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Giovanni Battista Velluti as a young man. Giovanni Battista Velluti, colloquially "Giambattista" (28 January 1780 – 22 January 1861), was an Italian castrato.Considered "the last great castrato", [1] he had a reputation of being something of a diva, with some singers refusing to appear with him.
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.
Giovanni Gualberto Magli was an Italian castrato who had an active singing career during the first quarter of the 17th century. Born in Florence, he studied voice with Giulio Caccini before becoming a musician for the House of Medici on 23 August 1604.
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 also occur in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity .
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."
The last famous Italian castrato, Giovanni Battista Velluti, died in 1861. The sole existing sound recording of a castrato singer documents the voice of Alessandro Moreschi, the last eunuch in the Sistine Chapel Choir, who died in 1922. This Italian practice of castrating young males to maintain their soprano voices was ended by Pope Leo XIII ...
A person found guilty of a sex crime against a child in Louisiana could soon be ordered to undergo surgical castration, in addition to prison time. Louisiana lawmakers gave final approval to a ...
In 1668, Melani sang publicly for the last time at Palazzo Colonna, and from then on dedicated himself exclusively to politics and diplomacy, writing several books on Rome, advising the King of France, mediating with the German princes, and acting as go-between among the Italian States. He finally died at the age of 88 in 1714 in Paris.