Sopranista
A sopranista is a male singer who uses special vocal techniques to perform music written in the soprano range. These techniques apparently require the use of only of a part of the vocal chords, and do not use the falsetto voice.
There is a quite large body of music written for male soprano, though this was written when it was common to use the services of a castrato. Sopranistas are very rare, and do not have the power of voice which a castrato would have had.
Present day sopranistas include:
A famous sopranista from earlier times was Giovan Battista Velluti[?], for whom Rossini wrote the role of Arsace in Aureliano in Palmir[?].
Velluti (in Italian) (http://81.72.160.202/corriereproposte/index.php/article/articleview/1699/1/18/)
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