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- Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!yale.edu!ira.uka.de!smurf.sub.org!nadia!delos!sinus!stefan
- From: stefan@sinus.stgt.sub.org (Stefan Bechtold)
- Subject: Re: male alti, counter-tenors, castrati, and so on
- Message-ID: <1992Dec26.233754.600@sinus.stgt.sub.org>
- Organization: Sinus Stuttgart, Germany
- References: <1992Dec23.012124.25043@news.cs.brandeis.edu> <1992Dec23.150355.24969@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
- Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 23:37:54 GMT
- Lines: 25
-
- velde2@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francois Velde) writes:
- >> (note that the "production" of castrati was *always* a fairly illegal
- >> affair in all of italy -- read the excerpt from burney in strunk's book --
- >> in other words opera 1600-1800 rested on a very illegal activity,
- >> punishable by death in some cases, a bit like if the major popular
- >> music stars of this era were, say, all children who'd been kidnapped and
- >> sold in slavely)
-
- >Might have been illegal (under whose law?) but the Pope's own chapel was
- >stocked with castrati for centuries.
-
- >Related question: what did a castrato sound like: a soprano or a countertenor?
- There are some recordings left which has been made 1902 and 1904 in
- Italy with ALFREDO MORESCHI who was the last castrato. There is a CD made
- of those recordings; really interesting !! (The company is OPAL). But
- I don't think you'll like the voice. However, I think you must have heard
- this CD if you're interested in such topics !
-
- Happy new year,
- Stefan
-
- --
- + Stefan Bechtold # stefanb@delos.stgt.sub.org # Voice +49 711 813240 +
- ++++++++sed nemo potuit tangere: merda fuit ! (Martial III 17)+++++++++
-
-