Anthony Roth Costanzo, Jonathan Cohen & Les Violons du Roy

American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo has brought a sense of novelty and experimentation to the countertenor voice, performing contemporary as well as Baroque repertory. “The countertenor voice was the ultimate experimental tool for composers in the 18th century,” his collaborator Claire Chase told The New York Times. “And I think what Anthony is doing is making that tool, with its range and its versatility, viable for composers in the 21st century.” In addition to performing, he has been active as a producer and educator. Costanzo was born May 8, 1982, in Durham, North Carolina, but grew up mostly in New York. He began performing in musicals at age 11, and early in his career he performed in opera, in Broadway shows, and on popular song recordings as a backup vocalist (including for Michael Jackson). Unusually, his path to the adult countertenor voice led through pop falsetto singing as well as operatic training, and he never had to make the transition from a full-throated tenor voice to countertenor singing. Costanzo attended Princeton University, graduating with a music major in 2004 and moving on for a master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music. His distinctive voice along with several major awards — first place at the Opera Index Vocal Competition in 2008, a Grand Finals win at the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions the following year, and the top prize at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia in 2012 — helped him land major operatic roles quickly, in the U.S. and increasingly often abroad. Costanzo has appeared at most of the prominent U.S. opera houses, making appearances in three separate roles at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He has also performed at the Finnish National Opera, the Glimmerglass Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the English National Opera, and the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, as well as appearing with the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony in concert performances of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre. Costanzo has expanded the countertenor repertory forward and backward in time, frequently performing new compositions for countertenor and touring with Spanish early music specialist Jordi Savall. He is especially noted for collaborations with everyone from film director James Ivory (in a pasticcio, or compilation opera, about countertenors) to the fashion house Visionaire (on an art and music installation). Costanzo made his recording debut in 2018 with an album of music by Handel and Glass on the Decca Gold label. ~ James Manheim