Editing Castrato (section)

==Opera==
[[File:Pier Leone Ghezzi - caricature of Carlo Broschi (Farinelli) as Berenice in Vinci's Farnace, Rome 1724.jpg|thumb|A caricature of Farinelli in a female role, by [[Pier Leone Ghezzi]], 1724]]
Although the castrato (or musico) predates opera, there is some evidence that castrati had parts in the earliest operas. In the first performance of [[Monteverdi]]'s ''[[L'Orfeo|Orfeo]]'' (1607), for example, they played subsidiary roles, including Speranza and (possibly) that of Euridice. Although female roles were performed by castrati in some of the papal states, this was increasingly rare; by 1680, they had supplanted normal male voices in lead roles, and retained their position as ''primo uomo'' for about a hundred years;<ref>see Heriot, A: ''The Castrati in Opera'' (London, 1956), pp. 31 ff</ref> an Italian opera not featuring at least one renowned castrato in a lead part would be doomed to fail. Because of the popularity of Italian opera throughout 18th-century Europe (except France), singers such as Ferri, [[Farinelli]], [[Senesino]] and [[Gasparo Pacchierotti|Pacchierotti]] became the first operatic superstars, earning enormous fees and hysterical public adulation.<ref>Heriot chs. 1–3 ''passim''</ref> The strictly hierarchical organisation of ''[[opera seria]]'' favoured their high voices as symbols of heroic virtue, though they were frequently mocked for their strange appearance and bad acting. In his 1755 ''Reflections upon theatrical expression in tragedy'', Roger Pickering wrote:
<blockquote>Farinelli drew every Body to the Haymarket. What a Pipe! What Modulation! What Extasy to the Ear! But, Heavens! What Clumsiness! What Stupidity! What Offence to the Eye! Reader, if of the City, thou mayest probably have seen in the Fields of Islington or Mile-End or, If thou art in the environs of St James', thou must have observed in the Park with what Ease and Agility a cow, heavy with calf, has rose up at the command of the Milk-woman's foot: thus from the mossy bank sprang the DIVINE FARINELLI.<ref>Pickering, R: [https://archive.org/details/reflectionsupont00pick ''Reflections on Theatrical Expression in Tragedy''] (London, 1755), p. 63</ref></blockquote>The training of the boys was rigorous. The regimen of one singing school in Rome (c. 1700) consisted of one hour of singing difficult and awkward pieces, one hour practising trills, one hour practising ornamented passaggi, one hour of singing exercises in their teacher's presence and in front of a mirror so as to avoid unnecessary movement of the body or facial grimaces, and one hour of literary study; all this, moreover, before lunch. After, half an hour would be devoted to musical theory, another to writing counterpoint, an hour copying down the same from dictation, and another hour of literary study. During the remainder of the day, the young castrati had to find time to practice their [[harpsichord]] playing, and to compose vocal music, either sacred or secular depending on their inclination.<ref>see Bontempi, G: ''Historia Musica'' (Perugia, 1695), p. 170</ref> This demanding schedule meant that, if sufficiently talented, they were able to make a debut in their mid-teens with a perfect technique and a voice of a flexibility and power no woman or ordinary male singer could match.

[[File:Scalzi by Flipart.jpg|thumb|left|The castrato [[Carlo Scalzi]], by Joseph Flipart, {{circa|1737}}]]

Many castrati came from poor homes and were castrated by their parents in the hope that their child might be successful and lift them from poverty (this was the case with [[Senesino]]). There are, though, records of some young boys asking to be operated on to preserve their voices (e.g. [[Caffarelli (castrato)|Caffarelli]], who was from a wealthy family: his grandmother gave him the income from two vineyards to pay for his studies<ref>Faustini-Fassini, E.: ''Gli astri maggiori del bel canto napoletano'' in ''Note d'archivio'' 15, (1938), p. 12</ref>). Caffarelli was also typical of many castrati in being famous for tantrums on and off-stage, and for amorous adventures with noble ladies.<ref>see Heriot, pp. 141–54</ref> Some, as described by Casanova, preferred gentlemen (noble or otherwise).<ref>Casanova, G. ''Memoirs'' (tr. A. Machen, with additional tr. by A. Symons (London, 1894) vol. 4c, ch. 10; available online at www.gutenberg.net</ref>

According to [[John Rosselli (historian)|John Rosselli]], the total number of castrati alive at any given time during the height of their existence cannot be ascertained. He estimates that "several hundred" of them existed at any given time between 1630 and 1750. Approximately 100 existed in Rome in 1694, but the possibility that was a decline from earlier in the century cannot be ruled out.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosselli |first1=John |title=Singers of Italian Opera: The History of a Profession |date=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |pages=40–1 |isbn=978-0-521-42697-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ru5zpGgIuTYC |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref> Only a small percentage of boys castrated to preserve their voices had successful careers on the operatic stage; the better "also-rans" sang in cathedral or church choirs, but because of their marked appearance and the ban on their marrying, there was little room for them in society outside a musical context.<ref>for a general discussion of castrati in society, see Barbier, ch. 7</ref>

The castrati came in for a great amount of scurrilous and unkind abuse, and as their fame increased, so did the hatred of them. They were often castigated as malign creatures who lured men into homosexuality. There were homosexual castrati, as [[Casanova]]'s accounts of 18th-century [[Italy]] bear witness. He mentions meeting an abbé whom he took for a girl in disguise, only later discovering that "she" was a famous castrato. In Rome in 1762 he attended a performance at which the [[prima donna]] was a castrato, "the favourite [[wikt:pathic|pathic]]" of [[Francesco Scipione Maria Borghese|Cardinal Borghese]], who dined every evening with his protector. From his behaviour on stage "it was obvious that he hoped to inspire the love of those who liked him as a man, and probably would not have done so as a woman".<ref>Angus Heriot, ''The Castrati in Opera'', London, 1956; Ed Wayne Dynes, ''Encyclopedia of Homosexuality'', New York, 1990</ref>