A castrato (Italian; pl.: castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can …

Jul 18, 2025 · Read on to discover the eye-watering secrets of the castrati - opera's greatest stars of a bygone era... Male readers may want to look away now, or at least cross their legs. We are, you see, …

Castrati are male singers, castrated before puberty in order to preserve a strong soprano singing voice. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, castrati were used extensively in Italian church choirs …

Oct 20, 2024 · The practice was restricted to Italy, but the castrati sung all over Europe, touring opera houses from Madrid to Moscow and commanding fabulous fees. They were particularly popular in …

Aug 19, 2025 · Explore the world of castrati in early modern England—where music, surgery, and the body converged to shape a unique cultural phenomenon.

This is because the role of Nerone was originally sung by a castrato (pl. castrati), a male singer who, for the sake of retaining his high voice, underwent surgical castration before puberty.

Castrati were most famous for their parts in the opera seria genre, a typically baroque opera style alternating recitative and virtuoso arias, and based on a ‘serious’ topic, as opposed to the opera buffa.

Dec 4, 2025 · The only difference between a castrato (collectively known as castrati) and a eunuch is that historically most eunuchs were castrated after puberty, thus the castration had no impact on …

The unique tone quality of the voice, coupled with the ability of the intensively trained singers to execute extremely difficult florid vocal passages, made the castrati the rage of opera audiences and …

May 23, 2023 · The rise of castrati began in 16th-century Italy when boys would be castrated before puberty in order to preserve their high-pitched singing voices.