When asked by the Pope (I forget which one) what the Catholic Church could do for music, Igor Stravinsky is reputed to have answered without hesitation: "Give us back castrati!"

I guess that was after the late 1800's when the Pope banned castrati (but let the current choir of aging castrati and men stay). Some men were trying to record the pope himself in 1902 and 1904 and got plenty of his choir in addition to the pope. The CD is called "Alessandro Moreschi: The Last Castrato".

recording. If I could sing, I would give up my balls in a second.

Blaise (imported) wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2003 4:27 am recording. If I could sing, I would give up my balls in a second.

Sorry, your way too old. The Roman Catholic castrati were castrated BEFORE puberty, so as to preserve their soprano voices. A small percentage made some sort of career in music, usually in church choirs. The rest just lived miserable lives.

Yep. Cuz their parents took them to the "pharmacist" to be castrated by the thousands every year in HOPES they'd turn out to be a great singer.

You can buy the recording if you want. I had found a photo online of him too. When the recording was made, the choir had 15 castrati and 15 men. Some of the recordings are made with boys singing along which gets confusing to the untrained ear, but let's just say the castrati sound like "old boys". Little voices with big bodies so there is way more power and control to their singing. Also the style from back then was real "shmaltzy" with scooping and "grace notes". Not just that choir but all over the world. If one doesn't know this, you'd think they were just really bad singers.

http://www.linmpi.mpg.de/~kopp/disc/amo/

There's a link on the recording. (There are umpteen others, I'm sure.)

Andrew, just want to say you're my kinda guy!