Castration and opera

[transward (imported)]

Interesting article:

http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.ph ... rticle=682

"On the cover of her new album Sacrificium , Cecilia Bartoli's head has been Photoshopped onto an antique marble torso complete with fissures but lacking tits, whose stone genitals have been knocked off. Hmmm. Cecilia, what are you trying to tell us?

The diva-cum-avid musical archeologist is projecting herself into the body of a castrato, the male instrument produced in Enlightenment Europe to replace the women's voices banned by papal edict in 1668. "On pain of severe punishment," decreed Pope Clement IX, "no female person shall deliberately learn music in order to be employed as a singer." God, the church has a lot to answer for.

The price paid by boys hoping for a career singing women's roles was castration while their voice was still high and before they knew what had hit them. Hence the sacrifice of the title. Bartoli takes seriously the physical, social, and emotional mutilations suffered, even as she wallows in them. She or her designer is obsessed with the instruments of gelding. In the richly illustrated, pint-sized, 150-page glossy book serving as album jacket, pictures of the relevant surgical instruments are interspersed with bewigged composers and anatomical diagrams of the larynx. How very transsexual.

In the entry "X-rated" we learn, "Castratos are considered desirable lovers by both women (because the possibility of pregnancy is ruled out) and men (because of their boyish or androgynous appeal). Less often spoken about is the issue of castratos and prostitution: over the frequency of its occurrence, especially among the many boys who do not become successful musicians, there can unfortunately be no dispute." Hmmm again. Is this the real reason castration, legally punishable by death, was allowed to flourish even in

Rome, even in the Holy City, where church bigwigs thronged the theaters?

If biology is destiny, opera is genderfuck, and Bartoli relishes her self-determined opportunity to showcase a vocal whipsaw technique in the only repertoire ever designed to give it free range. This is singing as extreme sport, coloratura trills pushed to the max and beyond, to rapid-fire melismas straddling fourths, fifths, or octaves, scales running from rich chest up through piercing head with a devil-take-the-hindmost abandon to make Marilyn Horne wince, all of it riding on Olympic-style lung power and technique.

Although impressive, the vocal acrobatics initially seem too outlandish to communicate something a 21st-century American would recognize as an emotion. The sheer exuberance of the music, however, inspires ears accustomed to heteronormative 19th-century idiom to accommodate an older set of conventions, inducing a radical rethink of the human heart, larynx, and loins.

"Like a butterfly crazed with love," runs a lyric from Zenobia in Palmira (1789), "the hope I harbour within my heart flutters forever around the flame. And scorching its wings, is buried where it dies in its ill-fated birthplace." All the selections concern love, death, honor, and trembling. They alternate between manic and depressive, expressing extremes of frenzy and melancholy, allowing la Bartoli to run the gamut from slow, sustained phrases to speedy pyrotechnics, second only to Nina Hagen for you-ain't-heard-nothin'-yet vocals.

The Italian pseudo-eunuch is superbly supported by Il Giardino Armonico, conducted by Giovanni Antonini, who collaborated on her Vivaldi album 10 years ago. The instrumental passages are some of my favorites, not just as a breather between bouts of Bartoli, but gorgeous on their own harmonic and textural terms. There's a drive to this music, even at its most legato, that makes it the perfect accompaniment to the rain-drenched streets of San Francisco or the sunny sand dunes of the Great Highway. I've done all my listening via the luxurious wraparound stereo in my brother's old Dodge Grand Caravan. Make sure your system can deliver dynamics ranging from a gasp to a blood-curdling yodel. This music is less about melody than bipolar shifts, swings, and excesses. Sacrificium is the anti-Prozac.

Bartoli's rolled r's are a revelation. Her consonants give me goosebumps. Language in her mouth is a percussion instrument. Who cares what the words say? Her voice is thunder and lightning, which is a sound effect written into the 1724 Farnace by Leonard Vinci, on track 11, the album's bombastic climax. She might be describing the impact of her own vocal prowess when she asks the musical question, "Who feared Jove the ruler before Jove the thunderer began to fire his lightning bolts? The roar of his strikes made timid mortals imagine a whole host of gods."

"Brava" seems an inadequate response to such virtuoso historicity and histrionics, but is nonetheless Sacrificum 's operative quality. Bartoli braves the centuries, the church, and the norms of gender presentation to carve thrilling sonic shapes from an anatomically transgressive tradition that remains freakishly far-out. Rad.

Sacrificium, La Scuola dei Castrati (Decca 2-CD set, deluxe limited edition, $24.95)"

Transward

[eunuch2001 (imported)]

Hey transward, thanks for this. I'm fascinated by the music for castrati which I like to hear performed by male countertenors. I really prefer the purity of the male voice, and my current favourites are Jochen Kowalski, David Daniels and Brian Asawa. But I'll check out this Bartoli CD, especially as you are clearly so very impressed by it.

Thanks again!

[Misha999 (imported)]

Bartoli's voice, while considered small by some opera buffs, lends itself to recordings very well. She's been around for a long time now. Her range of interests outstrip many singers who were boxed in by either their agents, managers, or producers so that they ended up playing type roles or pandering to conventional tastes.

One who tried to stretch her range and ended up ruining her voice was Anna Moffo. Her Gilda was peerless but then she went to singing Lucia to Anna Bolena to Figaro and others where her voice simply couldn't handle the switches.

You can find a recording of the "last castrato". here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv-S3uoeTXg

M

[eunuch2001 (imported)]

Thanks Misha999. Very interesting; I had no idea that any recordings of castrati existed.

[Misha999 (imported)]

Yes, too bad recording was in its infancy when these were done. I remember as a boy finding some records in a trash bin behind a local resale shop. They were about 1/2 inch thick and grooved on one side only. Of course I had no idea of their potential value so I used them as discus in a make believe olympia. The resale shop probably had no idea of if they had a treasure or not.

M

Thanks Misha999. Very interesting; I had no idea that any recordings of castrati existed.

[eunuch2001 (imported)]

I remember as a boy finding some records in a trash bin behind a local resale shop. They were about 1/2 inch thick and grooved on one side only.

Wow! Old technology, but it would have been cutting-edge in its day. Wonder how many years will pass for iPlayers to look as outdated.

[Misha999 (imported)]

I think about those days a lot. I grew up on those reedy recordings. Then technology changed. I remember an interview Rosa Ponselle did well over 40 years ago. She said that she recorded her arias seated in a chair that was fastened to a rail track. Underneath her chair was a spring fastened to the chair stretcher and the other was hooked to a bar just under the microphone. For pianissimo the chair was pulled way back and for forte the chair was allowed to be drawn forward. Her recordings are fabulous if you can train your ear to ignore the low tech and focus on the voice. Rosa was discovered by Caruso. Here is Rosa's real voice clearly done after the technology had improved!

M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSrF-ksgjg

Wow! Old technology, but it would have been cutting-edge in its day. Wonder how many years will pass for iPlayers to look as outdated.

[eunuch2001 (imported)]

Here is Rosa's real voice clearly done after the technology had improved!

M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSrF-ksgjg

Superb recording! Thanks for sharing it. I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of her. I just did a google search and found there is a website for her:

www.rosaponselle.com

I expect you already new that!

Thanks again. I'm going back to hear it once more.

[Misha999 (imported)]

So E, I take it you like opera. Yes?

M

Superb recording! Thanks for sharing it. I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of her. I just did a google search and found there is a website for her:

www.rosaponselle.com

I expect you already new that!

Thanks again. I'm going back to hear it once more.

[eunuch2001 (imported)]

So E, I take it you like opera. Yes?

M

Yes indeed. I'm no expert though. My favourites are Don Giovanni, Norma and Salome. I've always loved classical music but only got into opera in the last few years.