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**Content Warning for discussion of child abuse, sex work, surgery and medical issues**.
One of the common threads throughout human civilization is the elevation of the performing arts. In nearly every society, singers, actors and musicians have enjoyed privilege and adulation – and often resorted to extreme measures to grow their careers or retain the loyalty of their devoted audiences. The cultural climate of early modern Europe was no exception as the pinnacle art form, opera, came to dominate the European artistic zeitgeist for centuries. It was the ubiquitous opera house which produced generations of Italian castrati, or “castrated”, male singers who became the Elvis-level international superstars of their era. From the 16th – 19th centuries, Italy’s castrati were the musical envy of Europe. But their stories, like those of modern-day celebrities atop the world, were rarely fairy tales.
“The Blessed Knife”
While castration for religious and social purposes has been documented throughout history, it first emerged for explicitly artistic considerations in 16th century Renaissance Italy. The impetus for the rise of the castrati was a long-standing ban on female singers in Catholic churches of this era. While young boys who could hit higher pitch ranges often served in choral and soprano musical roles, their careers were obviously limited by the onset of puberty and deepening of their voices.[1]
The need for permanent, capable soprano singers to perform in churches, and support the rising art form of opera, led to experimentation with castration of promising young male singers. By the mid-17th century, thousands of young Italian boys every year (often from rural, impoverished backgrounds) endured castration in the hopes that a select few could rise to the apex of the vocal arts.[2] The process itself usually involved sedating the boys, usually aged 9 – 12 years, then cutting the blood vessels connected to the testicles. This crude style of surgery led to public acclaim for “the blessed knife” among those who adored castrati vocalists. In addition to halting puberty, the operation would have profound physical and psychological effects on the boys as they grew older. One resource notes that “[t]he effects of castration…were notoriously erratic. Much depended on the timing of the operation: boys pruned before the age of 10 or so very often grew up with feminine features; smooth, hairless bodies, incipient breasts, infantile penis, and often a complete lack of sex drive.”[3] Other sources, however, suggest that some castrati were capable lovers to both men and women, and some women may have sought after castrati as less sensitive lovers with greater sexual endurance.
Angelic Voices
But whatever the physical implications, the musical results of the castration trend were astonishing. The castrati were alleged to be endowed with “supernatural sound”, their singing often compared to that of angels from on high.[4] Castrati singers enjoyed the unique advantage of access to high vocal pitches while retaining the lung volume and projection of an adult male.[5] Their voices were ideally suited to Europe’s vast opera houses during the Baroque era through the end of the 18th century.
The lives of some famous castratos reveal the potential rewards achieved by the finest singers. Carlo Broschi, aka “Farinelli” (1705 – 1782) was among the most admired castrati of the 18th century. He reportedly sang in the highest notes known at the time, with such skill and bravado that his rivals reportedly fainted at his performances. He traveled throughout Europe – Germany, England, Spain and more – during his lustrous career, performing for the royal courts of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and King Ferdinand VI of Spain. The latter rewarded Farinelli with the Spanish honorific Knight of the Order of Calatrava. Farinelli was perpetually surrounded by fans and paid handsomely for his performances, and was even awarded state pensions which enabled his retirement.
Another example is that of Francesco Bernardi, aka “Senesino” (1686 – 1758). Born to a barber in Siena, Italy, Senesino would become a prolific partner of the great composer Handel and serve as his lead male vocalist at the English Royal Academy of Music. Senesino was noted for his gifts in coloratura, in which an especially agile singer deploys musical flourishes to enhance a performance.[6] Handel is believed to have leveraged Senesino’s gifts in many of his Italian operatic compositions, and the pair closely collaborated on several of Handel’s most famous works. Senesino reportedly enjoyed vast financial rewards throughout his career in addition to public acclaim and his choice of musical collaborators. He and Farinelli sang together on stage multiple times throughout their lives and appeared to share a deep respect for one another.
Expectations vs. Reality
But such fabulous careers were hardly the norm for castrati, and these stories represent the select few who would achieve musical greatness in their lifetimes. Singers spent their young adult lives in intensive musical training that extended well beyond the confines of voice, including the study of literature, musical theory and composition as well as acting.[7] The most promising might seek out auditions and permanent employment after a decade of preparation; even then, a lucrative gig in a private or public opera house was far from guaranteed, and the majority found modest employment in church choirs – no fawning admirers there, to be sure.[8] Of course, with tens of thousands of castrati competing for the same jobs by the 1700s, not all could be gainfully employed in the musical arts. In addition to entering the priesthood, ribald tales from this era suggest that many castrati filled Italian brothels throughout the peninsula, often ending their lives in misery as prostitutes to survive.[9] Interestingly, the Italian castrati are not the only male performers in history that had strong associations with sex work; in Japanese Kabuki theatre, for example, young men played women’s roles (as castrati often did in Italian opera) and regularly provided sexual services to patrons and other paying clients.[10]
Legacy
The era of the castrati’s domination of European music came to a close in the early 20th century. Although their popularity waned throughout the 19th century, the last known castrato Alessandro Moreschi was finally forced out of his job at the Sistine Chapel and into retirement in 1903.[11] His public denouement represented the final curtain for centuries of castrati who preceded him. However, Moreschi was the only known castrato to ever be recorded. You can hear his haunting voice, and get a sense of what the castrati of old may have sounded like, in this clip.
Moreschi’s limited recordings aside, the skills and gifts of the castrati are otherwise lost to modern audiences. But their historical legacy raises serious ethical considerations and harkens back to an age-old problem: in the pursuit of artistic greatness, do the ends ever truly justify the means? Today, observers are (rightly) horrified at the thought that the mutilation of children for art, social status or fortune was ever acceptable. It is undeniable that the process of castrating and then training the castrati was, for hundreds of years, nothing short of abusive. But even today, child and teen stars the world over – from reality television to beauty competitions to film and television and even TikTok – often find themselves scarred by the demands of others to perform and succeed – even if those scars are not always physical in the sense that those of the castrati were. The castrati of old might have seen parallels between their rise to celebrity then, and the celebrities of today. The perverse motivations (and consequences) of fame and power have not greatly changed in the intervening centuries. As historians continue to wrestle with the legacy of the castrati, we as a society might do well to ask similar questions of ourselves.
[1] Sean King, “The Sinister Angel Singers of Rome,” The Science History Institute, December 7, 2021, https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/podcast/the-sinister-angel-singers-of-rome.
[2] Stacey Keith, “The Grotesque and Disturbing Story of the Italian Castrati Singers,” Cappuccini, October 11, 2021, https://medium.com/cappuccini/the-grotesque-and-disturbing-story-of-the-italian-castrati-singers-e7c6b91ca5eb.
[3] Martin Hatzinger et al. “Castrati singers–all for fame,” The Journal of Sexual Medicine vol. 9,9 (2012): 2233-7. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02844.x
[4] Ibid.
[5] Epameinondas Koutsiaris, et al. “Castrati singers: surgery for religion and art,” Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology = Archivio italiano di anatomia ed embriologia vol. 119,2 (2014): 106-10.
[6] George Loomis, “Handel and the Royal Academy”, Playbill, December 1, 2004, https://www.playbill.com/article/handel-and-the-royal-academy.
[7] Keith, ibid.
[8] King, ibid.
[9] Robert Everett-Green, “Agony and ecstasy: the art of the castrati,” The Global and Mail, November 20, 2009, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/agony-and-ecstasy-the-art-of-the-castrati/article4293252/.
[10] R.B. Parkinson, “Erotic Voyeurism”, A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World, Columbia University Press, New York, 2013, pg. 76.
[11] King, ibid.