For the curious, whoever you are, you may sample the voice of the last castrato to grace the choirs of old Europe. He died in 1922.

http://www.worldzone.net/music/singingv ... trati.html

Scroll down and click on "sample"

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Opal records also has a full recording of Moreschi on CD. It isn't very good, but given Edison's wax cylilnders at the time, it's a wonder any of them survived the years.

Amazon.com carries it, but I don't recommend shopping with them since their privacy policy is pretty much "we sell anyone your info."

Unfortunately, early recording methods were very primitive.

Not only did Edison's early equipment lack quality but playing the recording detracted from the original quality.

New digital enhancement techniques hold much promise for such early recordings. I actually saw tonight where it is technically possible to bring back the "missing" minutes on President Nixon's Watergate tapes.

I would suspect that digital enhancement of Moreschi's surviving recordings could yet improve their quality.

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