – the removal of the testicles, often without anaesthesia. Known as castrati, they were the rock stars of their day.

According to a study, “Castrati Singers: Surgery for Religion”, published in the US National Library of Medicine, the training procedure to become a castrato singer was intense, lasting up to 10 years, with boys typically castrated before the age of nine.
When they grew up they had feminine characteristics, such as a smooth, hairless body, breasts, and an infantile penis, it says.
Italian Carlo Broschi, born in 1705 and better known by his stage name Farinelli, is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. He was a product of this unnatural practice, which ended in 1878 when, as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIII banned the church from hiring castrati.
Today, male singers, with the help of vocal training, can naturally lift their normal speaking voice by manipulating the muscles of the larynx and the position of the vocal cords.


The second half of the 20th century was also a boom time for countertenors, thanks partly to the popularity of British singer Alfred Deller – often referred to as the “godfather of the countertenor” – and of Russell Oberlin, dubbed by US magazine The New Yorker “America’s first star countertenor”.
The repertoire of a countertenor covers a wide range of Baroque and other early music, including works by composers such as Handel, Vivaldi and Monteverdi, Ding says.
“In Chinese opera, we have one called the Tale of the White Snake, where a green snake, the white snake’s companion, is played by a countertenor.”
There is also a growing number of contemporary pieces written for the voice. Ding cites Flight, an opera by British dramatist April de Angelis.
Based on Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri’s experience of being trapped at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years – which inspired Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film, The Terminal – De Angelis’ work was premiered in 1998 at Britain’s Glyndebourne Festival Opera with Scottish countertenor Christopher Robson in the lead role.


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Music

What is a countertenor? Hong Kong singer on how men hit high notes like a female soprano

Hong Kong countertenor Kari Ding trained as a tenor. He discusses how male singers can sustain the high notes like a female soprano. Photo: Kari Ding.

Kari Ding shifted from being a tenor to a countertenor in 2019. Photo: Antony Dickson

A portrait of Carlo Broschi, also known as Farinelli, a castrato considered one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Photo: Getty Images

The time Jiang Zemin outsang Pavarotti in Italian recalled in Hong Kong impresario’s book

Luciano Pavarotti signs autographs following his first concert in Hong Kong, in February 1990. In his memoir, John Duffus  (right) recalls the time Pavarotti sang a duet with Jiang Zemin in Beijing. Photo courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

Austrian President Thomas Klestil smiles while then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin sings with unidentified musicians during a banquet in Beijing in 2001, the same year he outsang Luciano Pavarotti in an Italian duet. Photo: AP

A career highlight for John Duffus was arranging a concert by The Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras) at Beijing’s Forbidden City in 2001. Photo: courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

John Duffus on the Great Wall of China in 1986, during the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s first tour of China. Photo: courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

A poster for the 1984 Coliseum concert Duffus arranged with Capital Artists featuring three of its most popular artists, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui and Lui Fong, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Photo: courtesy of Blacksmith Books 

Hip-hop and opera? Singer Jacub Jozef Orlinski is a breakdancing countertenor

Polish opera singer and breakdancer Jakub Jozef Orlinski in front of the Hotel des Invalides in Paris. Photo: Eric Feferberg/AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 07, 2019 Polish opera singer and breakdancer Jakub Jozef Orlinski poses for pictures in front of the Invalides (Hotel des Invalides), on November 7, 2019 in Paris. - Polish counter-tenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski, 29, is as at ease in sacred song as in breakdance. He embodies the most "millenial" of the operatic stars, fascinates as much by his angelic voice as by his pop-star side. (Photo by Eric Feferberg / AFP)

Polish opera singer and breakdancer Jakub Jozef Orlinski in his dressing room in Paris. He dreams of creating a hip-hop opera. Photo: Eric Feferberg/AFP

Tarmo Peltokoski, 24, named as HK Phil’s next music director. Why he ‘couldn’t say no’

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski is the new HK Phil music director. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, 24, has been named as the ninth music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, beginining in 2026. It was an appointment he could not refuse, he tells the Post. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, born in 2000, will be the ninth music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra when he takes up the post in 2026. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Soloists and conductor Jaap van Zweden with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and the Netherlands Radio Choir after a performance of Wagner in June, 2024. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

Jaap van Zweden during his final interview as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phi)

At 24, Tarmo Peltokoski is part of a wave of young conductors picked to lead orchestras. Among them, fellow Finn Klaus Mäkelä, 28, will become music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2025. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Peltokoski (left) and David Cogman, chairman of the board of the HK Phil, sign the contract that makes Peltokoski music director designate. Photo: Enid Tsui

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For centuries choirboys were castrated to produce countertenors. Not any more. Hong Kong singer Kari Ding explains how men hit high notes


We have heard of operatic tenors like Pavarotti, but what about countertenors? Hong Kong singer Kari Ding explains how men sing in the highest register, something achieved in the past by castrating choirboys.


Classical music

Performing arts in Hong Kong

The University of Hong Kong

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Explainer | What is a countertenor? Hong Kong singer on how men hit high notes like a female soprano

For centuries choirboys were castrated to produce countertenors. Not any more. Hong Kong singer Kari Ding explains how men hit high notes