They went off to the catholic church (which disapproved of castration, but was also the beneficiary of the talent, as they could maintain the rule that women stay 'Silent in Church' while still having soprano voices that lasted a long time. The chances of his becoming a Farinelli or Cafarelli were closer to 1/1000 or 1/10000. The chances of this happening were somewhere near 1/50 or 1/100. Poor families would have a son castrated in the hope that he would become a good enough castrato to earn the family money. It was, as with so many things, largely a case of money. With the exception of a few (maybe two or three) of the great castrati, most notably among them Cafarelli (a contemporary of the better known Farinelli), who insisted on his own castration, the great majority of castrati became castrati without any wanting to do so. I think some serious clarification as to the history of Castrati is in order since many assertions have been made about this recording and its singer that simply are not true.įirst of all, very few of the Castrati of history had any say in the matter of their castration. While I dislike his style, I can recognize he had talent. There is a reason he performed at the funeral for the Italian King when he was assassinated in 1900. I also dislike the way he heavily uses grace notes. Now, why I rated the song Ave Maria here three star is in part due to the fact is it such a poor quality recording. This is not the same song, but this following male child singer has yet to appear to have hit puberty in the following piece. With the technology available with microphones, both men and women can sound equally loud, when their is a difference without. People today don't go en mass to listen to large groups as compared to those who sing solos or a small group where you can often tell the difference in parts. One Castrato could be heard in a greater range than one femaile could. This is the other reason (I believe) why Castrati were popular then. If anyone in a strong choral group knows, men can, and do, out sing women in volume on a one-to-one basis. The changing social norms is one reason Castrati fell out of favor. The changing social norm where women in the 19th century were given a place in society instead of being silent helped stop young boys from being castrated. They are only objecting to the social norms of over 150 years ago, and even then it was falling out of favor. Even if he sang the most beautiful piece ever recorded with modern technology, they would give it a one star rating due to being castrated. Anyone who gives this song a poor rating for the sole reason of the singer being a male who was castrated, should have their review thrown out for shear stupidities sake.

Luciano pavarotti sings ave maria