Voice type in baroque operas. Except for a few very rare voices (such as the American male soprano Michael Maniaci or singers with a disorder such as Kallmann syndrome), singers called countertenors generally sing in the falsetto register, sometimes using their modal voice for the lowest notes. Historically, there is much evidence that the countertenor, in England at least, also designated a very high tenor voice, the equivalent of the French "haute-contre". Until about 1830, all male voices used some falsetto-type voice production in their upper range. Countertenor voices span a broad range, covering E3 to E5. Countertenor subtypes: Countertenors are often
Singing in the Dark name is "David") singing during a synagogue service. In one crucial scene in the movie, Leo imagines himself ascending the bimah of a ruined synagogue in Europe, singing the ancient Jewish prayer "El male rachamim" in memory of all the Jews who died in the Holocaust. By actually returning to the synagogue as a cantor, the film shows how he is restoring "the sacred music of a vanquished culture to a living Jewish community." The National Center for Jewish Film notes that this "important and virtually unknown independent film" is one of the first American movies to focus on the