Castrati - Opera Sopranos

[Naked Freedom]

the first post was very informative.

Originally Posted by Jenae LaTorque

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.

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.

[Jenae LaTorque]

Originally Posted by Naked Freedom

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.

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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.

[streetglide]

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!!

[Naked Freedom]

Originally Posted by Jenae LaTorque

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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.

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