Geoff Castellucci

[igenlode]

I recently came across singer Geoff Castellucci and was very impressed. He is not just a spectacularly low bass singer but has a lovely upper range (he calls himself a baritone who happens to have a bass range) added to a soaring falsetto which means he can basically multi-track himself into an entire barbershop quartet. And he also happens to have an expressive, humorous face and acting talent to go with it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzlT80jQ3lo

Brilliant production of the "Oogie Boogie Song" from "Nightmare Before Christmas" (a film I don't even much like...) starring Geoff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiTguw5lBHM

[Edit: and "The Headless Horseman" as well. It's not just good singing, it's good performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rrg0ksSQdw ]


Also, Freddie Mercury sings soprano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gO8rPCBo8o
I was never much impressed by his famous collaboration with Montserrat Caballé (which just makes the artificiality of opera all the more incongruous), but this is astonishing -- this must be what the great castrati sounded like, neither the ethereal tone of a counter-tenor nor the clarion ring of a tenor, but the soprano range with a full male physique behind it.

Comments

[erimia]

Ah, I remember coming across the video of Castellucci singing "Sixteen Tons". Basses are not my thing, but he is impressive.

[igenlode]

YouTube recommended me that video after I'd watched some hip-hop singer being totally bemused by the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" (and completely misinterpreting the lyrics; even at ten I knew enough to guess that it wasn't his brothers and sisters the protagonist was singing about, and that the House of the Rising Sun was a bad place...)

After that I was sufficiently impressed to want to seek out more.