The contralto/male soprano is one of the most misunderstood voices in opera today. Here, I show what the older technique sounded like, compared to the modern "gurgle-y" sound of Marilyn Horne, Franco Fagioli, Cecilia Bartoli, etc.
My best examples of good female Contralto singing are Clara Butt are Sigrid Onegin. I also use, as examples of good lower-mid register singing, the soprani: Emma Calvé, Rosa Ponselle, Adelina Patti, Luisa Tetrazzini, Kirsten Flagstad. Of male soprano singing, my examples are a boy soprano voice (from the Regensburger Domspatzen), Jon Vickers (ahah!), Alessandro Moreschi, and the two "pop" singers Jeff Buckley and Klaus Nomi.
What is amazing is how much Moreschi (a real male soprano) sounds like older female soprani, especially Adelina Patti (lyric soprano)! And the coordination of chest/head voice is essentially the same in all of my "good" examples.
Also, a note about castrati – castrati were a (deplorable) "short cut" to achieving a male soprano. A male soprano does occur naturally (i.e. without mutilation!) , but very rarely – like any "extreme" voice, high or low. Obviously, castration for purposes of singing is a completely disgusting practise, but Moreschi (who supposedly was not castrated for the purposes of singing, but for medical reasons) still provides a good technical example of a real male soprano. Klaus Nomi is a good example of someone with a natural male soprano – he also can sing in a normal male register (quite low, more like a baritone than a tenor).
So it isn't as if one has to be castrated to sing like Moreschi – it occurs naturally, too. The male soprani who are bad examples could be taught to sing like him, just like a female soprano can be taught to sing like Moreschi – simply by using the same technique.
It is also interesting to note that Moreschi and Emma Calvé (excellent soprano) also shared the same teacher, the male soprano and director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, Domenico Mustafà.
