The Castrato Sacrifice: Was it Justified? Page: 59
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that would mark the castrati's descent. Orfeo ed Euridice, his first "reform opera", premiered in
Vienna in 1762. His goal was to:
divest [opera] entirely of all these abuses, introduced into it either by mistaken vanity of
singers or by the too great complaisance of composers, which have so long disfigured
Italian opera and made of the most splendid and beautiful of spectacles the most
ridiculous and wearisome. (Somerset-Ward 2004)
Leaving the da capo aria totally behind and replacing the dry recitative with fully
orchestrated accompanied recitative, he strove to make opera a much more emotional experience.
Arias would become part of the dramatic framework, rather than interchangeable works meant
simply to showcase the singer. Ironically, much of the success of this opera is due to the
aforementioned castrato Gaetano Guadagni, who sung the title role. Even the reform of opera
that would begin to diminish the popularity of the castrati was aided by one of the singers
themselves. They were simply invaluable in every facet of opera life at the time. Other forms of
opera such as opera buffa, which had no real place for castrati, were becoming popular with not
only Gluck, but other such composers as Mozart, Sarti, and Cimarosa. At times they would write
a role for a castrato, but opera was evolving, and the castrati clearly were simply no longer
concentric. The final major castrato opera performance was in 1829 by Giovanni Velluti in
Meyerbeer's Crociato in Egitto. Castrati continued to sing in the Sistine Chapel choir until 1902,
with a seven year pause during the Napoleon invasion (Jenkins 1998).
The factors that consummately led to the ascent of the castrati were decidedly the very
same factors that caused their popularity to begin to wane. The inevitable metamorphosis of
opera certainly played a large part. The desperate economic situation that so had impoverished
Italy and set the stage for countless castrati to be created was healing. The 1730s marked an end
to this depression, and the number of castrations began to significantly decline, further
evidencing that this was a rather significant factor in their creation.59
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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/m1/62/: accessed May 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .