Castrati - Opera Sopranos
 

Castrati were male soprano singers who were castrated when they were young before their voices changed. This was practiced primarly in Italy up to about a century ago. They were the top attraction in opera in those days because while they were sopranos like women they had much more powerful voices. To learn more about them check it out on Google.

My question is has anyone heard any shemale who has been castrated who is a professional singer? And...........?

A very good book on this is Anne Rice's Cry to Heaven which I would love to see made into a movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M07Qga3LbcM

Maybe he'd have sounded better if recorded with modern equipment.

I think i read 1890 was the last of the well know ones and although with heavenly voices they were mostly shunned by the community

always i come from trawling the nether regions of teh interwebs to an interesting topic some time after the last post. anyway. afterreading Cry to Heaven many moons ago i researched it off and on while the seasons changed.

recently i made a point of finding something sung by castrati and i must say i was disconcerted by what i heard. it was strange, eerie and other-worldly. it still haunts me to this day. but an interesting subject nonetheless.

Creepy! But still, I think if all the American Idol contestants found out about this, there would be an influx of people at hospitals requesting castrations.

Simon Cowell would shit a brick

No, doesn't work that way
 

The castrati were boys that had great voices before the onset of puberty.

The castration was performed to prevent the voice change that usually comes with the onset of puberty. Sometime this didn't work and the promise of a great voice didn't pan out. The best ones were the toast of the opera world and commanded astronomical salaries. Sure, they were shunned by some narrow-minded bigots but we always have some of those around.

You have to keep in mind that the Italy of that period was a very religious country and many people felt that the castrati were the closest humans could come to emulating a heavenly choir of angels.

What do you think about this guys voice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyiJTCUvsGk

This song is on the Hitman:Contracts game soundtrack and when I first heard it, I thought he was an indie chick.:eek:

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He has a high voice but still not in the sopreano range. My first impression was he sounded like Quentin Tarentino singing. :lol:

the first post was very informative.

by reading the above post i became curious as to why even after castration at the onset of puberty, some of them still had changes in their voices, since deepening of voice is due to the effect of testosterone.

Try these:

Elvis Presley - Spanish Eyes (Home Recording)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTivwdWAtOw

High singing kicks in at 3:00. It's not all that remarkable, until you consider that Elvis is famed for a rich baritone voice.

Jeff Buckley - Corpus Christi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgc6-rgA16k

An extraordinary rendition of a carol, perhaps chosen and performed to be reminiscent of the castrati.

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In some cases, the boy would not learn to control his voice well enough to be one of the greats. Sometimes it was a case of a boy contracting some illness that would damage his vocal cords. You have to remember medicine was still pretty much in the dark ages and a case of scarlet fever, whooping cough, diptheria, or even a severe cold was not easily treated like nowadays. A severe throat infection might leave a castrati's voice with an unacceptable rasp due to scarification of the vocal cords. Or it might ruin his voice totally for singing. Over consumption of alcohol was bad for a voice just as it still is, and some would go that way.

Shemale singers
 

Michael Jackson.....oh, you said shemale.......um, Michael Jackson!
There are posts all over the web lately questioning this. Personally I don't think I'd put it past Joe Jackson to do something like this to make money!!

Thank u ..... i really didn't think on those lines (the infection part)