The Castrato Sacrifice: Was it Justified? Page: 23
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available tend to describe the operations in rather vague or euphemistic terms. The process itself
was illegal, save for medical reasons, so surgeons obviously did not openly advertise their
services in such a manner. Infections and even hemorrhages were common dangers.
Castration did not absolutely guarantee a crystalline voice. Even after the arduous
undertaking of this tenuous procedure, the outcome was not always as desired. At times the boys
would lose their angelic voices to the surgery itself, becoming shrill and displeasing. Sometimes
the poor children would even lose their singing voice altogether, resulting in a useless
hoarseness. But even this risk was apparently not enough to outweigh the possible rewards for
the family (Scholz 2001).
All the risk and tenuousness of this procedure these Italian families were willing to
overlook, given the chance at fame and fortune for their sons. With the structure of family life at
the time, their entire future welfare was often placed solely on the eldest son's shoulders.
Success for the son meant success for the family. Therefore, the son's manhood was literally
sacrificed for "the good of the family." The allure of a successful career in the Church or even
the opera far outweighed the possibility of a fruitful son and even more mouths to feed. As
prefaced by the upwardly mobile eunuchs of the Byzantine Empire's political world centuries
before, castration could be construed as a savvy career move, strange as that may seem in
modern times.
Castration itself even became a type of business. As more castrati were needed, agencies
were created to provide them. These singers became more than just altered boys, they became an
actual product of the country. Valeria Finucci states that, "Within a century of the start of this
phenomenal practice, castrati became the best known Italian commodity export on the continent"
(Finucci 2003). Before around 1570, most of the castrati were Spanish or French. But after this23
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Sowle, Jennifer. The Castrato Sacrifice: Was it Justified?, thesis, August 2006; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5343/m1/26/: accessed May 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .