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Beginning at the turn of the seventeenth century and lasting for over two hundred years, the musical phenomenon of the castrati took Europe by storm. This 'craze' for male soprano singers who had been castrated before puberty in order to preserve their high voices originated in Italy. It also coincided with the development and rise in popularity of opera, where the castrati were often featured performers. Composers, including Handel and Mozart, wrote music specifically for the unique voices of the castrati. Certain singers achieved international recognition for their talents, and had a popularity rivalling modern-day rock stars. Their fame was often so great that audiences were driven into frenzies of adoration at their appearance, and European monarchs and nobles fought to attract prominent singers to their courts as far away as Moscow and London. The castrati also had their detractors, however, and were sometimes ridiculed in print and in satirical cartoons. Although opinions could be either positive or negative, the phenomenon of the castrati was such that they could not be ignored. Many of the facts surrounding the rise and development of the castrati remain a mystery. Castration itself was by no means a new practice, having been performed in many cultures and for many reasons throughout history. For example it was often used to punish rapists and other criminals, and it was thought in Europe that castration could cure certain afflictions such as leprosy, gout, and madness. The link between castration and music, however, did not begin until the 16th century in Spain. In 1599 the Papal choir in Rome officially admitted its first two castrati, Pietro Folignati and Girolamo Rosini, although the choir probably had undeclared castrati in its ranks before this date. Pope Clement VIII was so enamoured of the vocal style that he eventually replaced all the traditional Spanish falsettos (male singers with naturally high voices) with castrati. When Roman audiences first heard the voices of these unique singers, they were equally enthusiastic. Society within the Papal States, and throughout Italy, was extremely hierarchical, and this ranking extended even to singers and their vocal range. The soprano voice, because it was the highest of the vocal classifications, was associated with all the benefits of youth and was, therefore, held in the highest regard by the public. This ensured that the castrati, whose artificially-created high voices and years of professional vocal training gave them greater skill as singers, had pre-eminence with Italian audiences. As well as having popular support, other conditions within Italy aided the growth of this new form of singing. Economic hardship struck Italy in the 1620s, coupled with plagues that struck between 1630 and 1656, resulting in de-industrialisation. Many, faced with increasing poverty, turned to religious asceticism as a reaction to the troubles, and it was not uncommon for children to find themselves forced to join religious orders, as this would ease the financial burden on a large family. If a boy showed an unusual degree of musical aptitude within the order, castration and further musical training was always an option, and had the potential of dramatically improving a family's economic situation if their son happened to become a successful singer. Also adding impetus to the growth of the castrati as a group was the Papal edict, issued under Innocent XI and continued by some of his successors, forbidding women to appear on the stage within the Papal States. The Church was generally ambivalent to the presence of castrati, however Clement VIII eventually authorised castration only ad gloriam Dei, 'for the Glory of God'. In spite of the fact that castrati were being welcomed to sing in religious settings, people known to castrate children were excommunicated. Still, the promise of wealth to those involved with the development of this new 'commodity' was such that parents, lured by the promise of financial security to be gained from having a son as a famous singer, would not have found it difficult to locate an individual willing to perform the surgery. Although it became necessary for boys (who were usually between the ages of seven and twelve) to sign a contract stating that they wished to be castrated, it is safe to say that the vast majority did not understand the full ramifications of the procedure. Many castrati had been led to believe that their operations were the result of medical necessity rather than the economic benefit of those involved. Although the genitals were not completely removed, and a castrato could, therefore, enjoy relatively normal sexual relations, the spermatic cord and the testicles were removed through an incision in the groin, preventing normal development through puberty. As well as affecting the voice, castrati were characterised by their lack of an Adam's apple, because the larynx did not descend to lower the voice, and an almost complete lack of body hair. Other characteristics, although not present in all castrati, included a muscular development similar to that of women, with fat being deposited on the hips, arms, and thighs, and unusual height. Although some castrati tended toward obesity, others, such as the famous Farinelli, caused women to swoon with their disturbing and androgynous beauty. A castrato's voice, however, was the primary cause of their fame, as they possessed the vocal power of a man, the vocal range of a woman, and the flexibility and lightness of a child's voice. It was these differences, because they bridged the gap between the genders, that caused listeners to describe the voices of the castrati as 'celestial' and 'angelic'. Their voices were also known as voci bianchi, or 'white voices' because of their ethereal qualities. The only surviving recording of a castrato's voice was done at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the poor quality of the recording means that we must rely more on contemporary descriptions to fully appreciate the spectacular range and power of the castrato voice.
 The most promising young singers began their careers at a very young age, often debuting in a church venue before trying their luck at a stage career. The success of opera, especially in its birthplace, Italy, and the popularity and financial success of castrati performing there made the stage the ultimate goal of most singers. The popular opera seria, or opera dealing with classical tragedies and other grand and dramatic themes, was created in Italy in large by and for the castrati themselves to showcase their talent, much to the delight of audiences. Opera, in its early years, relied exclusively on wealthy patrons, as operas were expensive to produce. It wasn't long, however, before the day-to-day running of the opera house was turned over to an impresario, or manager, and the doors were opened to the general public in the hopes of making the entertainment a profitable one. That profits must have been fast in coming is evident in the number of opera houses and theatres constructed during the seventeenth century, including over fifty in the Papal States alone. Italy contained the most opera houses, but the popularity of opera ensured that most large European cities soon built at least one opera house of their own. The creation of these houses created a unique social scene that brought all social classes together under one roof. In order to draw crowds of every kind, Italian houses outdid themselves to produce the greatest spectacles to dazzle the assembled audiences, who came from across Europe to witness the season's latest offerings. Horses, dogs, monkeys, and even camels and elephants were used in productions. Special effects were also common, including the reproduction of erupting volcanoes and storms at sea. Huge numbers of extras were brought in for battle scenes or cavalry charges, and scene changes were a constant occurrence, so much so that composers had to write music in strategic parts of the opera to drown out the noise of the machinery responsible for moving sets. The importance of opera in Italian society is suggested by the fact that one of the most famous of the set designers was Gianlorenzo Bernini, most noted for his extensive sculpture in St. Peter's basilica and throughout Rome.
Singers as young as twelve could be introduced in minor parts in these operas, and older newcomers were frequently used in female roles until their reputation had been established, when they would take the best roles of the heroes. Word of an exceptional voice would spread like wildfire, and opera houses vied with each other to offer the greatest singers the choicest roles in their productions. As demand increased, so too did the salaries that a castrato could charge for his services. Contemporaries were shocked at the rapid rise in the salaries of castrati. In 1739, for example, Cafferelli, one of the most famous of the castrati, was paid 2,263 ducats for the opera season, while the composer of the opera, Nicolas Porpora, was paid a mere 200 ducats and the copyist received only 8 ducats for the entire season. However, because the fame of the singer was vital to an opera house's success, impresarios had no choice but to meet the ever-escalating demands, often by cutting corners in other areas of the opera, such as the number of extras. The demand for money was not mere vanity, however, as opera seasons were usually short, and singers were often uncertain of revenue in the months when there were no operas being performed. For their part, the great castrati behaved very much like the rock stars of today, complete with individual moods and quirks that could easily reduce a hassled impresario to exasperation. One of the most notorious was the castrato Marchesi who insisted that his first appearance on stage, no matter which opera he happened to be performing, had to consist of himself at the top of a hill, carrying a lance and wearing a helmet adorned with red and white feathers. He also had to open every opera with the line "Where am I?" followed by a trumpet fanfare, after which he would sing an aria which was perfectly suited to show off his voice as he marched slowly down to the footlights to meet his adoring audience. Caffarelli would often leave between two halves of an aria to converse with ladies in their boxes, but would just as frequently insult his audience, the impresarios, and other singers, sometimes refusing to sing with his partners. It was not uncommon, if two singers were appearing on the stage, for them to deride each other's techniques during their arias, talk to members of the audience, take snuff, or walk off the stage altogether. If two well-known castrati were performing in the same opera, an impresario had to ensure that they were both equally represented in terms of the number of arias each sang, the character they represented, and even their placement on the stage. Although not all castrati behaved in such a manner, and indeed fast friendships were often formed between the castrati, the archetype was well enough established that it was attacked in public satires. In spite of the popularity of exotic settings for operas, the sets and costumes often made little attempt at historical accuracy, as many castrati refused to wear garments which they felt unflattering. The audience appears not to have minded, although one contemporary recorded seeing an opera wherein an extremely fashionable Julius Caesar was stabbed "shod in elegant ox-tongue shoes with blood-red heels and paste buckles, silk stockings with flowers embroidered in colours up the sides, olive-green knee-breeches with emerald fastenings, and an incipient rain of ringlets falling all about his face." It was the castrato's voice, however, that sent audiences into raptures and made the tantrums and strange behaviour tolerable. One of the most popular demonstrations of a singer's virtuosity was the vocal 'duel' between the castrato and a wind instrument, in which the instrument would play a long and complicated phrase to be mimicked back exactly by the singer, or embellished even further. Composers sought to demonstrate the power and range of the castrati by composing more and more challenging compositions, on top of which the singer would often invent as many ornamentations as he could dream up. Occasionally these highly-ornamented interludes were so long that the conductor of the orchestra could take a leisurely pinch of snuff before picking up the melody of the original song again. As opera developed, the use of such elaborate and complex music was moderated as the public's fancy swayed more towards a more natural style. Like today's most famous celebrities, the best castrati had their adoring fans whose admiration often went to extreme lengths, and they were an almost universal success with women. Their ethereal voices, androgynous beauty, and refinement and grace while on stage captivated audiences, and scenes bordering on hysteria often occurred wherever a famous singer appeared. Apart from fainting in delight at the sound of their particular idol's voice, both men and women would often go to extreme lengths to demonstrate their devotion. The castrato Marchesi, for example, was so admired by women in Vienna that they would wear up to five medallions with his portrait on their shoes, arms, and around their necks. At the last performance of the castrato Crescentini in Rome, women began weeping uncontrollably, which caused the audience nearly as much entertainment as the performance itself. Admirers would shower the stage with laurel wreaths, passionate sonnets, and other gifts, and the castrato Ferri even had a priceless emerald ring placed on his finger by a mysterious masked admirer after one performance. Crowds, worked into a frenzy of expectation, fought to find a place in the churches or palazzos where Vittori was giving a performance. The castrato Farinelli, after a hugely successful career singing in operas across Europe, was employed by the Spanish court for over two decades, where he rose to considerable political importance. From the most refined of the courts to the most humble of the cities' residents, the adoration of the public ensured the triumph of the castrati.
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Conservatories for
the education and training of the young castrati had often
begun as charitable schools or orphanages for poor children.
With the growing popularity of the castrati, and the
increased demand for singers, young boys became very
valuable commodities, and conservatories adapted to meet the
demand from across Europe for singers. Although there were
schools established throughout Italy, including prominent
schools in Rome and Bologna, the centre for musical
education was Naples, where no less than four schools were
established for the training of young musicians. Life in the
conservatories closely resembled that in a religious order,
with strict rules, curfew, often-meagre food and clothing,
and long hours of study and musical training for both the
castrati and other boys who had been taken in. In return for
room, board, and education, the schools financed the upkeep
of their poor charges by treating them as a sort of 'export
product', furnishing sponsors with young singers for
funerals, masses, processions, private concerts, and sacred
plays. Very young boys, called "cherub children" were even
dressed up as angels and employed to sing at the funerals of
dead children, a lucrative commission at a time of high
infant mortality. In spite of intensive training by the most
famous singing teachers, only about ten percent of students
ever reached the top echelons where they could hope to make
a reasonable living from their voices. Only about one
percent ever reached the kind of international recognition
and popularity enjoyed by the likes of castrati such as
Farinelli, Matteuccio, or Caffarelli. Others, who had
reasonable voices but did not succeed on the stage, had to
be content with singing in church choirs, a vocation for
which they had been principally trained. Even theatre
singers would often sing in church choirs to supplement
their incomes between opera seasons. The most unfortunate,
those who had been castrated but whose voices had failed to
improve with training, were left either to try and sing
lower parts or, failing that, to try to take up a musical
instrument. The students who ran away from the conservatory
(a practise which was not uncommon) were left to fend for
themselves as best as they could as they would not be
readmitted.
Unlike the opera
of today, which is a rather serious occasion, the opera of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was an
overwhelmingly social event. It
was considered bad form to pay attention to the entire
opera. Rather, the boxes of the aristocrats became the stage
for games of cards, food and drink, the occasional pet, and,
above all, gossip. Discarded food was often thrown into the
pit, to fall where the working class people contributed to
the general noise and confusion of the crowd by carrying on
loud conversations, shouting insults at performers or other
patrons, or starting fights. The candles and lanterns
provided a constant illumination, and were not dimmed to
signal the beginning of the performance. The only pause in
the general din was when a famous singer came on stage to
perform an aria, signalled by a series of loud chords at the
end of the previous song, and it was during these arias in
which it was not uncommon for individuals to be moved to
tears. In spite of the apparent disinterest in the rest of
the opera, huge applause greeted its end, and the stage
would often be showered in flowers and gifts, and the
audience would demand encores of their favourite songs.
This triumph,
however, was relatively short-lived. Just as all fashions
inevitably alter, new developments in opera and in public
taste signalled the gradual decline in the use of the
castrati beginning in the second half of the eighteenth
century. The French, who had never been overly keen on the
voices and mannerisms of the castrati, or Italian opera in
general, were at the forefront of the opposition. French
philosophes, among them Voltaire and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, saw the practice of castration as an "offence
against nature", unbecoming in a supposedly modern and
enlightened society. They stressed the rights of every man
and, in so doing, undermined the practise of castration.
Although they often exaggerated the threat posed by
castration (overstating the number of boys who underwent the
operation and stating that Italy was in danger of having its
entire population die out), the attacks by the French raised
awareness of the moral issues involved in castration for
musical purposes. From 1744 to 1790 the Neapolitan
Conservatories had either been closed down or were in severe
financial trouble because of administrative mismanagement
and growing inadequacy of the musical instructors. By 1790
the Pope had revoked the ban on women performing on stage,
and opened the doors to increased competition for the
coveted soprano roles. Audiences who had once had a taste
for the castrato voice now turned their favour to female
singers and tenor voices. The development of comic and
romantic opera around this period also dealt a serious blow
to the pre-eminence of the castrati, as they did not have a
place in the new genres of opera and the opera seria of
which they had been a mainstay was becoming less and less of
a draw to audiences. By the nineteenth century the castrati
had virtually disappeared from the operatic scene, although
they still had places in Church choirs, but even here the
public's enthusiasm steadily declined. The practice was
completely banned in the Papal States in 1870, with the last
surviving castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, having undergone
the surgery around 1865. From thereafter, the practice was
universally condemned and was gradually forgotten until the
present day when the subject has once again inspired public
interest. 
