Alessandro Moreschi, the ‘last of the Castrati’, recorded 17 songs between 1902 and 1904, giving us the only known record of a castrato voice. Here is his version of Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’.
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Alessandro Moreschi, the ‘last of the Castrati’, recorded 17 songs between 1902 and 1904, giving us the only known record of a castrato voice. Here is his version of Schubert’s ‘Ave Maria’.
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View Reddit by Star_Ship_55 – View Source
The church didn’t want girls singing because of their history of being blatantly sexist. As a result, young boys with nice singing voices were valued for their high pitched prepubescent voices. So much so, that the church was known to castrate many of them in an effort to prevent puberty from changing the boys singing voices to lower octives. Hence the name ‘castrato’. So, there is a good chance that man has no nuts.
Me when I stop my toe
I’m glad there aren’t anymore Castrati. I actually very much dislike the way it sounds, it’s irritating. And knowing the background of a castrato voice, I’m verrrry glad there aren’t any left.
It wasn’t worth it.
There is much speculation and some minor evidence that Michael Jackson was chemically castrated by his father to keep his singing voice. Don’t know if its true, but it would explain a lot. So I would say with some confidence that this guy was not the last. People do terrible things to kids for money and fame.
Not my favorite listening experience
Reminds me of the book *Songmaster* by Orson Scott Card
Great novel by Anne Rice about the practice called Cry To Heaven – highly recommended !
The castrati were the superstars of their day, like Justin Bieber or one of the K-Pops, and families competed fiercely to give their sons to the church for fame and glory.
Absolutely barbaric practice, of course, but with the church what else is new ?
Thank you for posting. I’ve wondered was such a voice would sound like. The practice goes back to the 5th century, originating in the Byzantine church.