Male soprano (sopranist)
A male singer in the soprano range.
What it means
A sopranist, or male soprano, is an adult male singer who sings in the soprano range. He usually uses falsetto, which allows a higher range than the normal chest voice, or in rare cases a naturally exceptionally high voice.
The term thus denotes something different from the boy soprano, whose voice has not yet broken.
Musical use
Sopranists sing above all in early music and choral singing, for instance in ensembles that perform Renaissance and Baroque music in historical practice. Related is the countertenor, who however usually sings in the lower alto range.
Historically the word could also refer to castrati, who were castrated as boys to preserve their high voices and who sang the soprano parts in opera and church music in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This practice has died out; today the parts are taken by sopranists, countertenors, or women.
The sopranist should be distinguished from the soprano in the general sense, which also includes women and boys, and from the countertenor and the falsettist, a term that describes only the falsetto technique.
Performance practice
Build the upper range through clean falsetto technique and sing lightly and supported so the voice doesn’t become thin. Practice the transition between chest voice and falsetto deliberately so it stays as inaudible as possible.