Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

The second, and even greater, cause for the rise of the castrato was the coming of opera to the Italian musical scene early in the 17th century. Opera arose from the festive musical entertainments of the Renaissance Florentine court, and the first opera of importance, Orfeo (1607), resulted from the genius of Monteverdi in Mantua. The new musical drama spread rapidly to the main cities of Italy, where the opening of public opera houses, the first being in Venice in 1637, provided centres of entertainment, not just for the upper classes but for the general population. Initially, the most professional singers were found in church choirs so that it was natural that their castrati took operatic as well as religious roles. Later, when, outside the Papal States, women did take to the stage, many people still preferred the better-trained voice of the castrato in female roles. . .

Since the mutilating operation was illegal (despite the Church's employment of eunuchs in their choirs), the identity of the surgeons and where they came from were deliberately kept vague. All kinds of euphemisms were used to justify the existence of a particular castrato, such as disease of the testes or accidental injury--being gored by a wild boar was a common reason. During his tour through Italy in 1770 the English musicologist Charles Burney made extensive inquiries about the operation in Milan, Bologna, Venice, Naples, and Rome and received a complete denial in every place.

• Famous castrati
  
• The Age of the Castrato Voice (from NATS Bulletin)
  
• Superstars of Centuries Gone By
  
• Countertenor jokes