One of the strangest episodes in operatic history is the story of the castrati. In their heyday they were the toast of Europe: idolised, feted, adored by men and women alike, patronised by royalty and the nobility. They were showered with gifts, lived in the height of luxury and, in some cases, behaved like the most petulant prima donnas of modern times. And they are reputed to have sung like angels. Patrick Barbier's entertaining and authoritative book is the first full study of the subject in the context of the baroque period. Covering the lives of more than sixty singers from the end of the sixteenth century to the nineteenth, he blends history and anecdote as he examines their social origins and backgrounds, their training and debuts, their brilliant careers, their relationship with Society and the Church and their decline and death.

Reviews

The practice of castrating boy sopranos continues to both repel and fascinate the modern audience. Reflecting these responses, this book vacillates between an up-to-date obsession with clinical details and a Victorian sense of shock. As Barbier (music history, West Catholic Univ., Angers) documents here, some of the castrasti were extraordinary singers and led interesting lives, both public and private. But the book adds few new details to what has previously been known, and it is neither scholarly enough to be a definitive study nor breezy enough to entertain. A more interesting treatment is still Angus Heriot's The Castrati in Opera (1956. o.p.).‘Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto