New Scientist: “Now the body of Farinelli, the most famous castrato opera singer, is to be exhumed to learn how he achieved such dulcet tones.”
New Scientist: “Now the body of Farinelli, the most famous castrato opera singer, is to be exhumed to learn how he achieved such dulcet tones.”
Are castratos still around these days? I always wondered about that. I assume no one would be able to do that to their child today, but you never know with Italians. Also–this is off topic but related in a genital sense–are Italians predominately circumsized?
It is popular to make fun of Anne Rice, but I must say that I avidly read & loved as a teenager her sultry castrato novel (can’t remember what it’s called–Fire From Heaven, or something like that?). Kingsley Amis’s novel “The Alteration” is a brilliant riff on this whole question, I highly recommend it if you have not read it…
i saw this article, too. my favorite part was the (unverifiable??) claim that Farinelli was more popular than Johnny Depp, Madonna and David Beckham (cach your breath) COMBINED!!!
This leads to a whole new world of exciting cross-generational star power comparisons. For starters how would the combined star power of Thomas Edison and David Copperfield be (a) greater than (b) less than or (c) the same as, say Orson Welles and Lorenzo Llamas??
New Scientist, I demand answers.