Meet the countertenor on a mission

NEW YORK — Jordan Rutter-Covatto is a professional countertenor based in New York.

People who hear him perform for the first time are sometimes surprised, because his singing voice is much higher than they expected.

“The simplest way to describe a countertenor is to say this: In opera, he’s a man singing in a woman’s range,” Rutter-Covatto said.

Countertenors often have tenor or baritone chest voices, but sing in falsetto or head voice much more often than with their chest voice, giving them their unusual range.

Rutter-Covatto explains that when he was in college, he studied and performed as a baritone. He sang well, but his voice teacher actually recommended that he not consider a career as a professional opera singer.

But one day, “when we were doing some warm-ups, he started hearing something and asked me if I had ever considered singing as a countertenor,” Rutter-Covatto said.

He tried it. The results were not just good, they were exceptional. And his teacher’s suggestion turned out to be life-changing.

“It was difficult for me because it forced me to let go of a lot of my own hang-ups about my masculinity,” Rutter-Covatto said. “But in exchange, I was suddenly in a place where voice was really commercially viable. And I ended up in New York at the Manhattan School of Music for graduate school. And I’ve been working ever since.”

Professional countertenors are rare and therefore sought after. But the amount of music written for them is limited, so Rutter-Covatto spends time creating new opportunities to perform.

He recently founded the arts collective Counter Codex with his husband, Vincent Rutter-Covatto, an artistic administrator at Opera America, a service organization that supports opera companies and related groups across the country.

Together, they staged an original production called POLYMATH, which premiered in March at the Cell Theater in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.

“The general idea of ​​the project was to deconstruct the form of a recital,” Jordan said. “I want to reclaim queer narratives. So we do classical music and horror. Those are two genres that have huge queer followings.”

In addition to several classic classics, POLYMATH featured a number of original songs.

Several were written by Rutter-Covatto for a fellow performer, the soprano Sydney Anderson, active as a soloist and producer in the New York performing arts scene. Others were written for the countertenor by a longtime friend and collaborator, the composer Joseph N. Rubinstein.

“It’s a pretty personal collaboration between me and Jordan,” Rubinstein said. “We talked a lot about this play and what we wanted, and we tried to find a subject that was important to both of us: the places where this world overlaps with the world to come.”

There was also a live reading of a horror story by writer Andre Salas, read by New York-based actor Saul Nache. And to accompany the entire production, pianist Mila Henry, specialized in contemporary music.

In keeping with the multimedia theme, there was also an exhibition of photographs by New York photographer GDM, who created portraits of Rutter-Covatto that adorned the walls of the performance hall.

And behind the scenes, Vincent Rutter-Covatto oversaw the entire production.

“Jordan, my husband, brings the artistic vision and I help bring that vision to life,” Vincent said. “We want it to be social, fun, thought-provoking and emotional. I want it to do everything that makes me love art. I want to provide that experience for every single member of our audience.”

The opening night, featuring several world premieres, was a sell-out and the house was packed for two additional performances.

Judging by the thunderous applause at the end of the shows, the duo seemed to have met, if not exceeded, their expectations.

“The more we do these shows, the more I realize I’m reaching an audience whose needs aren’t being met,” Jordan said. “When you take media, any media, and create it in a way that is welcoming and engaging, the appeal is there.”