What was the point of castrating young boys to sing opera when they could just as well have a woman sing the part ?
In: Biology
The Catholic Church forbade women from singing in church but they were losing attendance to churches that had choirs with more parts and in general had more visual impact. This led the Catholic Church to adopt more art and castrati. They weren’t castrated for the opera–that was a benefit if they were successful. This was primarily for the church.
In general women weren’t allowed to speak or sing in Church. The castrations were usually called accidents (they weren’t). But it gave the families some assurance of income from the Church and the possibility of work in opera–but again that was not the most common usage.
And as far as the voices, they were not equivalent to a woman’s voice.
Castrati had very extensive rigorous training. They’ve exhumed castarti’s bodies and found they had very enlarged rib cages due to their breath work. It’s not simply the same as saying it’s equivalent to a female voice. they still had male bodies along with the the training. The voice was described as otherworldly. It continued into the early 20th century and there are a couple of recordings I think.
This is my knowledge from when I took music appreciation back in 2010. Hopefully it’s mostly accurate.
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