David Hansen is virtuosity and hassle-free / A. Gordeev / Vedomosti

Baroque, classicism, opera seria – these are complex, dramatic matters. In any case, they definitely lack a clear positive. The situation was corrected by a professional sportsman-surfer, and now a professional countertenor, who cuts through the expanses of opera music as radiantly as he used to furrow the ocean waves near the Australian coast. The surfer's earnings helped David Hansen get a European education, and now he is part of a cohort of singers who successfully perform around the world a repertoire once created for castrati deprived of the joy of a full life.

In the concert of the Philharmonic subscription “Stars of the World Opera in Moscow” on the stage of the Tchaikovsky Hall, Hansen also sang arias written for castrati, demonstrating an enviable breadth of skills. If the roles of Caesar in Handel’s “Julius Caesar in Egypt” and Gualtiero in “Griselda” by Handel’s rival on the London opera stage Giovanni Battista Bononcini were written for an alto castrato, then the role of Sigismondo in Handel’s opera “Arminius” is intended for a castrato soprano. However, Hansen convincingly performed in both roles, coping with both the range – in the second octave, it was as if another, purer and more resonant voice appeared – and with technical challenges.

Hansen compared Baroque with Mozart, singing the arietta and Cherubino's aria from The Marriage of Figaro - this is truly a rarity, because the part was written for a female voice - in a boyishly sweet manner. More conventional was the performance of Sextus' aria from La Clemenza di Tito. As an encore, Hansen entertained with a plaintive performance of Dido's Lamento from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and finished with a bravura aria from Handel's Ariodante.

The singer was matched in his skillful performance for the audience by the Greek conductor Georgiy Petrou, who performed orchestral numbers by Handel and Mozart with the Musica Viva orchestra.

David Hansen sang for Dido and Cherubino