Castrati: 400 Years of Brutality Because a Woman Could Never be Good Enough
The musical baroque period lasted from 1600-1750 and was known for its extreme dramatisation of style and elegance through genres such as sonatas, string quartets, sacred music, and operas. While previously exclusive to the elites, the baroque period marked the beginning of listening to music accessible to all economic classes; because of this shift, opera became extremely popular throughout Europe.
Baroque operas often portrayed a scene from Greko-Roman mythology, the most famous examples being “L’Orfeo” and “The Coronation of Poppea” by Claudio Monteverdi. Like most operas at the time, these two operas include themes of love, yearning, and adventure. Even though most operas included a love story between a man and a woman, women were banned from performing on stage in Rome, meaning that their roles had to be filled by a man with a woman-like voice. Similarly, women were banned from performing in church choirs until the mid-20th century, so castrati took the role of the higher voices in the church choir. A castrati is a man who was castrated before puberty in order for his high voice to be preserved. This process of castration for musical purposes lasted almost 400 years, beginning in the 16th century and dying out in the mid 20th century; Most castrati were orphaned boys who, after their castration, were trained to be professional level singers in church choirs and opera. Some of which achieved fame that is comparable to A-list celebrities and professional athletes. However, most castrati were not successful and fell into extreme poverty. The last living castrati, Alessandro Moreschi died in 1922 shortly after becoming the only castrati to ever be recorded singing: singing a version of “Ave Maria” with piano accompaniment. You would expect a castrato’s voice to sound like that of a soprano or a countertenor's; however,
Moreschi’s voice contains an unsettling and empty timbre that makes the recording a very haunting experience. The emptiness comes when Moreschi hits the highest notes of the piece (timestamps: 0:55, 1:08, 1:55, and 2:22). While the pitch of the notes is impressive, the timbre is what is haunting. When listening to a modern day counter-tenor or
soprano, while their voices are high, their vocal timbre sounds human. Castrati however have a hollow, almost haunting timbre, as if their voice is an instrument being played rather than a part of their body. The recording (posted by Javier Medina on Youtube) is paired with a portrait of Moreschi himself. The juxtaposition of a portrait of a fully grown man and a prepubescent, pained voice makes the experience all more haunting, it has the effect of making the reader reflect on the practice of castration as a whole. Thousands of boys were brutalized and trained to sing opera all because women were banned from performing. Because no matter how gifted a singer, a woman
could never be good enough.
Sources:
- Sophie Carroll, Little Rock, AR, 12th grade
Instagram - @GardeniasOn_TheTile
