This episode looks at a practice which was common in Italy from the 16th to 19th centuries. A practice which saw young boys subjected to a procedure which resulted in their vocal cords not changing with the onset of adolescence. And this was the procedure of castration. The result was that a lack of testosterone allowed these boys to keep their youthful singing voices. The term used to describe these boys was the castrati, quite an unfortunate choice of word. As the castrati progressed into manhood, their voices became very unique.
So in churches all over Italy, including the Sistine chapel, these men made careers from singing. Their voices were preferred over male singers and their dominance was helped because the Vatican had banned women from church choirs in the 1500’s. And with the development of opera, these men also had lucrative careers as opera singers. For three centuries, these singers became superstars of their time, demanding high sums for their services, singing in choirs and operas in Italy, but their fame also spread all over Europe.
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Sources -
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/what-is-a-castrato/
https://www.operaforall.co.uk/who-were-the-castrati/
https://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2009/11/natures_rejects.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjvfqnD0ws&t=16s
https://gizmodo.com/what-did-it-mean-to-be-a-castrato-1732742399
https://archive.org/search?query=the+castrato&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqDEU0y9BSI
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