About My Job: The Baroque Countertenor

by Conor Friedersdorf

A reader writes:

Being a sort of lower level, highly-specialized professional classical vocalist is really fun (I sing mostly in smaller pro choruses and as a soloist in local concerts), but can be annoying. For example, whenever I tell anyone what I do, they try to helpfully summarize by declaring I'm an "opera singer," which I'm absolutely not. Then when I tell people that countertenors sing in their falsetto voices, they also helpfully summarize, "like a castrato?" No...