![[castrato.jpg|250]] AKA castrati. [Wikipedia link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrato) (all quotes below taken from there). A male [[singer]] who was [[castrated]] before [[puberty]] – usually between 8 and 10 – in order to retain a high singing voice, as the [[larynx]] isn't changed through the usual effects of puberty. A rough estimate is that 4,000 were castrated *annually* in order to sing (this figure seems very high to me). Many were from [[working class]] backgrounds and were castrated by their family in the hope that they would make their fame and fortune. [[Senesino]] is an example of this. "Methods involved using [[opium]] to medically induce a coma, then submerging the boy into an ice or milk bath where the procedure of either severing the vas deferens (similar to a vasectomy), twisting the testicles until they atrophied, or complete removal via surgical cutting was performed (however the complete removal of the testicles was not a popularly used technique)." The pain relief often caused death. Often due to overdose of opium. Bizarely another way to help them avoid the pain was to strangle them to the point of passing out, but this could lead to their death (obviously!) The lack of [[testosterone]] meant that their limbs and ribs were unusually long. They were the first icons of the [[opera]], earning great wealth and fame. In Italy they started to appear in the mid-[[1500s]], reaching their peak popularity in the [[1720s]] and [[1730s]] before starting to fall out of musical fashion in the late [[1700s]]. After the [[Unification of Italy]] in [[1861]] "eviration" ("loss or deprivation of masculine qualities with assumption of feminine characteristics") was made illegal. In [[1878]] [[Pope Leo XIII]] banned the hiring of new castrati by the church. But if officially ended in [[1902]] when he banned them altogether. Between the [[800s]] and [[1200s]] the choir of [[Hagia Sophia]] in [[Constantinople]] had castrati. After the sack of the city in [[1204]] during the [[Fourth Crusade]] they disappeared, until they started appearing again until the mid-[[1500s]] in [[Italy]]. There were castrati in the [[Sistine Chapel]] [[choir]] in [[1558]]. In [[Munich]] in [[1574]] the choir run by [[Orlando di Lasso]] had castrati. Their training schedules were intense: > "The training of the boys was rigorous. The regimen of one singing school in Rome (c. 1700) consisted of one hour of singing difficult and awkward pieces, one hour practising trills, one hour practising ornamented passaggi, one hour of singing exercises in their teacher's presence and in front of a mirror so as to avoid unnecessary movement of the body or facial grimaces, and one hour of literary study; all this, moreover, before lunch. After, half an hour would be devoted to musical theory, another to writing counterpoint, an hour copying down the same from dictation, and another hour of literary study. During the remainder of the day, the young castrati had to find time to practice their harpsichord playing, and to compose vocal music, either sacred or secular depending on their inclination. This demanding schedule meant that, if sufficiently talented, they were able to make a debut in their mid-teens with a perfect technique and a voice of a flexibility and power no woman or ordinary male singer could match." Some people disliked them, claiming that they encouraged [[homosexuality]]. Two of them performed in front of [[Napoleon]]. #Music #Singing #Opera