A remarkable topic that, unfortunately, doesn't get the nuanced
handling it deserves. In a society in which the outrageous garners
maximum media attention, the Baroque-era castrati should be
guaranteed to lure readers other than scholars and opera fanatics.
What other history can discuss sex, forced genital mutilation,
religious hypocrisy, and adultery, all in the name of historical
research? Incredibly, Barbier manages to make this intriguing
16th-19th century European phenomenon (which involved the
castration of male children before puberty to preserve the purity
of their singing voices) boring, even annoying. His style is, on
the whole, plodding. Particularly bothersome is his overuse of
exclamation marks and his habit of asking questions and then not
answering them, this despite the fact that the inquiries often go
to the essence of a particular section. The chapter on the almost
hysterical appeal some women felt for castrati, for instance, asks:
"Was this merely the attraction of a circus phenomenon? Was it the
search by the ladies for a love-life without danger? Or the
exceptional power of a voice that numbed reason and led to 'the
delights of paradise'? The idealisation of a 'supernatural' being
who belonged to both sexes without knowing the limits of either?"
Intriguing ideas. Barbier's conclusion? "We shall never really
understand the intimate motivations of each spectator, man or
woman, in their relationships with the castrati." Which is not to
say that the book is totally without redeeming features. Barbier
(Opera in Paris, 1800-1850: A Lively History, 1995) knows his opera
and is fairly thorough in touching all the important bases. As
such, the book is a decent overview for people needing the basics.
A lesson in how to take a great story and dull it to death. (Kirkus
Reviews)
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. The castrati became a
legend that still fascinates us today. Thousands flocked to hear
and see these singing hybrids - part man, part woman, part child -
who portrayed virile heroes on the operatic stage, their soprano or
contralto voices weirdly at variance with their clothes and
bearing. The sole surviving scratchy recording tells us little of
the extraordinary effect of those voices on their audiences -
thrilling, unlike any sound produced by the normal human voice.
Illustrated with photographs and engravings, the book ranges from
the glories of patronage and adulation to the darker side of a
fashion that exploited the sons of poor families, denied them their
manhood and left them, when they were old, to decline into poverty
and loneliness. It is a story that will intrigue opera-lovers and
general readers alike, superbly told by a writer who has researched
his subject with the thoroughness of a true enthusiast.
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