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A castrato (Italian; pl.: castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity .
Accordingly, Brison is credited with introducing two important features of the musical culture of Constantinople, which lasted until the fall of the city in 1204: the antiphon of two choirs and the use of castrato singers in the palace and the church. Under Justinian I, the number of singers was fixed at 25, two choirs of 12 and a choirmaster ...
Alessandro Moreschi c. 1914. Moreschi's Director at the Sistine was Domenico Mustafà, himself once a castrato soprano, who realised that Moreschi was, amongst other things, the only hope for the continuation of the Sistine tradition of performing the famous setting of the Miserere by Gregorio Allegri during Holy Week.
Born in Siena in about 1735, Tenducci became a castrato and he was trained at the Naples Conservatory. [2] Castration was illegal in both church and civil law, but the Roman Church employed castrati in many churches and in the Vatican until about 1902; and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the public paid large sums of money to listen to the spectacular voices of castrati in the opera houses.
Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: Originally written for a castrato, "Orfeo" is sung by a mezzo-soprano, contralto or counter-tenor; Gluck's Paride ed Elena: Originally written for a castrato, "Paride" is sung by a soprano; Gounod's Faust: "Siebel" is sung by a contralto, a mezzo-soprano or a soprano; Gounod's Romeo and Juliet: "Stefano" is sung by a ...
Atto Melani (30 March 1626, in Pistoia – 4 January 1714, in Paris) was a famous Italian castrato opera singer, also employed as a diplomat and a spy. [1] Life
Charles Burney, a contemporary music historian, described the Florentine castrato thus: "Manzoli's voice was the most powerful and voluminous soprano that had ever been heard on our stage since the time of Farinelli; and his manner of singing was grand and full of dignity. The applause he received was a universal thunder of acclimation."
Domenico Salvatori (27 September 1855 – 11 December 1909) along with Alessandro Moreschi, Domenico Mustafà and Giovanni Cesari, was one of the famous castrati singers of the late 19th century. Born in Anagni , he first started as a contralto at the Cappella Giulia which he later abandoned in order to enter as a now soprano or mezzo to the ...