Castrati singers – Castrated in order to keep their voices at a higher pitch

[Kazimiera]

Castrati singers – Castrated in order to keep their voices at a higher pitch

Source: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/...ce=penultimate

In the 17th and 18th century the Pope banned the use of woman singers in church music or on stage. This decision led to the castration of boys as a means to keep their voices at a higher pitch.

Singers were castrated before reaching puberty when they were about 9-years-old, allowing their young voices to carry on through adulthood. After the castration, they underwent a long period of voice training.

The practice of castration first appeared in the poorest areas and among the poorest families.

At the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century many families in Italy faced starvation, and castration offered the opportunity for a better life which is why poor families would often volunteer at least one of their sons for the process.


Portrait of Blessed Pope Innocent XI. He banned women from appearing on stage in 1686

Officially church law banned the amputation of any organ unless it was necessary to save a person’s life, and this is why castrated boys often seemed to have met with curious accidents like pig attacks, or gored by wild boars.

Castration was a very stressful procedure for a child and many children died of stress and infection.

Boys with promising voices would be taken to a back-street barber-surgeon and the child was placed in a very hot bath of water with special herbs and spices, the boys were doped with opium since there was no anesthetic.

They would squash the testicles and then remove them by slitting the groin and severing the spermatic chord. By undergoing castration, the men gave up all chance of a family life.


Bloodletting-Set of a barber-surgeon, beginning of 19th Century. Markisches Museum Berlin.

The number of castrated boys during the 17th and 18th century in Europe was about 4,000, but not all of them became famous opera singers and only a lucky few hit the big time.

The very few top castrati had careers like modern rock stars and they were famous and performed in the opera houses all over Europe. The rest of them that weren’t good enough to make a career in opera joined church choirs.

The most famous castrati was Farinelli, whose voice ranged over three octaves. Farinelli was able to prolong a note for a full minute without taking a new breath.

Farinelli was paid huge fees to perform, and he did so for most of Italy’s many princes and minor royalty. He also performed in France and England.


Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922) He was the only one to make solo recodings. This photograph was taken about 1880.

By the end of the 18th century, fashions in opera had changed so that the castrati declined except in the Vatican, where the Sistine Chapel continued to employ castrati until 1903.

Alessandro Moreschi was the last castrati who died in 1922 aged 64. In his prime, he was known as the “Angel of Rome”. Some recordings of him singing in 1902 still survive.

[Kazimiera]

Alessandro Moreschi, one of the last castrato singers, was the only one who had his voice recorded

Alessandro Moreschi was a castrato singer in the late 19th century. It is unknown when he was castrated, but it is thought to have been around 1865.

The practice of castrating vocally-talented young boys was carried out well before they reached puberty.

These young singers were castrated so they never went through puberty and their voices never broke, keeping their sound pure. It is thought that Moreschi’s singing abilities were noticed by Nazareno Rosati, who acted as a scout searching for boys whose singing voices were perfect for choirs and solo performances.


Alessandro Moreschi

Moreschi became a pupil of the Scuola di San Salvatore in Lauro. His teacher was Gaetano Capocci, who used to be the maestro di cappella of the St. John Lateran Church. Aged only fifteen, Moreschi was made the First Soprano in the choir in the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran, and he also sang as a soloist in groups hired by Capocci to sing in salons where Roman high society gathered.

These groups were often called the “Pope’s singers”, and Moreschi was a great attraction at these events. In 1883, he was presented in a special showcase in Italy, singing the coloratura role of the Seraph in Beethoven’s oratorio Christus am Olberge.

Just on the strength of that performance he became known as l’Angelo di Roma. Soon after, having been put through challenging auditions by all the members of the Sistine Chapel choir, he became their First Soprano. He held that post for the next thirty years.

When he joined the Sistine choir, there were already six other castrato members there, but none were as capable as Moreschi at sustaining the taxing soprano work. It is thought that his standing often went to his head, as he liked to parade around after performances wearing a white scarf like a peacock waiting for praise.

The Sistine Chapel Choir was run by traditional methods and rules that were centuries old. So when the senior castrato retired in 1886, Moreschi became the director of soloists. In 1891, he was segretario puntatore for a brief time, looking after the day-book of the choir and recording their activities. The next year, he became maestro pro tempore, which was mainly an administrative post that covered such things as granting leaves of absence and calling choir rehearsals.

He also was responsible for making sure the choir followed correct procedures in its duties in the Chapel. It was a time of great upheaval in music, and there was a fight to revert church and choir music back to the traditional Gregorian chants.


Young Alessandro Moreschi

During the spring of 1902, while living a few minutes’ walk from the Vatican, Moreschi made his first singing recordings for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company of London. Between then and 1904 he recorded seventeen tracks in total.

Until 1913, Moreschi was officially a member of the Sistine choir; he was fifty-five years old and able to take his pension as he had sung in the choir for thirty years. Castration of boys for singing purposes had been banned in Italy from 1870, so no young castrato was being accepted into the choir. Moreschi died at the age of sixty-three. His singing, which can be found online, is different from what is produced today. He is a unique voice that wonderfully reflects the tone and musical sound of the era in which he lived.

[Kazimiera]

Castrati singers: Castrated in past centuries in order to keep their voice at higher pitch

Source: http://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/0...-higher-pitch/

Hitting a perfect high note without straining your voice is what every vocalist dreams of. While this might look easy for tenors such as Jose Carreras or Placido Domingo, there are many others struggling with the high notes.

There is no doubt that it is impossible for anyone to increase his or her voice range overnight and it is safe to say that becoming a proficient singer, one who could easily travel from high to low notes at will, requires years of practice, focus, dedication, and many sacrifices.

We’ve all heard many bizarre stories about the sacrifices made by different artists for the sake of their art and what we’ve learned so far is that art is not something for the weak willed or the comfort chasers. However, not many artists have gone as far as the castrati, who made an irreversible sacrifice with the goal of keeping their voice at a higher pitch.


José Carreras

Castration has been practiced since ancient times–many powerful rulers would castrate the slaves who worked in their harems. But beginning with the 16th century, castration became the ultimate sacrifice for music, making it possible for many men to preserve their high and pure, youthful voices.

Even though the Catholic Church officially disapproved of the removal of organs except to save a person’s life, in the 16th century it would seem that the Vatican encouraged the castration of choir boys. Certainly, from 1599, many castrati singers were admitted into the papal choir. Several decades later, when Pope Innocent XI banned women from appearing on stage, castrati were also recruited in many opera houses throughout Europe, with some of them becoming as famous and rich as modern-day rock stars.


Plácido Domingo

Most of the Italian boys who underwent this quite uncomfortable procedure never reached stardom, but those who did were so popular and earned so much money that many poor families in Italy had their sons castrated, hoping that one day they would also become famous opera stars and would bring prosperity to the entire family. It has been estimated that during the 17th and 18th centuries about 4,000 Italian boys were castrated each year.


The castrato Carlo Scalzi, by Joseph Flipart

Church choirs were common at the time in Italy and those boys who showcased a particular singing talent would sometimes undergo the process of castration. Most of them went under the knife at the age of nine, before reaching puberty.


Francesco Bernardi, known as “Senesino”

We can all assume that the procedure was quite shocking and stressful for any child, especially when we consider the fact that there were no anesthetics available and the backstreet barber-surgeon from the village was in charge of the procedure.

Of course, something had to be done to reduce the pain. According to several sources, they may have been given opium, or simply bathed in milk or cold water before the castration expert could start removing their testicles. Compressing the carotid artery until the child was close to unconscious was also a common method of anesthesia. Considering the circumstances under which these barber-surgeons worked, it comes as no surprise that many of the children did not survive the procedure. The change in hormones deeply affected those who did survive, and they were usually quite tall with long limbs and ribs, had no facial hair nor Adams apple, and in most cases they had weight problems.

Successful castration did not necessarily mean that a star would be born and the next step was the rigorous training. This meant that the boys underwent hours of singing and studying before they could finally make their debut. But only a few of them would go on to perform at opera houses throughout Italy. Most of the castrati would join church choirs.


Portrait of Farinelli by Corrado Giaquinto (c. 1755)

There were many castrati who left their mark and drove European audiences wild, but none of them could match the fame and success of the great castrato Farinelli, arguably the most famous opera singer who ever lived. From Rome and Viena to London, Farinelli was adored by European audiences. He became extremely famous and wealthy. If you want to learn more about Farinelli and his success story, we would highly recommend the 1994 biographical movie of the same name.

By the end of the 18th century, castrati had fallen out of fashion. By 1870 Italy banned castration for the sake of art, but in the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel continued to employ castrati until 1903. Alessandro Moreschi was the last castrato to perform and the only one recorded. Known as the “Angel of Rome,” Moreschi was reportedly applauded by crowds who yelled, ” Eviva il coltello!” (“Long live the knife!”).

[Bruchus]

Moreschi's voice sounds bizarre.

[Loki]

These fucking Popes were evil. "Blessed" Pope my ass!

I remember when I was in primary school in South Africa, some teachers told us the Pope was the Antichrist.

[Dick]

These fucking Popes were evil. "Blessed" Pope my ass!

Why didn't they just get girls to sing for them but then again Papists were always into boys.

[Kazimiera]

Moreschi's voice sounds bizarre.

To me he sounds extremely sad. It is like he is wailing from some kind of inner torment.

These fucking Popes were evil. "Blessed" Pope my ass!

I remember when I was in primary school in South Africa, some teachers told us the Pope was the Antichrist.

Loki, you went a conservative Calivinist Afrikaans school. They would have told you anything there

Why didn't they just get girls to sing for them but then again Papists were always into boys.

Because girls and women weren't allowed to perform on stage during that time. So a whole host of poor boys got their balls chopped off in the hope of them becoming a "star".

[Jacques de Imbelloni]

Ombra fedele anch'io - Idaspe (1730) de Riccardo Broschi. Farinelli

I had found some interestings common places between these two movies:

Farinelli (1994) and Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006).

[Aodhan]

[Svipdag]

I have several original Moreschi recordings and I have come to the conclusion that it is not only the primitive recording technique of 1902, but also the style of singing common at the end of the 19th century which detract from the beauty of Moreschi's voice.

The way in which the notes are produced often gives to the voice a bleating quality which today seems unnatural and even absurd. Here and there, however, through the veil of artifice, shines forth the sound which is truly the voice of of an angel.