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Ever heard a Castrato sing?

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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 02:48 AM
Original message
Ever heard a Castrato sing?
you can now....

http://www.bassocantante.com/opera/moreschi.ram

He was the last castrato to direct the Sistine Choir, and the only one known to have been recorded.
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Systematic Chaos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 02:57 AM
Response to Original message
1. Holy crap!
I don't think the vocalist of Yes, Jon Anderson, could have matched this back in the early 70's if you turned him loose in the studio with a helium tank.
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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 02:58 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. it's pretty eerie, isn't it?
Not like a female voice, not like a male falsetto.... altogether different.

Evidently he was rather old when that was recorded, so he wasn't at his peak.
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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:00 AM
Response to Original message
3. How beautiful
I really liked the beggining and the ending.
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Systematic Chaos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:02 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Yeah, I'll give it that much.
It's a very nice piece and the man did have a good voice even if it is mighty high.
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Andy_Stephenson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:05 AM
Response to Original message
5. It's unnatural I tell you
Edited on Wed Dec-10-03 03:13 AM by God_bush_n_cheney
unnatural.


But I am compelled to listen.
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stopbush Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:07 AM
Response to Original message
6. The complete recordings of Moreschi were issued on CD
on the Opus label back in about 1990. Beautiful if weird stuff. Of course, it's not really representative of the castrato art. Imagine if no one had ever heard a tenor, there was only one tenor left alive and he made a disc after he was past his prime. We wouldn't know if he had been a good, bad or indifferent artist.

Still, the Moreschi recordings are valuable documents.
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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:08 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. wow...
I'd love to hear that. I wonder if the CD's are still available.
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Andy_Stephenson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:18 AM
Response to Reply #7
12. here
http://www.musical-genre.com/alessandro_moreschi.htm
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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:20 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. thanks...
I just found it on amazon and ordered it, along with a book about Castrati.

I'm a real Italophile and this is such an interesting part Italy (and the church's) history.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 07:50 AM
Response to Reply #13
19. Did you see that movie that came out a few years ago
about the castrati? Wish to hell I could remember the name, but I remember it was in color. :-)

Came out in the mid- to late-90s if memory serves.

I can't even think of who was in it, either.

Damn.

Cool movie, anyway. Perhaps someone else knows what I'm thinking about.
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Commie Pinko Dirtbag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 07:53 AM
Response to Reply #19
20. Farinelli. I didn't see it. I just can't. (crosses legs)
Edited on Wed Dec-10-03 07:55 AM by JCCyC
Yikes. This is evil.

On edit: I'm OUT of the 700 club. Woo hoo!
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 08:10 AM
Response to Reply #20
21. It was a good movie - you should see it
there's only the one spot in which they take the boy off to get castrated, but otherwise, nothing that makes you need to cross your legs. :-)

And congrats on leaving the 700 Club!
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Systematic Chaos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:08 AM
Response to Original message
8. Apparently, he was NOTHING compared to the best....
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/opa9823.htm

What a horrible thing to do to a kid just to have him sing different. There's more to life than music, ya know, even for an addict like me. :)
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Interrobang Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:09 AM
Response to Original message
9. You can tell he wasn't at his peak...
...if you know anything about classically-trained singers. His voice breaks a couple of times, and you can hear the natural "breaks" between his registers, if you know what to listen for. However, the quality of the voice still comes out. Stunning -- like listening to a piece of the past, and very anachronistic while sitting in front of a computer!

I heard this years ago in music class, and I'm really glad someone put it on the net!
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HEyHEY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:09 AM
Response to Original message
10. maybe I'm not cultured enough
But that perosn can't sing :-)
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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:14 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. lol
you're funny. :-)
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Interrobang Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 04:50 AM
Response to Reply #10
18. Yeah, he *could* sing...
...just not by the time they made that recording. You didn't get to be the director of the Sistine Chapel choir if you couldn't sing -- in those days you sort of came up through the ranks. The technique's all there; just the recording technology was crappy and the voice was going.
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 04:13 AM
Response to Original message
14. I can sing countertenor,
but I would certainly not have been willing to make the sacrifices necessary to become a castrato. :scared:

Moreschi is, apparently, a pretty poor example of what a really good castrato sounded like. The recording technology of the period didn't help, with that awful acoustic horn, but apparently Moreschi was a poor castrato at any rate.
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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 04:18 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. yes....
so I gather. But it's still haunting. I just try to imagine what a real castrato at his prime sounded like - it must've been unimaginably beautiful.
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MilesColtrane Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 04:13 AM
Response to Original message
15. Why would I want to hear
a Rick Astley MP3? Wait...did you say ball-less, or soul-less?
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 04:27 AM
Response to Reply #15
17. Replace "Rick Astley" with "Clay Aiken,"
and you have an updated and far more accurate joke, IMO.
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no_hypocrisy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 10:51 AM
Response to Original message
22. Maybe 15 years ago, a movie about the most famous castrato was
distributed. It's on video/DVD. It's called Farinelli.

It has a great story (historically based), good acting, and wonderful cinematography.
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Lydia Leftcoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 11:18 AM
Response to Original message
23. It's definitely an aged voice
and therefore unsteady and not always pleasant, but you can hear some of its former power on the high notes.
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alwynsw Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 11:34 AM
Response to Original message
24. Fortunately and unfortunately, yes.
This practice was not limited to only Europe. There were a number of boys castrated here in in the U.S. as well. I know that it was done as late as the 1930's because I have a dear friend who is a castrato who was castrated for this prupose in 1935.
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Johnyawl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
25. What an utterly barbaric thing to do to a child

I can't even bring myself to listen to it.
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NickB79 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 02:48 PM
Response to Original message
26. Holy Crap!
The sheer number of DUer's here commenting on how beautiful a castrato sounds makes me never, ever want to attend a DU get-together without putting a lock on my boxers :-) I've got my eye on you!
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Dookus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 05:24 PM
Response to Reply #26
31. hehehe....
Don't worry.... I hardly EVER castrate people I've just met.

Now... about your singing voice...
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brainshrub Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:00 PM
Response to Original message
27. Thank you for posting this. (nt)
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brainshrub Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:11 PM
Response to Original message
28. Castrati history
http://wa.essortment.com/castratihistory_rzna.htm
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CanuckAmok Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:11 PM
Response to Original message
29. Wait, I thought Alvin Chipmunk was the last to be recorded...
When did they stop castration, anyway? I find it fascinating that it was ever done at all--what was the justification?
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geniph Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-10-03 03:23 PM
Response to Original message
30. Just Frankie Valli and the Brothers Gibb
never been a fan of the higher range of male voices. Unfortunately, I don't like really high female voices either, and mine makes Joni Mitchell sound like a baritone. Only dogs can hear my singing voice.
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