Walking to Babylon (with Derek Lee Ragin - Farinelli, Handel, etc)

[@simonewitney782]

Eerily powerful and beautiful .

[@AmandaTheBigBelieve]

Dreamy, haunting, stirring, surreal. Good luck Keith, Derek & everyone involved x

[@Loismustdie26]

Derek Lee Ragin's voice is one of the few voices which translates from it's classical training to something more pop-ie. Normally when opera singers try to sing something outside their genera it sounds wierd, but this fits.

[@dragin63]

Good job, Derek! I can't believe someone would question the fact that Blacks in opera are unusual. Just as Whites are a part of Rap and Black Gospel, Blacks are into Country, Heavy Metal and yes, Opera.

[@davidpayne697]

Some of the comments are... disturbingly racist, intentional or not. But this is amazing. Never heard a countertenor sing outside of opera. Thrilling!

[@KeithRodway]

Sadly, some of the comments are racist, intentionally or otherwise. I think one can only acknowledge that and move on. If you're not familiar with Klaus Nomi he is quite interesting. There are some good clips here on KZbin. Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed Derek Ragin's performance.

[@melanderson3371]

I was raised to believe that the only difference between races was color. It shocks me to see comments like "question the fact that Blacks in opera are unusual", etc. Mr. Ragin is no different than any other countertenor. Is it like this -- "wow Philippe Jaroussky is French". I didn't know the French could sing opera. Or perhaps "Farinelli was Italian. I didn't think that Italians could sing opera." An utterly ridiculous statement but why not? Italians have dark skin and hair. They could be different. And just because a black guy says the blacks are unusual in opera doesn't make it okay for me.

[@Gaseoushead]

@retinalscar What!!! "Who would've thought blacks could sing opera." !!!!!!!!! I hope that was your idea of a joke. Some of the greatest opera singers of the 20th Century were Black; Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Marion Andeson, Kathleen Battle, Portia White, William Brown, Wiliam Franklin, Robert McFerrin and Darron Flagg just to name a few.

[@retinalscar]

wow, i didnt know he was a black! who would've thought blacks could sing opera. well done to my black comrades, marvelous job derek et. al.

[@leerhode1021]

You don't get out much, do you?