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From:  velluti@c...
velluti@c...
Date:  Tue Mar 20, 2001  8:35 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Comparative size of castrati and countertenor voices WAS: Choir Alt


You have heard them all, haven't you ? There is *some* quality there !

> Oh, I'm not using Moreschi's recordings of evidence for anything
> (besides, they're even worse than you suggest - probably ceramic or
> wire recordings, with no defined rpm - so we're not even certain of
> the keys of those songs!

They were G& T recordings, on shellac. The pitch was worked out by Pavilion
Records.

> One sees some speculation about their larger, uncalcified
> rib cages to explain breath capacity, but not too often about
> super-human power.

This theory was based on the fact that the castrati were much taller and
broader than the
average male of their day, and because it was felt that their bodies, lacking
testosterone,
developed the only way they could, hence their massive rib-cages
> Then people might say, *why* weren't CTs more often used by Handel?

They were, to a certain extent, in oratorio, less in opera; see Winton Dean's
"Handel's
Dramatic Oratorios and Masques".

> So, IMO, it is more speculative to say castrati were superhuman than
> to say they were probably a lot like modern singers, just really well
> trained.

They were indeed; their long years at the Conservatorie proved that. Equally,
a well-trained
countertenor (and there are quite a few nowadays) can sing and interpret a
castrato role just
as well as the equivalent female mezzo. It all comes down to a matter of
individual taste; the
endocrinal and non-endocrinal male sopranos make a pretty good stab at some of
the arias
originally written for castrati. I can provide some examples.
My approach to this subject is, of necessity a little different from that of
most of the members
of this group, as I am an historian, not, regretfully, a musician.
Elsa

http://www.cix.co.uk/~velluti
Award: September 2000
Modified: Jan. 2001

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