Alessandro Moreschi, The Last Castrato And The ‘Angel Of Rome’

Public DomainAlessandro Moreschi, the last castrato in Italy.

For centuries, women were banned from singing in Catholic churches. When songs required soprano voices, it was up to specially-trained young boys to hit the high notes.

Of course, young boys eventually turn into young men, and this posed a problem for choirmasters who found themselves having to train new sopranos every few years.

Eventually, according to Science History, someone came up with the idea to castrate the young choirboys before they went through puberty, thus ensuring the choir would have men who could sing soprano well into adulthood.

The process looked something like this: a surgeon would soak a boy in a warm bath to soften their tissues, then knock the boy out, likely with opium. They would then either cut the testicles out or sever the blood vessel that led to the testes, causing them to naturally wither away.

All of this was done, of course, despite the fact that the Catholic Church had banned castration. That didn’t stop choirmasters from happily welcoming castrated boys into their choirs, however.

In fact, the practice continued well into the 18th century. It only truly started to decline in the 1800s as European economies, musical styles, and the influence of the Catholic Church all began to change.

By the tail end of the 1800s, castrati were all but extinct, save a few prominent singers like Alessandro Moreschi, who was born in 1858 and castrated at age seven under the ruse of a hernia operation.

As the last castrato in Italy, Moreschi sang in the Sistine Chapel for 35 years. His talent — and perhaps the novelty of his status — made him immensely popular and wealthy as he strutted around Italy in attention-grabbing clothes and a long white scarf.

Unfortunately, Moreschi’s flourishing career was cut abruptly short in 1903 when Pope Pius X took charge of the Catholic Church. Pius was revolted by the castrati, which he believed harkened back to a more corrupt time in the Church’s history, and he banned them from singing within the Vatican.

Moreschi spent the last 20 years of his life directing the choirs he was unable to sing in, and he died of tuberculosis in 1922.

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