Handel's Messiah. What possible connection can there be with castration? Christine and I will attend a performance of Handel's Messiah oratorio tonight. This event prompts a personal observation that the composition never intended. I will pave the way a bit. The oratorio contains three Parts, 16 Scenes and 53 movements in which are numerous solo pieces for soprano, alto/contralto, tenor and bass voices. In 1741 when Handel first presented his Messiah oratorio in Dublin, the women soloists were soprano Christina Maria Avoglio and Susannah Cibber, an established stage actress and contralto. The female roles and the date are important to note.
Tonight the alto (contralto) sections will be sung by a male counter-tenor. Alto is customarily a female vocal range. Counter-tenor is a male voice that naturally and through training is the equivalent of soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto. It's a unique and somewhat remarkable sound.
There is a stunning back-story to a high-pitched male voice. Centuries ago, boys were castrated so they could sing the high notes that some counter tenors can reach.
Castrato is the Italian term for a male singing voice resultant from castration of the singer before puberty, preventing a boy's larynx from being changed during puberty's normal physiological events. The prepubescent vocal range is retained. Castrati first appeared in Italy in the mid-16th century. There were castrati in the Sistine Chapel choir in 1558. By 1575 castrati existed in France and in the Ducal court chapel at Munich. In 1589 Pope Sixtus V re-organised the choir of St. Peter’s, Rome specifically to include castrati. The rationale effectively banned women from choirs, using the 1 Corinthians 14:34 dictum "let women keep silent in the churches."
In the 1720s and 1730s, at the peak of the obsession for these voices, an estimated 4,000 boys were castrated annually in the service of art. Many came from poor homes and were castrated by their parents in the hope that their child might be successful and lift them from poverty. There are also records of some young boys requesting surgery in order to preserve their voices.
By Handel's time, castrati had come to dominate the English operatic stage as much as that of Italy and most of Europe. They also took part in several of Handel's oratorios, though countertenors as well were occasionally featured as soloists. Prepubescent castration for the purpose of musicology diminished greatly in the late 18th century and was made illegal in the Papal states, the last to prohibit them in 1870. Further, counter tenors also survived for a time singing the alto parts in Handel's choruses and were choral singers within the Anglican church tradition throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Then counter tenors largely faded from public notice as well.
But it was a short-lived hiatus. A counter tenor revival occurred in the twentieth century, less than one hundred years later. In fact counter tenors are in high demand today for many forms of classical music. In opera, many roles originally written for castrati (castrated males) are now sung and recorded by countertenors. Numerous modern composers have written, and continue to write, countertenor parts, both in choral works and opera, as well as songs and song-cycles for the voice. Men's choral groups such as Chanticleer and The King's Singers employ the voice to great effect in a variety of genres, including early music, gospel, and even folk songs.
So here we are. The counter tenor voice is not at issue. Nonetheless, for Handel's Messiah, Christine and I would prefer to hear a contralto's voice singing, "Behold a virgin shall conceive," and "he was despised and rejected of men," but we will listen to a counter tenor ably sing these parts. It's a conductor's choice. While the counter tenor today is technically unrelated to castrati, I am sorry for myself that the featured voice in our program tonight has caused me to look back to a disturbing practice that we would regard as reprehensible today, or would we? Our culture approves gender transformation. I wonder whether with the gender rhetoric of our day, we may be close to approving castrati once more - castration for the purpose of a vocal sensation.
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