MIGUEL ULLA

"...Miguel Ulla approaches his interpretation with a pronounced dramatic intensity, closer to the operatic world than to the spiritual stillness of sacred music. At times, he sacrifices sonic beauty in favour of a moving and profound expression. His approach to these previously unpublished scores also reveals a dazzling sense of phrasing, with clearly defined vocal breaths, tenderly shaped by the performer with great care and a magical ability to captivate the listener."

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The Spanish label HR Recordings has an extensive and always interesting catalog. In the spirit of adventurous and richly rewarding repertoire, countertenor Miguel Ulla has released two discs of music by Leonardo Leo. It was a pleasure to speak with Miguel about this music, and what it means to him.

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"Countertenor Miguel Ulla emphasizes an introspective and detailed approach, with a focus on illuminating the text. Organist Javier Jiménez, and Fernando Reyes, performing on a variety of fretted instruments, are sterling collaborators. The unity of artistic vision is quite impressive..."

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“Given the sheer power and drive of Ulla’s singing here, it’s time to put to rest all the dumb jokes that have been made over the years about countertenors. Ulla is part of a new generation of singers that have made the countertenor as legitimate a vocal type for men as any other. Interestingly, the Cantata Editions publication of Sei Cantate Spirituali lists the vocal type as “alto,” but Ulla has no problem with the range and technical demands of this music..."

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“ …Ulla sings with the most perfect legato. He lives the music in both recitatives and in the more expansive arias, his voice velvety and pure. It is in the second aria of this cantata, “Tu mio dio che in duro legno” (To my God that in hard wood) that the depth of this music really makes itself known; and how Jiménez’s leaps to bass notes reverberate in emphasis”.

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"This album, entitled Handel in Italy: Vedendo amor, features Spanish countertenor Miguel Ulla, who manages [...] to create some significant differentiation even among predominantly lyrical singing in the three cantatas [...]. His collaborator, Fernando Reyes, skillfully performs solo instrumental pieces [...]. All in all, it is a different and, in small doses, somewhat refreshing way to experience this music and Handel's genius. Recommended."

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"Thanks to the dedication and passion of Miguel Ulla, Javier Jiménez, and Fernando Reyes, we can now enjoy for the very first time the complete collection of Leonardo Leo’s spiritual cantatas. This meticulous and beautifully crafted version allows us to fully appreciate all their delicacy and splendor, performed with exquisite sensitivity and skill."

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"Miguel Ulla has a nicely sonorous and quite clear voice, with excellent intonation and a good sense of the emotions of the text. His phrasing emphasizes the vagaries of the text, allowing Handel's often lyrical music to emerge with considerable sensitivity. While this set of works may make a short, perhaps even pithy program, this is one that is finely tuned and shows that Ulla has a great future in this sort of Baroque repertoire."​

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"Ulla's voice is full and particularly rich in its lower reaches, but not plummy. His voice is free, too, with no intrusive 'h's to the more florid passages. [...] Ulla offers an interior painting here, his decorations full of expression and pain. There is real dignity here."​

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"In the summer of 2025, the Galician countertenor Miguel Ulla released a new album, Handel in Italy, on the HR Recordings label. It is an album that spreads love contagiously. I spoke about the release and more with the promising Galician artist.​

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In this debut episode of Resonancias antiguas (Ancient Resonances), we explore the recording of Leonardo Leo's six spiritual cantatas, marking the world premiere recording of this collection. Featuring countertenor Miguel Ulla Berdullas, plucked-string specialist Fernando Reyes Ferrón, and producer Agustín Maruri, the program examines the performance practice and sound engineering behind this recording project—a project in which I participated, performing the basso continuo on the organ alongside Fernando Reyes Ferrón.​

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Countertenor Miguel Ulla has dedicated his latest album to his Galician homeland. This follows a precedent set last year with the release of Galician Lullabies, an exquisite selection of traditional lullabies and other childhood-related pieces, seasoned with instrumental tracks for the theorbo.​

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Radio Nacional de España reviews the latest in Early Music, highlighting new works by Agustín Álvarez (Corrette) and Alejandro Marías (Abel). The program places special emphasis on the Baroque period with the release of 'Vedendo Amor' (HR Recordings), an album where countertenor Miguel Ulla, alongside Fernando Reyes, performs Handel's Italian cantatas composed between 1707 and 1709.​

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“When meeting Miguel Ulla Berdullas, a young musician from A Coruña whose passion for Baroque music and for one of the most fascinating vocal registers of this period, that of the countertenor, led him to devote himself to singing, an overwhelming passion for what he does is revealed without disguise.”​

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“Miguel Ulla, an outstanding Galician countertenor, delights us with a delicious disc of Handel’s secular cantatas. Although there is an innumerable catalogue of fine recordings of this repertoire, the truth is that few singers dare to offer such a minimalist version of these works, consisting solely of a voice accompanied by plucked strings, theorbo, archlute and Baroque guitar used alternately.”​

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“Miguel Ulla has acknowledged that when he is able to choose repertoire, he allows himself to be guided by the emotion it produces in him, and this has probably led him to the Italian works of Handel that fill the tracks of the album. At just over twenty years of age, the Prussian musician arrived in Italy from Hamburg, according to some of his biographers such as Romain Rolland, invited by the Florentine prince Giovanni Gastone de Medici.”​

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​“The countertenor Miguel Ulla releases digitally three of the Sei Cantate Spirituale by Leonardo Leo, a Neapolitan opera composer with an attractive body of work that has been heard far less than it deserves, recorded here for the first time.”​

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“Ex Lumen is a selection of works that suggest to Miguel Ulla different aspects of the night. Thus, we find associations with the dream world in the arias by Bach and Gasparini, as well as the solitude and vulnerability to which the nocturnal hours subject us through Couperin’s music for Holy Week.”​

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“Although he began recording last year, his discography already amounts to four titles, two released in 2024 and two more within the short span of the current year. One of them, devoted to the Neapolitan composer Leonardo Leo, has drawn particular attention from specialised media by presenting a series of spiritual cantatas that had never before been recorded.”​

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“The Spanish countertenor Miguel Ulla talks to us about his new album, in which he performs six spiritual cantatas by Leonardo Leo.”​

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“In this new episode of El Café Vienés, we explore the fascinating world of the modern countertenor together with Miguel Ulla, a young Galician singer who is beginning to stand out on today’s stages. We address what it means to be a countertenor in the twenty-first century, how this vocal register has evolved from the Baroque castrati to become a pillar of contemporary opera, and the challenges and opportunities faced by an artist in this exceptional tessitura.”​

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“The pieces performed on this disc by Miguel Ulla belong to the manuscript held at the Royal Music Library under the shelfmark GB-Lbl, Add. 14112, which includes six cantatas labelled as ‘spiritual’. As Antonio Dell’Olio explains in ‘Se ‘l tutto è un’ombra e di vil terra un fango’. Giudizio e pentimento nelle cantate spirituali a voce sola di Leonardo Leo, 2024, the spiritual cantata is an expression associated with a text inspired by a biblical or religious episode, or one that may be purely invented, but intended to provoke a form of spiritual reflection.”​

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“The countertenor Miguel Ulla digitally releases three of Leonardo Leo’s Sei Cantate Spirituale, by a Neapolitan opera composer whose attractive body of work has been heard far less than it deserves, recorded here for the first time.”​

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"...Miguel Ulla. He sang both works by Dowland and Alessandro Scarlatti very well, with a high-quality voice. In the upper register, with his mouth fully open, he produces timbrally beautiful sounds with a flute-like colour...."

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