The Castrato Sacrifice: Was it Justified? Page: 29
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teach them at a young age to bring out the meaning of the words that they sang. Mere vocal
acrobatics would not suffice. These students were taught to truly express the meaning of the
music they were learning. This type of education fell under the heading of "letters" and was
done both in the morning and in the afternoon (Heriot 1975).
Once a boy had successfully passed all his various tests and satisfactorily refined his
voice, he was proclaimed ready for his debut. This was generally between the ages of fifteen and
twenty. For his professional debut he would be contracted to an opera house. Because of the
obvious uniqueness in both voice and appearance of the castrati, they almost always made their
debut as a female. Because the stage life was considered undignified and immodest for females,
non-castrated males had previously been used. Until the 17th century, women were banned from
the stage altogether. Even after the ban was no longer strictly enforced, women were still
discouraged from the stage. It was simply seen as immodesty. Pope Clement XI stated, "A
beautiful woman who sings on stage and keeps her chastity is like a man who leaps into the Tiber
and keeps his feet dry" (Gewertz 2003).
But drawbacks to the method of using intact males for female roles are quite imaginable.
Even a rather effeminate normal male could not compete with the naturally more feminine
characteristics and exquisite voice of a castrated youth. Abbott humorously describes what the
pre-castrati situation may have been like:
One sees a stout shepherdess in virgin white with a soft blue beard and a prominent
collarbone... clenching a nosegay in a fist that would almost have knocked down Goliath,
and a train of milkmaids attending her enormous footsteps. (Abbott 1999)
Castrati were not burdened by facial hair, or by the obvious Adam's apple to contradict the stage
illusion that they were a lonely shepherdess or a voluptuous vixen.29
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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/m1/32/: accessed May 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .