When the music historian Dr Charles Burney (1726–1814) travelled through Italy, trying to discover where the procedure was carried out, no city was willing to admit responsibility. Nevertheless, many in the 18th century found the genital mutilation of young boys just as barbaric and distasteful as we do today. Records suggest that some, including the celebrated Caffarelli, even requested the procedure themselves. Others, including Farinelli, were from wealthier families. Many castrati were from poor families who had their sons castrated with high hopes that they would find success and bring prosperity. He often sang whatever he wished on stage, sometimes even mimicking or heckling other singers as they performed. Louis XV invited him to France, but his career here was cut short after he wounded a poet during a duel.Ĭaffarelli was notoriously temperamental. He attained great success in Italy, being the first to sing Handel’s famous aria ‘Ombra mai fu’. Unusually, records indicate that he requested castration himself. He built a house in the English style and resided there with his black servant, a monkey and a parrot.Ĭaffarelli was the stage name of Gaetano Majorano, who hailed from the Italian town of Bitonto. He eventually retired to his home town, where he lived out his years in an eccentric fashion. He passed much of his career in London, where he mixed with the upper echelons of society and amassed a huge collection of fine art and rare books. After making his debut in Venice in 1707, he quickly gained a European reputation. He was castrated at the relatively late age of 13. Senesino, whose real name was Francesco Bernardi, was the son of a barber from Siena. He was murdered on the road to Ferrara in 1697, purportedly on the orders of a nobleman with whose wife Siface had enjoyed a sexual liaison. Siface spent some time in London, where he performed at the home of Samuel Pepys, before leaving as he could not tolerate the climate.

He was a fiery individual, who on one occasion offended the French ambassador to Rome by refusing to perform without payment. Giovanni Francesco Grossi, known as Siface, was born in Tuscany. Three castrati whose colourful characters and brilliant voices made waves in high society The doomed lover: Siface (1653–97)

Italian opera singer male