The Rise and Fall of Castrati

Victor Ginsburgh
ECARES, Université libre de Bruxelles and CORE, Université catholique de Louvain

Luc Leruth
International Monetary Fund

April 2017

ECARES working paper 2017-15

ECARES
ULB - CP 114/04
50, F.D. Roosevelt Ave., B-1050 Brussels BELGIUM
www.ecares.org
 The Rise and Fall of Castrati*

Victor Ginsburgh
ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles
and CORE, Université catholique de Louvain

Luc Leruth
International Monetary Fund

April 2017

Abstract

Castrato singers appeared in the Western World during the 16th century. They were
needed by the Church for reasons that we shall discuss, and their skills were such that
opera composers also decided to use them. This created a major demand for their
services. Castrati reigned supreme at the Opera until the mid-19th century and
continued to sing in Italian churches until 1913. The last one died in Rome in 1922. The
paper shows that economic incentives played a key role in explaining the rise and fall of
this remarkable group of singers.

JEL codes: D10, J2, N83, Z11, Z12

Keywords: castrated singers, singing in the Church, opera

*
Sharon Gerstel’s references on Byzantine castrati were extremely useful. She made us aware of the relation
between the type of architecture of churches (high and low ceilings) and the type of chanting (high- or low-
pitched singing). We are also grateful to Gani Aldachef, Christine Demol, Catherine Massip, Henri Van Hulst
and Sheila Weyers for comments and suggestions. Early discussions with Hector Bianciotti (†) are also
acknowledged. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the IMF, its management or its
Board of Directors. The usual disclaimer applies.

1
1. Introduction

Castration is already present in very old myths, such as in Hesiod’s Theogony. In Egypt,

Horus, son of Isis and Osiris, emasculated Set who had killed his brother. In India, the

tradition of castration goes back to Krishna, a God who could turn into a woman if required

by circumstances. Castration also goes a long way back in China (where the last eunuch of

the imperial court died in 1996), in the Middle East, in Athens and Rome among the early

Christians, and in Russia.1 In some places, the practice continued to exist until a fairly recent

past. Mamy (1998, p. 8) reports that, in 1871, a Russian sect counted about 5,400 castrati.

Some were still living in Romania after the Second World War and today’s eunuchs in India

(called hijras and known for their artistic dispositions, including singing) proudly claim their

Krishna heritage (see Jaffrey, 1996).

With the exception of the hijras however, castration was essentially motivated by religious,

mystic or pagan principles, not by music. The first historically reported story of castration for

musical purposes in Europe seems to have taken place in the beginning of the third century

A.D. when Plautinus, minion of Emperor Septimius Severus, castrated one hundred young

free Romans (not slaves) in his own palace so that his daughter Plautilla could educate them

as singers and dancers (Haböck, 1927, pp. 73-74). The notion that castration would preserve

young boys’ voices has thus quite ancient roots.2

For very long, the Church condemned the use of castrates as singers, and references to them

are rare before the 13th century. The respect surrounding eunuchs in Byzantium3 may explain

1
For a short introduction about where castration was common, see Erlich (1991, pp. 11-19).
2
See Jenkins (1998) for a description of the effects of castration on voices.
3
Eunuchs were very important in Byzantium and, according to Moran (2002, p. 100), “the state could not have
functioned without them.”

2
why they were used to sing in the Orthodox Church, where it was believed that their chants

were coming from God and the angels: Chanting of the psalms in antiphony with two choirs,

was “first introduced in the second century by St Ignatius of Antioch, who was inspired by a

vision of angels celebrating the Holy Trinity in alternating choirs” (Moran, 2002, p.101). In

the early 5th century, Brison, a eunuch choirmaster in the service of Empress Eudoxia,

organized nocturnal hymn-singing during the patriarchate of John Chrysostom (Moran, 2002,

p. 101). Haböck (1927, p. 137) reports that the chief eunuch of the ruling Empress was

training other eunuchs, imported from Greece and Slavic countries, to perform hymns. Under

the rule of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch during the 12th century, castrati were

performing in all Oriental catholic churches (Mamy, 1998, p. 14). They completely

disappeared after the sack of Constantinople by the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, however,

which led to the introduction of the Latin rite in the Hagia Sophia church. Castrati had to flee,

and their use in Orthodox churches became limited to Greece (Thessaloniki, Mount Athos

among other places) and in monasteries in southern Italy and Sicily (Moran, pp. 108, 110).4

When the papacy (at the time, the role of the Pope was carried out by the bishop of Rome)

moved to Italy in 1257, two hundred years after the schism of the churches of the Roman and

the Byzantine Empires, some of the customs and traditions acquired in Byzantium, in

particular chants in high-pitched voices, moved with them to Italy and, eventually, to Rome.

At first, women could sing the parts but rules against them singing or even speaking in

churches were soon more strictly enforced. As castration was ‘forbidden,’ young boys had to

perform the soprano musical parts in choirs. But using young boys turned out to be an

4
Note that there seems to be a contradiction. Monasteries and cloisters have low vaults and domes, and there is
more need for lower registers which stay close to ground level rather than high-pitched voices. High-pitched
voices perform better in buildings with high vaults (Gothic churches) that allow voices to rise up. This was the
case in Hagia Sophia, but not so much in monasteries (Gerstel, 2017, Fricano, 2015). On March 24, 2017,
Graeme Boone from the music department at Ohio State University gave a seminar at Columbia which goes in
the same direction. The title of his talk was Blurred lines: Late medieval counterpoint and architectural design.
(http://music.columbia.edu/events/graeme-boone-on-late-medieval-polyphony-and-architecture).

3
expensive endeavour as few were ready to embrace a short (until their voice would break)

and demanding career. This limited supply, while demand remained high. The situation was

no longer sustainable. The appearance of castrati, partly reflecting economic incentives,

changed the business model. Economic motives also contributed to the end of their reign as

the southern part of Italy, from where most of the castrati were originating at the time,

became richer. But there were also other reasons: the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck

changed the content and performing of operatic works; the Church as well as opera fans

started to feel embarrassed by castration; Napoleon banned it after he conquered Italy; and

the quality of music schools deteriorated (Mamy, 1998, pp. 104-105).

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we show how castrati provided a cheap and

in many ways attractive alternative to young boys singing in churches. In Section 3, we

discuss how economic incentives contributed to the rise of castrati in operas as well. Section

4 is devoted to the fall of castrati, and Section 5 concludes.

2. The 16th Century Rise of Castrati in the Church

For long, the rules about women in the Church, although strict, were met with resistance and

not really implemented.6 The Ecclesiasticus had suggested not to use “the company of a

woman that is a singer, lest haply thou be caught by her attempts,” and it clearly stated that

“with singing, women sleep no lest, they burn thee with their mouths.” In one of his letters to

the Corinthians, Saint Paul had added his own touch by asking them to prevent women from

6
According to the New Grove Dictionary (Grove, 2004, vol. 5, p. 804), it is not fully clear that early Christians
excluded women. Their exclusion started when “lay congregations ceased to join in the singing and an
exclusively male clergy assumed the control of church music.”

4
even speaking in churches.7 After the 1257 schism however, as the Papacy moved to Europe,

these rules were more firmly implemented.

With girls and women silent, high-pitched singing in Italy was performed by boys educated

in schools created by the Popes. This eventually led to the well-known Schola Cantorum and

the Choir of the Sistine Chapel. The use of young boys or of Spanish falsettos (male singers

expert at singing high notes)8 extended to the rest of Christian Europe during the Middle

Ages. These young boys and trained falsettos were sought with much effort and money by

churches and nobility from all countries. Soon, this practice became unsustainable.

First, suitable young boys mostly came from well-to-do families, since their talent had to be

tested and confirmed by music teachers who would then be able to recommend them to a

church. Convincing rich youngsters to join church choirs and work hard on becoming good

musicians was not easy, and well-off families often had better plans for their children. An

example of this can be found in a letter quoted by Auda (1930, pp. 49-51): “The imperial

court organist Michel de Bock was charged by his sovereign to find singers in the Low

Countries. One of the younger altos [a certain Adrien, son of Lenyn d’Enghien, whom he had

discovered] did not want to come. [De Bock] turned to asking Her Majesty the Governess of

the Low Countries to make use of her authority to obtain the consent of the young boy.”

Another case relates to the famous composer Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594) who, as a

7
Corinthians (First Letter, 14, 33-35) states: “As in all the congregations of the Lord’s people, women should
remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says, if they
want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman
to speak in the church.” This text is supposedly due to St Paul, but is often considered a post-Pauline
interpolation.
8
Moran (2002, p. 112) wonders whether “the term ‘Spanish falsettist’ for singers in the Sistine Chapel [was]
merely a euphemism for eunuchs from southern Italy, then held by the Spanish house of Aragon, or were the
doctors assigned to orphanages in Naples directed in their study of the Epitome of Medicine by Paul of Aegina,
with its account of operations of castration, by aural memories of the castrati in the Italo-Greek cloisters?”

5
youngster, was kidnapped three times to be enrolled as singer in a choir (Van den Borren,

1920, p. 3).

Second, there is evidence that the price the Church had to pay to find and host these young

boys was escalating. To lurk their parents, the compensation could even include long-term

financial commitments such as paying for the boy’s further music (or other) studies after his

voice would break (Auda, 1930, p. 50). The proposition was thus costly, with high demand,

low supply, short useful life span, fast turnover and intensive training.9 It was no longer

financially viable for the Church but the taste for high-pitched voices remained strong.

Castrati provided an opportunity to change the business model. They had existed in Portugal

and Spain for centuries but they had not been considered as substitutes for male or female

singers. In Italy, on the other hand, they quickly became fashionable and a large number of

them (“by the thousands,” according to Haböck, 1927, p. 150) arrived from Spain and

Portugal in the second half of the 16th century. Clearly, demand originated from the Church

for, as early as in 1562, they were already admitted to sing in the papal choir at the Sistine

Chapel. However, castrati of Italian origin officially only arrived at the Chapel in 1599

(Barbier, 1998, p. 9).

9
See Bontempi (1695, p. 170) who describes at great length the many teaching hours young students had to
take: “The schools of Rome obliged their pupils to devote an hour of each day to singing difficult and awkward
pieces for the sake of acquiring experience. Another hour to practising the trill. Another to practising passaggi.
Another to literary study and another to training and exercises in song, in the hearing of the Maestro and in front
of a mirror so as to develop the habit of making no unsuitable movement, whether of waist or brow or eyelashes
or mouth. And all these were the activities for the morning. After midday, half an hour would be devoted to
theoretical instruction, another half-hour to counterpoint over a cantus firmus, one hour to receiving the parts for
the counterpoint and putting them up on the cartella; another hour to literary study; and the remainder of the day
to practice in playing the clavicembalo, and to the composition of a psalm or a motet, or a canzonetta or other
type of cantilena, depending on the inclination of the individual. These were the regular exercises of the days
when the pupils stayed in their school. And when they went out, the exercises included going frequently to sing
and listen to the resulting echo at a place outside the Porta Angelica, towards Monte Mario, so as to evaluate for
themselves their own singing; going to sing in virtually all of the musical events held in the churches of Rome;
and to observe the manners of singing of many distinguished singers who flourished during the pontificate of
Urban VIII, to do exercises based on these, and to give account of all this, on their return, to the Maestro, who
would then add the necessary commentary and give suitable pieces of advice, so as to increase the impression
made on the minds of the pupils.”

6
Determined to further increase the supply of potential singers, the Church decided to offer to

any boy who had suffered an “unfortunate accident” (that is, a castration) a guaranteed

minimum standard of living in the form of basic food and lodging, together with musical

training. This offer was hard to resist for Spanish or Portuguese families and many decided to

sacrifice the boyhood of one or several of their sons. Soon, Italian youngsters were also

drawn in. The economic conditions of the average farmer in Southern Italy were rather

miserable, with high birth rates (33.5 to 36.5 per 1,000)10 and low wages, as illustrated in

Table 1. Columns (2) and (3) reproduce indices (1860-70 = 100) of Italian agricultural and

urban wages computed by Federico and Malanima (2004, pp. 459-461), who also estimate

daily agricultural and urban wages in 1860-70 at 1.33 and 2.11 lire respectively. This allows

us to transform the indices in columns (2) and (3) to values in Lire (columns (4) and (5)) and

to compute the ratio of the two wages in column (6). As can be checked in the first part of the

table, the ratio was equal to some 40 percent between 1550 and 1700 and the situation was

probably even worse in southern Italy.

Possibly in order to reduce the Church’s responsibility, Pope Sixtus V issued a papal bulla

against castration in 1586 but did not insist on its enforcement. The bulla may, however, have

slowed down supply because Pope Clemens VIII (1592-1602) took corrective action by

issuing a breve (brief) claiming that castration was consented “to honour God” (Haböck,

1927, p. 165), in a clear allusion to the needs of the Church. Supply resumed. By the

beginning of the 17th century, every large town in Italy and every court elsewhere in Europe

started building its orchestra and choir. Religious music concerts opened to the public and,

10
Danubio et al. (2003).

7
since women were still not allowed to perform, castrati were present everywhere.11 The

double choir of San Marco in Venice held 17 castrati among its singers while half of the 16

singers at Saint Anthony’s church in Padua were castrati (Haböck, 1927, p. 172 and 176).

Heriot (1975, p. 25) mentions that every church in Italy had castrati singing in the choir or as

soloists, and there were 200 such churches in Rome alone.

A second effect came into play that had possibly not been foreseen in the early days. A

castrated boy was essentially promised a life that totally depended on music as his single

trade. If he had no talent – and, with so many boys being castrated, there is no reason to

belief that the lack of musical gift was not identically distributed among castrati and the

general population – he could be sent to a faraway church where the lack of skill would be

less noticeable. The church could also simply get rid of him. The boy then had to live out of

prostitution or begging.12 For those who had talent, the church sought to increase motivation

by improving the basic package with access to priesthood or even money. Competition

increased among good singers, motivated by the undisputable evidence that working hard

was the only way out of misery.

Tough competition between many talented young boys led to the birth of what would

arguably become the most brilliant generation of singers ever. Opera owners and composers

noticed this and started relying on castrati who soon became their preferred singers. Demand

increased and the Church had to adjust its package once more in order to retain its best

11
Contrary to what happened in Italy, Germany (and other European countries) used castrati at courtly stages
only, not in churches.
12
Castrated boys tended to develop physical features that made their bodies somewhat similar to that of women
and there was thus an interest from some men. Even Casanova may have succumbed to the charms of one. In his
memoirs, he talks very highly – but quite evasively – of a certain Bellino met in Ancona in February 1744.
Castrati could also attract women and get married. Ancillon (1707) wrote a book to convince his niece not to
marry one. She changed her mind before the book was finished, but it came out nonetheless because other
young women might have had to be dissuaded (which seems to indicate a certain likelihood that it could
happen).

8
singers. Cleverly, instead of offering princely compensation to boys whose talent was in

demand outside, it decided to grant them sabbatical leaves: Castrati were thus given an

opportunity to make money in operas all over the World, while keeping the guaranteed

benefits of a tenure in some church.

3. The Rise of Castrati at the Opera

The high days of castrati had started in the middle of the 17th century and the model seemed

to suit most. For the Church, the cost of a high-pitched singer remained low compared to the

pre-castrati days. Besides, castrati could sing for many years and they were good singers.

Women could be silenced as the Ecclesiasticus and Saint Paul had wished. For poor families

who had sacrificed the boyhood of some of their children, there was the hope that their kids

would benefit from a free education. Less noble was the prospect of financial savings from

reducing the number of members in the family. For the castrated boy, there were more

opportunities (even if they still depended on his musical talent) and the combination of

income sources enhanced the likely remuneration package. These prospects possibly also

contributed to an increase in the supply of castrated boys, which became considerable (as did

the increase in the number of unfortunate crib accidents reported by poor families).

Between 1637 (the year of the opening of the first public opera house, the Teatro San

Cassiano in Venice) and 1700, some 300 operas were composed and/or performed in

Venice,13 and another 300 were written in (and for) other cities. Though castrati were already

used at the opera,14 Pope Innocent XI (1676-1689) had found it necessary to extend the

prohibition of women appearing on theatre and opera stages (as opposed to churches only),

13
See Mamy (1994) for details concerning the role of castrati in Venetian opera houses.
14
One can trace the use of castrati back to 1607, in a performance of Monteverdi’s Orfeo.

9
not only in Italy, but also in all catholic countries.15 A couple of years later, Pope Clement XI

(1700-1721) insisted: “Man knows well that a beauty which sings on stage while willing to

protect her chastity, is like springing in the Tiber without willing to wet one’s feet” (Haböck,

1927, p. 223). Pope Clement XII (1730-1740) renewed this injunction, and it was again

enacted in 1826. Though these edicts or injunctions were not always followed (see Heriot,

1975, pp. 28-29), they introduced boys to sing instead of women, and ended up with castrati

for whom some roles (including heroes such as Julius Cesar or Nero) were especially

composed. The Italian audience obviously preferred high-pitched voices even for male

heroes,16 while male voices were just good enough for ‘weird’ or ‘comic’ operas. Though

women were still singing, the training of castrati was superior to theirs (Heriot, 1975, p. 30)

because of its rigor. By shifting to the falsetto voice, castrati also developed a range that far

exceeded that of both men and women and they were trained to shift from their natural

register to the falsetto without apparent break. Finally, their skills made them able to

embroider the composer’s partition in the rather over-the-top way that the public enjoyed at

the time. In the 18th century, 70 percent of all male opera singers were castrati (Heriot, 1975,

p. 31).

This enticed many other European countries to follow suit, increasing the scope for

remuneration outside the Church, and providing another boost to the demand for castrati. In

some places producing castrati became an industry (Haböck, 1927, p. 237). The Southern

poor provinces of Italy, in particular Naples and Puglia, supplied some 4,000 castrati per year

during the 18th century. Markets for singers were organized in many cities, the most

important being Bologna during the summer when opera houses were closed. There were so

many castrati however, that the less gifted ones could not be absorbed by the market, and
15
Note that in Ancient Greece as well as in the Roman Empire, only men were allowed to perform as actors.
16
Leonardo Vinci’s opera Artaserse needed three castrati; the lowest voice in the opera was a tenor (Haböck,
1927, p. 236).

10
many boys ended up as teachers of music, in obscure monasteries, or in taverns. At least,

these occupations provided them with their daily food and lodging needs.

We already mentioned that very good castrati would travel considerably (see Burney, 1771

for several examples). The few best would become incredibly rich superstars and could live

in luxury on their own.17 Farinelli (1705-1782) was invited to give concerts in the music

capitals of Europe (e.g. Vienna, Munich, London) where he was paid £5,000 for a season,

some £900,000 at today’s value;18 in Paris, he sang for Louis XV, in Spain, for the court.

Caffarelli (1710-1783) performed in several Italian cities, but also in Spain, Austria, Portugal

and France, where Louis XV had invited him as well. When he turned fifty, he bought the

domain of Santo Dorato in Southern Italy, was made Duke of Santo Dorato by the Pope, and

built a huge palace. He then stopped singing in theatres, although he still accepted to

occasionally perform in churches and chapels. Haböck (1927, pp. 392-394) mentions that he

bequeathed his nephew a rent of 14,000 ducats per year, roughly $1.8 million at today’s price

of gold.19 Although Cafarelli and Farinelli are arguably the two best-known castrati, there

were other ‘superstars.’ In 1640’s Vienna, castrato Giardini made 298 guilders, while other

singers were paid 40 to 50 guilders (Haböck, 1927, p. 450). Manzuoli was asked by Farinelli

to come to Madrid with a yearly wage of 16,000 ducats, $2 million at today’s price of gold

(Haböck, 1927, p. 468).20 Other examples of high wages can be found in Barbier (1998).

Parents probably ignored the possibility of their castrated boys to become superstars,

since the probability was too low. Their chief motive must have consisted of the bait taut by

17
However, though castrati were working in other parts of Europe (especially Germany, Spain and England), at
the time, the ‘surgical operation’ was only rarely performed elsewhere than in Italy and, if so, by Italian
‘surgeons,’ usually hairdressers.
18
See Allen (2012) for the conversion rate.
19
One ducat weighted 3.5 grams of gold. Fourteen thousand ducats represent thus 49 Kgs of gold, which are
worth $1.8 million today.
20
Other examples of high wages can be found in Barbier (1998).

11
the Church that their children would benefit from a minimal package of food, education and

lodging and, with some luck, to get promoted to priesthood during the rest of their life. This

would provide financial relief to a poor farmer who could also take comfort in the notion that

the boy would sing for God, and that his other children would be better off. Beyond that, the

family probably realized that these children, even if they became rich, would be resentful and

not keen to share their money with them.21

Once castrated, the children had no other option than working hard and try to outperform

each other with the hope to become famous. This would give them social status and protect

them from ridicule. The winner takes all argument, as well as some other possible benefits,22

were an incentive for the boy after some years of studying and practicing music, not for the

family.

Therefore, the economic process consisted in a two-stage bait, each stage addressing

different individuals: The minimum package offered by the Church was a first-stage bait for

the parents; the winner takes all in case of success was the second-stage bait, aimed

at their castrated children.

4. The Fall of the Castrati

By the mid-19th century, castrati were no longer fashionable in churches nor in opera houses.

Haböck (1927, pp. 197-198) reports that “in 1841, there were only five castrati aged seven to

21
Castrato Loreto Vittori was introduced to someone claiming to be his father and begging the castrato for
financial help. Vittori responded that “he would return to him what he was owing, and coldly offered him an
empty purse (purse = bourse = scrotum). Many singers were to have recourse to Vittori’s symbolic gesture,
[including] in front of King Louis XV of France” (Barbier, 1998, p. 160).
22
According to Heriot (1975, p. 55), “[castrati] were of course much in demand by the opposite sex (sic), for
their embraces could not lead to awkward consequences.” See also Barbier (1998, p. 137).

12
ten left in the Roman St Michael’s Hospice for children [located close to the Sistine bridge],

and the supply completely stopped in 1870. To the many who visited the Sistine Chapel,

including composers and musicians such as Ludwig Spohr, Mendelssohn, or Rossini, the

quality had severely declined (they assessed the voices as ‘mediocre’). Famous music lovers

mostly agreed with them.23 The last ‘great’ castrato was Domenico Mustafà (1829-1912). His

castration was attributed to the usual cause: the attack of a pig, which happened when he was

still a baby sleeping in a crib left unattended.24 After his retirement, there were still three

castrati—the very last ones—singing in the Sistine choir and in the Cappella Giulia at St.

Peter’s cathedral in Rome: Salvatori, Sebastianelli (who had also been ‘bitten’ by a pig) and

Moreschi.25

The disappearance of castrati from the opera world was due to a number of factors.

Composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) changed the form of operatic works by

increasing the role of the dramatic story and reducing that of the singer(s). In his preface to

Alceste, he notes that he wants to “confine music to its proper function of serving the poetry

[and] my greatest effort should be directed to seeking a beautiful simplicity,” omitting, as

pointed out by Grout (1973, p. 468), “the outworn conventions of the da capo aria [restarting

23
E.g. Stendhal during a visit to the Vatican. In 1791, Italian poet Giuseppe Parini composed an Ode, La
Musica, which starts as follows: “Aborro in su la scena, / un canoro elefante / che si trascina a pena / su le
adipose piante, / e manda per gran voce / di bocca un fil di voce.” In English: I hate on scene / a singing
elephant / who moves at great pain / on his adipose feet / and utters a thin voice / through his big mouth (our
translation).
24
Mustafa was not the forgiving type either and would occasionally become violent when the role of his parents
in his condition was discussed.
25
Moreschi is the only castrato who was ever recorded by Thomas Edison in 1902 and 1904. See
https://cogitz.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/castrati-castrated-for-the-love-of-music/ for an Ave Maria sung by
Moreschi. If you want to avoid the original scratches go to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&v=KLjvfqnD0ws or even better to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Moreschi. It may also be worth reading what musical historian
Pazacchi (1840-1904) wrote after listening to castrati in the Vatican chapel. The full quotation would be too
long, but here is his conclusion: “All my being was marvelously satisfied… a calm, sweet, solemn and sonorous
musical language that left me dumbstruck, and captivated me with the power of a most gracious sensation never
before experience” (quoted by Heriot, 1975, pp. 36-37). Note that German writer and poet Goethe was also
enthused by what he heard during his trip to Italy (Habök, 1927, pp. 187-188). See also Leruth’s (2001) novel
which gives details on Moreschi’s life.

13
from the beginning] or the desire of singers to show off their skill in ornamental variation” in

which the castrati were very skilled. With some exceptions such as Cherubino in Le Nozze di

Figaro, and some early pieces that he had composed for castrati, Mozart’s characters could

hardly be entrusted to castrati (think of Don Giovanni).26 Opera buffa (comic operas) were

also much better suited to the general public and slowly displaced opera seria (serious

operas), often based on mythology or ancient historical events, and typically attended by

aristocrats and wealthy people.

According to Heriot (1975, p. 20), “Rossini may be said to have sung the burial service over

the castrati in opera.” He had composed an opera for castrato Velluti, who seems to have

performed so badly by embroidering his music, that the composer “vowed never again to let

his singers depart from the written notes” (Heriot, 1975, p. 21). Musicians stopped

composing for castrati voices, though some, including Wagner, and to some extent Rossini

himself, enjoyed their voices. In Parisfal, Wagner wanted Mustafà to act as Klingsor after his

emasculation, but at that time, the proposal was rejected and probably ridiculed. Pergetti

appeared in London around 1844 but his performance was not considered very successful.

Velluti, arguably the last Italian castrato to sing in the opera, retired a bit later. He was rich

but, by that time, was considered a freak, even in Italy. There was no longer any hope to earn

big at the opera. A few castrati were hired to sing for tourists on boats going up and down the

Danube in Vienna. That is what motivated Austrian-born Franz Haböck to go to Rome where

he interviewed Moreschi and wrote his book, published after his death, in 1927.

The story of Moreschi is interesting. He was not a great singer (although he was the only

castrato ever recorded as mentioned above) but the Sistine chapel had kept him in the Choirs

26
Haböck (1927, p. 496) notes that Mozart could have used a real castrato to represent the harem’s eunuch
Osmin in his Entführung aus dem Serail. Instead, he endowed Osmin with a bass-voice.

14
until 1913, probably because he was a priest. The life of Moreschi at the Chapel must have

been rather sad under the rule of Don Lorenzo Perosi, the ‘Maestro Perpetuo’ since 1898

after Mustafà’s retirement. Perosi was totally opposed to castrati and his appointment to

succeed Mustafà, had marked the change of regime. Even though the era of castrati at the

time of Moreschi was clearly coming to an end, it is worth noting that he regularly appeared

as a singer in hotels or in street concerts in Rome.27 Moreschi died in 1922, in his sixties.

Although there were signs of decline everywhere, Napoleon, who became King of Italy in

1805, tried to put an end to castration. He was adamantly opposed to it and even suggested to

sentence to death those who castrated young boys. The state, and even the Church, started to

fight emasculation more seriously although, as we said earlier, it kept using castrati until in

the 1900’s, while women, or young boys as in Mozart’s Magic Flute, were finally accepted in

operas.

The economic arguments presented above have focused on (1) a supply effect to explain the

appearance of castrati and (2) on demand effects to explain their rise and fall as the arguably

greatest family of singers of all times. We now argue that there were economic reasons to

explain the dwindling supply of castrated boys as well. Simply put, poor farmers in Southern

Italy, who supplied the bulk of castrati during the 17th and 18th centuries, had become more

prosperous as the ratio of agricultural to industrial wages started to increase during the

second half of the 19th century. In the lower part of Table 1, we show that this ratio, which

was equal to some 40 percent during the whole 18th century, started to increase afterwards,

and reached a steady 60 percent in the 1840s. This 50 percent increase was probably large

27
There are some unconfirmed reports that, early in his career, Moreschi travelled to Lyon in France but we
have found no trace of his performance.

15
enough to change the incentives of rural families to have some of their sons undergoing

castration.

5. Conclusions

Castrati have a long history. Over the centuries, their existence had been motivated by

bigotry, religious principles or prejudice against women. Their role in society had sometimes

been important, but their population usually remained small. Between the mid-16th century

and the early 20th century however, castration was performed to preserve the high-pitched

voice of young boys. The number of castrati increased dramatically before falling again to

just a few individuals surviving at the margin of society. During this period, they became the

best singers of all times: They sang all the major roles in opera and ‘for the glory of God’ in

churches. In this paper, we show that, while all the reasons given above played a role, the rise

and fall of castrati reflected economics conditions and well-designed incentives. We first

show that in order to maximize the number of candidates for choir jobs, the Church offered a

guaranteed minimal package of a bit of food, a bit of education and lodging. This was enough

to convince poor farmers to sacrifice the boyhood of (some of) their sons. Once castrated, the

prospect of a large salary at the opera would lead to a ‘winner takes all argument’ with the

resulting fierce competition between many talented and well-trained boys. By the mid-19th

century, musical tastes had changed, but so had the condition of Southern Italian farmers

whose wages had started to increase. The Church was no longer in a position to offer

attractive packages, supply and demand dwindled and the myth disappeared.

References

16
Allen, Grahame (2012), Inflation: the value of the pound 1750-2011, House of Commons
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Mamy, Sylvie (1994), Les grands castrats napolitains à Venise au XVIIIe siècle, Paris:
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18
 Table 1. Agricultural and urban wages in Italy (1550-1870)

Period Agricultural Urban Agricultural Urban Wage

wages wages wages wages Ratio
(Index. 1860-70 = 100) (100 Lire)
(5) =
(1) (2) (3) (4) (3)/(4)

1550-60 83.6 128.2 111.2 270.5 0.41

1560-70 87.3 153.8 116.1 324.5 0.36
1670-80 88.3 166.7 117.4 351.7 0.33
1580-90 93.0 141.0 123.7 297.5 0.42
1590-1600 74.5 135.9 99.1 286.7 0.35
1600-10 73.3 138.5 97.5 292.2 0.33
1610-20 98.6 159.0 131.1 335.5 0.39
1620-30 107.0 159.0 142.3 335.5 0.42
1630-40 112.7 159.0 149.9 335.5 0.45
1640-50 116.5 179.5 154.9 378.7 0.41
1650-60 120.1 187.2 159.7 395.0 0.40
1660-70 128.6 184.6 171.0 389.5 0.44
1670-80 127.0 182.1 168.9 384.2 0.44
1680-90 129.8 200.0 172.6 422.0 0.41
1690-1700 107.8 166.7 143.4 351.7 0.41
1770-10 109.2 143.6 145.2 303.0 0.48
1710-20 126.6 169.2 168.4 357.0 0.47
1720-30 131.4 194.9 174.8 411.2 0.42
1730-40 116.6 156.4 155.1 330.0 0.47
1740-50 122.0 141.0 162.3 297.5 0.55
1750-60 130.3 143.6 173.3 303.0 0.57
1760-70 99.1 138.5 131.8 292.2 0.45
1770-80 84.1 107.7 111.9 227.2 0.49
1780-90 88.0 112.8 117.0 238.0 0.49

1790-1800 97.4 89.7 129.5 189.3 0.68

1800-10 84.3 79.5 112.1 167.7 0.67
1810-20 68.9 82.1 91.6 173.2 0.53
1820-30 77.2 92.3 102.7 194.8 0.53
1830-40 91.5 97.4 121.7 205.5 0.59
1840-50 100.2 97.4 133.3 205.5 0.65
1850-60 89.3 84.6 118.8 178.5 0.67
1860-70 100.0 100.0 133.0 211.0 0.63

Columns (1) and (2) are taken from Federico and Malanima (2004). The other columns are
computations based on wage rates that are also quoted by Federico and Malanima (2004).
The table separates the two sub-periods: 1550-1790 and 1790-1870 to underline the
increase in rural wages.

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