Anthony Roth Costanzo: How You Get High — live event on Oct 21, 2026

Anthony Roth Costanzo: How You Get High

Anthony Roth Costanzo: How You Get High at National Sawdust, Brooklyn on Wed, Oct 21, 7:30 PM. Lineup, start time and tickets on Ckord.

The sound of a countertenor—often described as ethereal and otherworldly—is both familiar and foreign. It is a high voice close to what we might expect from a female opera singer. Though we recognize the range from contemporary pop music and cartoons, from Michael Jackson to Mickey Mouse, experiencing its penetrating power unamplified in an opera house can be surprising, elemental, and profoundly moving. In Countertenor, Anthony Roth Costanzo, one of the world’s leading opera singers, takes us on a journey through his life, his education in art, and the history of his extraordinary voice type. Countertenors, he tells us, have helped define contemporary opera for more than half a century, having inherited a repertoire originally written for castrated men in the baroque period. Part oddity, part divinity, the castrati were surgically altered before puberty. They are key to understanding the development of opera as a form, from its very origins to its expansion in the public sphere. The striking beauty and sheer otherness of the high male voice provide fertile ground for creative invention and innovation, evocatively challenging conventional notions of gender, sexuality, and identity. With wit, humor, and an irrepressible, irresistible energy, Anthony Roth Costanzo offers fascinating insights into the contours of the countertenor and his own extraordinary artistic career as both an opera singer and a savvy producer and curator. The result is a lively and stirring account of an art form in flux, in constant reinvention, of the excitement of new, boundary-pushing work, and of the development and triumph of a remarkable, uninhibited voice. Click here to purchase Anthony Roth Costanzo's book Countertenor (out October 27 via Farrar Straus, and Giroux), and his companion album of the same name (out October 23 via Nonsuch Records). This performance is made possible thanks to the generous support of Ann Ziff. This performance features mixed standing and seated room. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email [email protected].

Starts: Wed, Oct 21, 7:30 PM

Ends: Wed, Oct 21, 9:30 PM

Where: 80 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11249, United States

Venue: National Sawdust

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View Anthony Roth Costanzo: How You Get High on Ckord