Daze Reader

Sex lives of the castrati

http://www.dazereader.com/24001089.htm Unzipped historian Tony Perrottet offers a short history of castrati, including their surprisingly scandalous sex lives.

For Europe’s high society women, the obvious benefit of built-in contraception made castrati ideal targets for discreet affairs. Soon popular songs and pamphlets began suggesting that castration actually enhanced a man’s sexual performance, as the lack of sensation ensured extra endurance; stories spread of the castrati as considerate lovers, whose attention was entirely focused on the woman. As one groupie eagerly put it, the best of the singers enjoyed “a spirit in no wise dulled, and a growth of hair that differs not from other men.” When the most handsome castrato of all, Farinelli, visited London in 1734, a poem written by an anonymous female admirer derided local men as “Bragging Boasters” whose enthusiasm “expires too fast, While F-----lli stands it to the last.”

Don't miss the mp3 of a 1902 recording of the last prominent castrato, Alessandro Moreschi.

 

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