Feldman - The castrato: reflections on natures and kinds

Martha Feldman

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

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University of California Press

Oakland, California

2015 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Feldman, Martha.

The castrato : reflections on natures and kinds / Martha Feldman

p. cm. (Ernest Bloch lectures)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-520-27949-0 (cloth, alk. paper)

eISBN 978-0-520-96203-3

1. Castrati. I. Title.

ML 1460. F 45 2015

ML 1460. F 456dc232014011273

Manufactured in the United States of America

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In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z 39.48-1992 ( R 1997) ( Permanence of Paper ).

like ghosts, like family, like angels, translucent and in-between.

For additional images and audio-visual materials, see the books website at http://www.ucpress.edu/go/castrato.

Castraporcelli, s.m.

Castraporci, s.m.

[che esercita larte di castrare] a gelder.

Castrare, to geld, to castrate, to cut. Castrare [lo ntaccare i mattoni e le castagne accio non iscoppino quando si metton nel fuoco per cuocerli] to cut . Castrare un libro [levarne qualche cosa] to castrate a book, to cut off something from it, to castrate some part of it.

Castrato, s.m. [castrone] a wether, a male sheep gelded. Castrato [carne di castrato] mutton.

Castrato, adj. gelded . Libro castrato, a castrated book.

GIUSEPPE MARCO ANTONIO BARETTI, DIZIONARIO DELLE LINGUE ITALIANE, ED INGLESE (VENICE, 1795)

CASTRATO , A musician, who in his infancy had been deprived of the organs of generation, for the sake of preserving a shrill voice, who sings that part called sophrano. However small the connection may appear between two such different organs, it is a certain fact that the mutilation of the one prevents and hinders in the other that change which is perceptible in mankind, near the advance of manhood, and which, on a sudden, lowers their voice an eighth. There exist in Italy, some inhuman fathers, who sacrificing nature to fortune, give up their children to this operation, for the amusement of voluptuous and cruel persons, who have the barbarity to require the exertion of voice which the unhappy wretches possess.

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU, THE COMPLETE DICTIONARY OF MUSIC (LONDON, [1779])