It seems that people keep ignoring my posts on the castrati !! It has amused
me greatly, as I
have tried to contribute a bit about Moreschi, correcting the erroneous
statement of *facts*
and offering other information; probably the posts keep overlapping because of
the time lag !
Kallmann's: yes, I know some singers have this, but I have not put this on my
web site....yet.
I am not a great admirer of Moreschi's voice and singing style, but he is all
we've got, as he
was the last of his kind, B.K. (before Kallmann's).
Somebody described him as a "weirdo"; when we first produced the disc, some
strong men
ran screaming from the room when it was played ! It seemed that too much
self-identification
was involved, and that this machismo attitude was exhibited by men who could
not realise
that the castrato may well have been extremely nervous, confronted by the
"masculine"
sound recordists.
Also, the castrati did not stand well in the eyes and ears of Pope (St.) Pius
X; who wanted
them out of the Sistine, and replaced by boys. Since the practise of
castration for the
cathedral choirs had virtually ceased, Pius' persecution of the castrati seemed
unwarranted.
He did not actually "forbid" their presence, but his Motu Proprio made some
unpleasant
Biblical references to their appearances in the choir.
One small point: at the end of the rendition of Tosti's "Ideale", there was a
round of
sincere-sounding applause.
Elsa
http://www.cix.co.uk/~velluti
Award-winning site;
Historian, not musician
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