From Anne Rice's Book "Cry to Heaven"- What's a Castrati?

Question

I read a blog re: reading banned books, and this person said he/she read 'Cry To Heaven' by Anne Rice for a schook report, then decided later it wasnt suitable material to read in front of the class. He/she said its about a 'Castrati'. What is it, exactly?

Answer 1

A male who was castrated at a young age. Mostly done to preserve his singing voice. Castration was supposed to protect his voice from the voice change at puberty. Unfortunately, this "protection" did not always work & those castrati often became teachers to the young castrati.
It is a really beautiful story, you should read it.

Answer 2

Castrati is the plural of castrato.

During the Baroque period - from 1600 to 1750 - male sopranos and altos comprised about 70 percent of all operatic singers.

Male sopranos in opera were a matter of necessity. Women, especially in countries where the Catholic Church had firm control, were forbidden on the stage so castrati played both the women’s parts and the hero as well. Nearly every church choir used pre-pubescent boys to sing the high parts in choral works because women were also not allowed to participate in church services. Thus, the finest of the boy sopranos were picked by music masters for castration.

(The bible said: "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak...")

They developed into what were considered the greatest singers of all time, possessing the pure voice of a boy with, sometimes, a great range, and technique and virtuosity. Their bodies could grow very tall, combining "the chest and lungs of a man with the vocal cords of a women".

Probably the greatest was Farinelli (1705-82), who "had a legendary voice spanning over three octaves, from C3 (131 Hz) to D6 (1175 Hz), and thoracic development such that he could hold a note for a whole minute without taking breath."
http://www.usrf.org/news/010308-castrati.html

They were the great superstars of their day, as pop singers are in ours.

Here is some good information; you can also hear the last castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, sing in a 1902 recording. It is quite unnerving:
(sorry, meant this link (scroll down): http://www.bassocantante.com/opera/curiosity.html
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~velluti/cast.htm
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~velluti/cast-pics.htm
http://wa.essortment.com/castratihistory_rzna.htm (perhaps more detail than you would like!)

Answer 3

A Castrati is a boy singer who's been castrated (had his testicles removed) before he reaches puberty. This prevents his voice from changing to a lower pitch while his voice develops a more mature adult sound. This was common when opera was most popular, but it is not practiced now.

Answer 4

"Anne Rice's novel Cry to Heaven, although a romantic novel, is based upon solid research and notwithstanding the novelization, captures a strong sense of the training, and world, of castrati singers in 18th Century Venice and Naples."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrati#Famous_castrati

So, that's what it is, basically. I'll bet it's good, though, if it's Anne Rice. I can see why he decided it wasn't appropriate.

Answer 5

A male singer. Specifically, a castrated male soprano or Castrato.

From Wikiopedia:
"A castrato is a male soprano, mezzo-soprano, or alto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. Therefore, his voice never deepens.

Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents the boy's larynx from being fully transformed by the normal physiological effects of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by boys and girls) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. As the castrato's body grows (especially in lung capacity and muscular strength), and as his musical training and maturity increase, his voice develops a range, power and flexibility quite different from the singing voice of the adult female, but also markedly different from the higher vocal ranges of the uncastrated adult male (see soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, sopranist and contralto).

The term castrato was often used to indicate the high register created by the young men who sang the castrato style. The typical register of a castrato was above that of a "normal" soprano or alto voice, resulting in the creation of a temporary range in Italian music."

Answer 6

Castrati are a group of boys/men who are physically castrated (removal of their testicles) for the purpose of keeping their voices highly pitched in order to sing various chorus and opera music.

Answer 7

Lorry, I stopped crying years ago. I wish I could. I still get really sad some times, but the tears just won't come. Not even happy tears. No tears at all.

Answer 8

A castrated male singer