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The Cruelest Cut

 
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Manage episode 155224986 series 1150782
Content provided by Syracuse University Library. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Syracuse University Library or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

You’re on the Sound Beat.

That singer you hear…what’s your mental image? An elderly woman? A young boy? How about… a 44 year old man? This recording represents the end of a very weird period in music’s long, weird history. Alessandro Moreschi was the last of the castrati, opera singers who had been (ahem) castrated before puberty. That’s one way around that awkward voice changing stage.

Here’s Moreschi with the Christian hymn “Laudamus Te”.

So…a castrati’s voice wouldn’t break, but had the force of fully developed lungs behind it. Castration was outlawed in Italy in 1870, and Moreschi was the only castrati to make solo sound recordings.

Time out for trivia: How many boys were castrated yearly at the height of castrati craze 40, 400, or 4,000?

You probably guessed it…4,000. Eww. Here’s a good site with more than you’d ever want to know on the topic.

  continue reading

274 episodes

Artwork

The Cruelest Cut

Sound Beat

published

iconShare
 
Manage episode 155224986 series 1150782
Content provided by Syracuse University Library. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Syracuse University Library or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

You’re on the Sound Beat.

That singer you hear…what’s your mental image? An elderly woman? A young boy? How about… a 44 year old man? This recording represents the end of a very weird period in music’s long, weird history. Alessandro Moreschi was the last of the castrati, opera singers who had been (ahem) castrated before puberty. That’s one way around that awkward voice changing stage.

Here’s Moreschi with the Christian hymn “Laudamus Te”.

So…a castrati’s voice wouldn’t break, but had the force of fully developed lungs behind it. Castration was outlawed in Italy in 1870, and Moreschi was the only castrati to make solo sound recordings.

Time out for trivia: How many boys were castrated yearly at the height of castrati craze 40, 400, or 4,000?

You probably guessed it…4,000. Eww. Here’s a good site with more than you’d ever want to know on the topic.

  continue reading

274 episodes

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