In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries not only the directors of opera companies, but also the Catholic Church made grateful use of men castrated at a young age. In Italy at that time, if you had a reasonable voice when you were ten and came from a poor family there was a good chance that you would be recruited, with the local priest acting as a go-between. That meant being crudely castrated before your voice broke: your testicles were plunged into boiling water, causing them to shrivel. The Adam’s apple did not develop, though the rest of the body did, and in this way the effect of the voice breaking was prevented once and for all. In addition, after puberty the castrato would have a small larynx over an ample ribcage; this could of course be filled with large amounts of air, which he could then force out through his relatively small glottal apertures. The men retained their high-pitched voices and could continue to sing soprano roles into adulthood.
Both the parents and the boy were tempted with the prospect of free training as an opera singer and the accompanying singing career. But what is true now was just as true then: ‘for many be called, but few chosen’ (Matthew 20:16). An opera career or a permanent position as a singer in the Sistine Chapel was something only a few could aspire to. If someone failed to make the big time, a relatively meagre existence as a priest or something similar beckoned. What was the cost to the castrated boy? All his life he would have a tendency to obesity, his penis would remain small and no seminal glands would develop. He would not develop the normal male pattern of hair growth, but nor would he go bald. And however long he lay in the sun, he would never tan.
There are various explanations of exactly how and why castrati came into being. The most logical answer is that at that time women were forbidden to appear on stage, and female roles were taken by castrati. Another explanation is that the castrato embodies the trinity of male and female lust and childlike beauty. This view links to the Ancient Greek androgynous ideal: the uniting of the male and the female. The castrati were the pop stars of their age. If a castrato struck it rich, he could achieve an almost divine status. In Italy a successful castrato voice was called a canaro elefante, a canary’s voice in the body of an elephant.
The 1994 film Farinelli gives a romanticized picture of a famous castrato. The film’s subject is Carlo Broschi (1705-1782), stage name Farinelli, one of the most famous Italian castrati, who also played keyboard instruments and occasionally composed and wrote lyrics. Broschi was castrated at about the age of seven. He was an exception to the rule that most castrati were of humble origin: his father was a nobleman and governor of Apulia. He was sent to a music school founded especially for castrati, where he developed his voice under the direction of Nicola Porpora. He became known in Southern Italy as Il Ragazzo (The Boy). In 1720 Farinelli sang in public for the first time, performing a piece by his mentor. Two years later he made his debut in Rome, where the audience was particularly enthusiastic about his ability to sustain notes of great purity. He toured all through Europe, and a Milanese critic wrote of him: ‘Farinelli had a piercing, full, rich, clear and well-modulated soprano voice, with a range from A below middle C to D three octaves above middle C. His intonation was pure, his breath-control exceptional and he had a very flexible throat, so that he could execute the longest intervals quickly and with the greatest of ease.’
In 1724 he visited London and appeared in Artaserse, a work for which his brother had written most of the music. The Prince of Wales and the whole court showered him with compliments and gifts. After three years in England, he left for Spain, stopping en route for a few months in France, where he sang for Louis xiv. His original intention was to spend only a few months in Spain, but it eventually became almost 25 years. The queen used Farinelli’s voice to cure her husband, Philip v, of his pathological melancholy. The singer became as powerful as any minister, but was wise enough to use that power very discreetly. For two decades Farinelli sang songs evening after evening for the depressed king. After the succession of Ferdinand v, Farinelli was appointed theatre director in Madrid and Aranjuez. In 1750 the
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castrato was knighted, but when Charles iii ascended the throne Farinelli returned to Italy, where he spent the rest of his life.
The most sensational stories circulated about the sexual dissipation of castrati: they were sterile, but by no means always impotent. In addition they had a certain tenderness about them, an attractive combination for women in an age without contraceptives.
Sadly there is only one recording of a man castrated as a preadolescent: it dates from the beginning of the twentieth century, and the recording is probably not representative, since the singer, Alessandro Moreschi, was already advanced in years and was certainly not a topflight singer.