The Castrato Sacrifice: Was it Justified? Page: 42
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There were some drawbacks to this level of fame and fortune, naturally. Many of these
drawbacks, however, were not obvious at the time, and many of the more famous castrati
enjoyed lives of lavish luxury. Some, however, felt immediate consequences. With these
soaring heights did come hindrances such as jealousy and even hatred from colleagues, both
male and female. A few singers such as Siface eventually paid for their arrogance with their
lives. His affair, had it been kept discreet instead of boasted about Bologna so publicly by the
amorous castrato himself, may not have been so treacherous. Other consequences were not so
readily obvious, and it is much more apparent today, looking on the situation as history. The
unparalleled Mozart himself, even after writing several parts for specific castrati, eventually
grew tired of their exhausting demands, financial and otherwise, and lost his passion for the
castrato voice in general (Scholz 2001). His letters reveal some of his disenchantment of the
way some castrati behaved. One describes a trick that a musico contrived during Mozart's
carnival opera Lucio Silla. In order to garner more acclaim and applause for himself than the
female prima donna, he devised that the archduchess be informed that he would be so unnerved
on stage that he would be unable to sing. This induced the archduchess to immediately applaud
when the castrato entered the stage, creating jealously among the other singers (Holmes 1979).
In a humorous account to Padre Martini of his days at Munich, he refers to the fact that the
castrati, or musici, are rather expensive:
With regard to the theatre, it is badly off in point of singers. We have no musici, and are
not likely to have any, because they insist on being well paid, and liberality is not one of
our failings. (Holmes 1979)
There may have been even more phenomenal Mozart music for these singers had a few of the
haughtier ones not eventually disillusioned him so.42
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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/m1/45/: accessed May 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .