The Modern Castrato

The Modern Castrato PDF Author: Patricia Howard
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199365202
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The Modern Castrato: Gaetano Guadagni and the Coming of a New Operatic Age chronicles the career of the most significant castrato of the second half of the eighteenth-century. Guadagni may have been the only singer of the time fully able to understand the demands and opportunities of this reform, as well to possess the intelligence and self-knowledge to realize that it suited his skills, limitations and temperament perfectly--making him the first castrato to embrace the concepts of modern singing.

The Modern Castrato

The Modern Castrato PDF Author: Patricia Howard
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199365202
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Modern Castrato: Gaetano Guadagni and the Coming of a New Operatic Age chronicles the career of the most significant castrato of the second half of the eighteenth-century. Guadagni may have been the only singer of the time fully able to understand the demands and opportunities of this reform, as well to possess the intelligence and self-knowledge to realize that it suited his skills, limitations and temperament perfectly--making him the first castrato to embrace the concepts of modern singing.

The Modern Castrato

The Modern Castrato PDF Author: Patricia Howard
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199365210
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The Modern Castrato: Gaetano Guadagni and the Coming of a New Operatic Age chronicles the career of the most significant castrato of the second half of the eighteenth-century. Through a coincidence of time and place, Gaetano Guadagni was on the forefront of the heroic opera reform, and many forward-thinking composers of the age created roles for him. Author Patricia Howard reveals that Guadagni may have been the only singer of the time fully able to understand the demands and opportunities of this reform, as well to possess the intelligence and self-knowledge to realize that it suited his skills, limitations and temperament perfectly--making him the first castrato to embrace the concepts of modern singing. The first full-length biography of this outstanding singer, The Modern Castrato illuminates the everyday lives of eighteenth-century singers while spotlighting the historic high points of the century. Most famous for his creation of the role of Orpheus in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, his career ranged widely and brought him into contact with many progressives theorists and composers such as Traetta, Jommelli, and Bertoni. Howard's focus on the development of Guadagni's career pauses on essential, related topics along the way, such as the castrato in society, the eighteenth-century revolution in acting, and the remarkable evidence for Guadagni's marionette theater. Howard also assesses Guadagni's surviving compositions, which give new insight into the quality and character of his voice as well as his technical and expressive abilities. The Modern Castrato is an engaging narrative that will prove essential reading for opera lovers and scholars of eighteenth-century music.

Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England

Surgery and Selfhood in Early Modern England PDF Author: Alanna Skuse
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108843611
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
Implements stories of surgical alteration to consider how early modern individuals conceived the relationship between body, mind, and self.

Portrait of a Castrato

Portrait of a Castrato PDF Author: Roger Freitas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521885213
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
A fascinating insight into the life and music-making of the most documented musician of the seventeenth century, castrato Atto Melani.

The Castrato

The Castrato PDF Author: Martha Feldman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520292448
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
The Castrato is a nuanced exploration of why innumerable boys were castrated for singing between the mid-sixteenth and late-nineteenth centuries. It shows that the entire foundation of Western classical singing, culminating in bel canto, was birthed from an unlikely and historically unique set of desires, public and private, aesthetic, economic, and political. In Italy, castration for singing was understood through the lens of Catholic blood sacrifice as expressed in idioms of offering and renunciation and, paradoxically, in satire, verbal abuse, and even the symbolism of the castrato’s comic cousin Pulcinella. Sacrifice in turn was inseparable from the system of patriarchy—involving teachers, patrons, colleagues, and relatives—whereby castrated males were produced not as nonmen, as often thought nowadays, but as idealized males. Yet what captivated audiences and composers—from Cavalli and Pergolesi to Handel, Mozart, and Rossini—were the extraordinary capacities of castrato voices, a phenomenon ultimately unsettled by Enlightenment morality. Although the castrati failed to survive, their musicality and vocality have persisted long past their literal demise.

Moreschi and the Voice of the Castrato

Moreschi and the Voice of the Castrato PDF Author: Nicholas Clapton
Publisher: Haus Pub.
ISBN: 9781905791422
Category : Castrati
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Known as the 'Angel of Rome,' Alessandro Moreschi was the last surviving castrato singer of the Vatican choir, and the only castrati whose voice was recorded. Its ethereal, haunting quality was highly prized for centuries in the papal basilicas and opera houses of Europe (readers can request a copy on CD using details in the book). The castrati tradition was established in Italy in the sixteenth century by Pope Clement VIII, and by the seventeenth century had moved onto the secular operatic stage, where castrato singers were feted as the 'pop stars' of their day. No other singers came close to matching their fame and notoriety. By the nineteenth century, however, their very existence had become an embarrassment, and when Moreschi himself joined the Sistine Chapel in 1883, there were only six castrati left inthe choir, and by 1903 they were officially no more. The strange and lonely life of Alessandro Moreschi was lived in the shadows of great events and great institutions, his personality glimpsed only by inference and allusion. Written by the acclaimed musicologist and countertenor Nicholas Clapton, this is a perceptive and informed study of the last survivor of a perennially intriguing part of Western cultural history. Clapton addresses the complexities inherent in such a complicated and historically neglected subject, establishing that castratisingers were an integral part of the lineage of Western music that should not be judged or condemned from the perspective of the twenty-first century. A professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music,Nicholas Clapton's career as a counter-tenor has seen him particularly involved in performing the repertoire of the great castrati. In 2006, he produced and presented a television documentary on the castrato voice for the BBC.

Portraits of Human Monsters in the Renaissance

Portraits of Human Monsters in the Renaissance PDF Author: Touba Ghadessi
Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
ISBN: 1580442765
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
At the center of this interdisciplinary study are court monsters--dwarves, hirsutes, and misshapen individuals--who, by their very presence, altered Renaissance ethics vis-a-vis anatomical difference, social virtues, and scientific knowledge. The study traces how these monsters evolved from objects of curiosity, to scientific cases, to legally independent beings. The works examined here point to the intricate cultural, religious, ethical, and scientific perceptions of monstrous individuals who were fixtures in contemporary courts.

Voicing Gender

Voicing Gender PDF Author: Naomi Adele André
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253346445
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Documents the changes in approaches to gender in opera in the early 19th century.

Moreschi

Moreschi PDF Author: Nicholas Clapton
Publisher: Haus Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Behind the extraordinary sound of the voice of ‘the last castrato’ lies a strange and lonely life lived in the shadow of great events and institutions, a personality glimpsed by inference and allusion.

Cry to Heaven

Cry to Heaven PDF Author: Anne Rice
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099471388
Category : Castrati
Languages : en
Pages : 596

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Book Description
In 18th century Italy the Castrati recreated heaven on earth. Those who achieved fame were showered with riches and sexual favours, but their success also hid a terrible sadness. Tonio, of noble birth, is the victim of a vengeful brother. Disinherited, he plans his revenge.