Those 18th-Century Castrati Got All the Money and, Yes, Girls

[IbPervert (imported)]

Thought this was interesting, a play about the Castrati playing in New York...not sure if it is to late to see it or not...

From The New York Times

Date July 23, 2007

THEATER REVIEW | 'MONSTERS AND PRODIGIES'

Those 18th-Century Castrati Got All the Money and, Yes, Girls

By WILBORN HAMPTON

Anyone who has heard a boys’ choir sing “Ave Maria” or “Silent Night,” even in recording, knows the angelic beauty of the prepubescent male voice. In 18th-century Italy a delicate operation sought to preserve that vocal purity for life, and “Monsters and Prodigies” by the Mexican company Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes gives a zany account of the century of music ruled by castrati.

Written by Jorge Kuri, who died in 2005, the play, subtitled “The History of the Castrati,” had its premiere in Madrid seven years ago and was offered over the weekend as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. It is clear, however, from Claudio Valdés Kuri’s madcap staging that the show is as much his brainchild as the playwright’s.

Castrati were the superstars of the 18th century. Operas were written especially for them; they commanded the biggest fees; women threw themselves at their feet. (As the play explains, castrati were not deprived of sexual activity; they just couldn’t procreate.) Castrati so dominated the operatic world that many real sopranos had to pretend to be men just to get a job.

“Monsters and Prodigies” takes a humorous look at a cultural oddity that thrived for a century. The play begins on a seemingly serious note. A centaur (played with snorts and stomping hooves by Miguel Angel Lopez) explains how deformed children were regarded as monsters in the Middle Ages. That is followed by a medical discourse on how the operation was carried out, delivered by Siamese twins named Jean and Ambroise Paré (admirably played by Raúl Román and Gastón Yanes), who made the castration of boys a specialty at their barbershop-surgery in Naples.

These lectures, which include some operatic footnotes (Gluck wrote “Orfeo” for the castrato Gaetano Guadagni), some gossip-column items from the 1700s (Casanova pursued Cardinal Borghese’s castrato, although it isn’t pointed out that Casanova was convinced he was a she) and some cultural history (Voltaire and Rousseau denounced castration, but the Roman Catholic Church turned a blind eye), are increasingly interspersed with screwball clowning. While the musical history lessons are delivered in Spanish (there are supertitles in English), the show’s castrato (ably acted and sung in a countertenor range by Javier Medina) fumes at its keyboardist (Edwin Calderón, who riffs a mean harpsichord) while the Paré brothers’ slave (delightfully played by Kaveh Parmas) taunts the centaur. A white horse (named Mexerico, with an impressive list of theater credits) is ridden around the stage by Napoleon (Luis Fernando Villegas). There is even a food fight.

The result of all the tomfoolery is a sophisticated yet good-natured lampoon of 18th-century opera. Despite the textbook data, the show is a spoof at heart, and it can be quite funny even for those who are not opera lovers.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

Monday, July 23, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/theat ... ef=theater

[JesusA (imported)]

The original New York Times review of "Monsters and Prodigies" has a very nice color photo of Javier Medina, who plays the role of the castrato. Below is a brief note about him written by one of my friends when he sent me several MP3 files of his songs:

Javier Medina-Ávila

At twelve years of age Javier was discovered to have a rare form of leukemia. The treatment he was given damaged his pituitary gland and prevented him from ever experiencing puberty. He not only retained his boyhood treble, but in his late teens it developed into a castrato’s soprano…. He is largely self-trained as a singer, though he has performed with some well-known Mexican artists.

Due to continued long bone growth, Javier’s doctors eventually convinced him to begin hormone replacement therapy. He has been taking testosterone treatments for a number of years, but it has only made his voice husky, rather than causing it to drop in pitch. He has told me that he can still sing the E above soprano high C, but that it is no longer musically usable.

While Javier still has his (nonfunctioning) testicles attached, his voice gives an excellent representation of what the untrained castrato must have sounded like.

[devi (imported)]

I'm not sure how high of a pitch a small cat's meow is but I can sing that high. I really can. Perhaps I'm boasting I don't know but for years I kept my voice pretty much to myself. However once when I was part of a church choir about twenty years ago or so a certain lady at a nursing home somehow figured out that I had that voice. So she taught me to sing the Ave Maria (the more simpler version since I'm not voice trained). Apparently she had childhood memories of the Sistine Chapel where some men there actually sang like that and that she just had to hear it just one more time before she died. She told me that as she was growing up over there that there were a few alto-soprano men in the choir, then only two and later only one who was moved after a while over to some convent in Rome and that was the last of those voices that she so loved hearing. She told me that I should be very proud that my voice could go up so high and not be so ashamed to hit those high notes. But also most people wouldn't know it by talking to me since I generally talk in a low voice unless I'm disguising myself over the telephone.

[Monax (imported)]

Rather interestingly your opinion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3yfFOq_ ... ed&search=

[kristoff]

Rather interestingly your opinion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3yfFOq_ ... ed&search=

Interesting drag-king show

[devi (imported)]

Very good! Plus that Vitas and Diva of the fifth dimension is a great one!!! Classic! When he sang the Franz Schubert version of Ave Maria he wasn't singing in Latin (German?) and I just could not follow along. I sort of know it in Latin (kind of since I have to write the words down) and what I know is a lot shorter. Needless to say next to Vitas I don't stand a ghost of a chance. But I figure that there has to be a few of us on this Eunuch Archive who can and maybe even form a choir or something. We could leave our face hairs grow out and put mascara on our moustaches just like in high school and then sing out in our soprano voices. I think it would make an impression somewhere. (But just not anywhere.)

[Monax (imported)]

It is very glad that it was pleasant to you. Only here a trouble, him constantly offend and humiliate, on TV and radio do not suppose. The third year he cannot already release the new album.

Standard situation-if you OTHER, to you with "normal" not a place.

And from a mansion correct thought!

[devi (imported)]

I've been checking out all of Vitas' stuff. Pretty cool. Vitas and Diva of the Fifth Element is neat after the first three minutes but you just have to see the first three minutes. Then he has a couple of suicidal videos that I like. And then his earlier shows with traditional melodies were nice. But it does seem to me that he's starting to go the way of Michael Jackson and making increasingly over lavish shows of great grandeur. Oh well.