Cecilia Bartoli could have followed the path of least resistance. When the Italian mezzo-soprano burst onto the opera scene in the early '90s with a standard repertoire of Rossini and Mozart, she ...

Long before botched plastic surgery ruined a movie star’s career, they were the original showbiz victims. Castrati were young opera singers in past centuries castrated to preserve a high-pitched voice ...

1562 The Sistine Chapel choir accepts its first castrato member. 1607 Claudio Monteverdi writes Orfeo, the first major opera, with several roles for castrati. 1737 Farinelli, the most celebrated of ...

For a solid portion of musical history, castrato singers or ‘castrati’ had a prominent role in operas, churches and courts across Europe. But why were young boys forced to undergo the gruesome ...

Everyone knows what a toll the rock-star lifestyle can exact. Drugs and alcohol are de rigueur, sexual promiscuity often comes with the territory, and loss of hearing is yet another occupational ...

Opera latecomer Vivica Genaux builds a reputation by singing music originally performed by castrated men. The New York Times names her solo debut CD — composed of the "greatest hits" of famed ...

Monsters and Prodigies: A History of the Castrati: By Jorge Kuri. Directed by Claudio Valdés Kuri. With Javier Medina, Kaveh Parmas, Raúl Román, Gastón Yanes, Miguel Ángel López et al. (Through Sun.