Saw these guys live, friggin awesome. Could be headbanging this right at the wailing wall.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
This criticism, very rare on the part of the Italians, was in fact submerged in the ocean of praise which had brought about the triumph of the castrati for more than two centuries. Their strength lay elsewhere, and certainly not in the over-intellectual attitude of many foreigners. It mattered little to the Italians that Scipio was a soprano and Pompey a contralto, that Hydaspes fought for twenty minutes with a make-believe lion while vocalising in all keys, or that Narcissus fell in love not with himself but with the nymph Echo! All these operatic conventions had been accepted for a long time and the Italians thought that it was only those French Cartesians who chose to assess and dissect what was dramatic and what was not. The Italians, and along with them many foreign courts, went to the theatre with only one aim: to enjoy themselves, to enjoy the performance, the matchless voice of the musico, his gestures, his escapades and his whims, his confrontation with the prima donna, his struggle with the 'cruel monster' or his feigned terror in the 'fearful wood'; they wanted to enjoy everything. For the Italians the crucial word 'enjoyment' swept away all prejudices and discussions concerning castration, the dissolute morality of the singers and the pseudo-absurdity of these heroes of antiquity with their high voices.
In the satisfaction this unlimited desire for overwhelming emotions and sensual pleasures the virtuosi knew no equals; the great castrati possessed simultaneously masculine presence and feminine grace, they were equally at ease in vocal fireworks and the heartrending expression of pathos, their voices were both flexible and agile, tender and powerful. As a result they had no difficulty in captivating their audiences and making them weep. An indescribable sensuality emanated from their acting and their asexual voices, causing men to shiver and women to faint, creating that moment of vertiginous delight that might partially compensate the singers for what they had lost.
[...]
Indeed, no description could convery the atmosphere of that evening 1776 at Forli, when Pachiarotti played Arabace in Artaserse, with a libretto by Metastasio. He interpreted admirably the role of a son who was going to his death, sacrificing himself on behalf of his father. The entire theatre was in tears and orchestra was so moved that it gradually stopped playing in the middle of an aria by the singer. Pacchiarotti came forward to the front of the stage to ask what was happening. The maestro could only manage to say: 'I am weeping, signor.'
-- Patrick Barbier, The World of the Castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Operatic Phenomenon (Souvenir Press, 1996) ; originally published as Histoire des Castrats (Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle, 1989)
Brilliant.Apollonius wrote:La Silvia - Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) ; Roberta Invernizzi, soprano ; Gloria Banditelli, mezzo-soprano ; John Elwes, tenor ; Philippe Candor, bass ; Ensemble Baroque de Nice directed by Gilbert Bezzina
mna0P5cA34o
_sNNTpORtDQApparently B.B. King and Janis Joplin had a secret love child.