Castrati
Castrati
Definition of Castrati
A castrati is a type of male opera singer who had their testicles amputated when they were young. When they became adults the testosterone hormones that usually would make a male’s voice very low wouldn’t affect them, so Castratis would keep their high-pitched soprano child-like voice. This emerged mainly because women in western European churches were not allowed into the choirs or they would have a male and female choir, so in need of sopranos, they discovered that by castrating men, they could develop an absolutely stunning voice. Another reason for this practice was that an adult castrato could produce as much sound as 3 children, meaning that this would be cheaper. The majority of the boys that were castrati were orphaned or abandoned children. The voice quality of a castrati is incomparable, yet we say that with a ton of questions, since as you can guess, eventually this practice stopped and not many recordings of a voice of a real castrati have survived.
One of the castrati we do have recordings of is Alessandro Moreschi, considered the last castrati. From Moreschi's recording, we can hear the uniqueness of his voice. His voice is not just soprano but sounds different from a female soprano. In my personal opinion, when you look at the picture of the adult castrati is when things start to feel wrong. The voice may feel modified, unnatural, as some sort of weird amalgamation, yet I cannot deny its beauty, and it makes something uncanny; it sounds familiar, yet out of place. I can definitely hear the sound of his voice used for some sort of horror media. Despite my perception of this, people in the Renaissance absolutely loved it. They perceive it as something divine and beautiful, and completely worth it for the sake of good art.
Hormones and the ability to sing like a Castrati
One thing I was curious about was the art of castrati in modern times, and if all the music pieces written for castrati voices are now lost in time. Obviously, Hormones are a massive part of the Castrati experience so then I became curious about transgender people who are singers, their experiences, and their singing abilities. I soon realized that the ability for trans singers to sing castrati would be impossible because most trans men take testosterone which deepens the voice, therefore, taking away the ability to sing castrati. I did find one man's experience, who is a professional singer who started testosterone, and how that affected their abilities. He had talked to many other trans men who said their singing voice was ruined after taking testosterone, so he put it off for a while and then decided to go for it. When he did, his voice dropped from a soprano to a tenor. This thankfully did not ruin the quality of his voice and he was able to continue singing.
It was a very beautiful story I recommend reading it!
Transgender Men, Testosterone, and Singing: Some Advice - Eli Conley
Now I am focused on if we can still have castrati singing or if the art is completely gone. The short answer is yes. The “making” of a castrati singer was made illegal in 1861 with the last true castrati singer, Alessandro Moreschi, dying in 1922.
There can be modern “natural” castrati singers, Kallmann syndrome may cause someone to have these abilities. It is a syndrome where the nerves in the brain that send signals to release testosterone are basically broken. Therefore due to this syndrome, men don’t go through puberty. But on the downside, they usually have a smaller lung capacity and it is difficult to perform the castrati parts due to that.
The characteristic of castrati singers I found the most interesting and shocking was that most castrati singers were very large in comparison to their peers. Almost 100% of the time they were over 6 feet tall and towered over their peers. Other characteristics were that they had big barrel-shaped chests and long thin limbs.
This is a very popular photo, where the man on the left is the castrati singer.
Farinelli
Along with the last castrati boy, Alessandro Moreschi, there was another really popular singer, Farinelli. Born January 24, 1705, in Italy and died July 15, 1782, Italy was one of the most famous of the Castrati singers. His real name was Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, his stage name came along after his debut. His debut was at age 15 in Porpora’s serenata Angelica. The news of his voice had spread from Italy, to Vienna, and to London and soon he became admired for his vocal expertise. In 1734 he joined Porpora in performing in more of his serenatas. Along with his vocals, he also composed twelve different pieces of music. In Rome, 1922, he won a duel against a trumpet player by holding a really high note for an extended period of time. After this win, his fame increased a whole deal. He then used his influence to increase musical efforts until he decided to settle down in his villa he had built in Bologna.
Consequences
Even though Castration didn’t seem like a bad idea in the 1800’s it did have many consequences to it and it also became illegal to do. Many believe that Castration just made the men sing as high as a soprano but singing took its toll on these men. “Pacchierotti’s cervical vertebrae were all strongly eroded with signs of osteophytic lipping in the body, because of osteoporosis and of continuous movements of head and neck during singing exercises, '' they wrote. These conditions can be considered as an occupational marker for the singers, as it was confirmed by Pacchierotti's vertebral conditions.” Castration also made huge significant changes to the body of these men. “Castrato were unusually tall, with a large barrel-shaped chest, infantile larynx, and long, spindly legs.” Another condition that these castrati developed was because of hormonal effects. “Researchers say the hormonal effects of castration led these singers to develop osteoporosis and disorders of the spine.” Gaspare Pacchierotti was a 19th century “extensive soprano” who was studied by researchers from the University of Padua in Italy. Castration made Pacchierotti stand more than six feet tall.” The analysis of Pacchiarotti’s bones confirmed the singer practiced a particular posture to optimize his voice. This posture, with the back of the neck, elongated to avoid tilting, lifting or stretching of the voice box and the extension or lifting of the jaw, ultimately led to the erosion of his cervical vertebrae.”
Sources:
Castrato Singers Today: Their History and Modern Equivalent (startsingingtoday.com)
Transgender Men, Testosterone, and Singing: Some Advice - Eli Conley
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Farinelli
https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/m013630
https://www.histouring.com/en/historical-figure/carlo-broschi/
This post was made by:
-Jesse Garcia
-Grace Karns
-Destiny Cyr
-Piero Ramirez