Friday is upon us again.

That can mean only two things. Another soul-destroying week has sapped by, depriving you of seven more valuable days and taking you one step closer towards the end of your essentially insignificant life.

On the plus side, however, there’s always hecklerspray’s Disturbing Friday Fun – that regular feature in which we point out something downright unsettling and provide a link for you to look at it (while taking absolutely no responsibility for that moment when your boss catches you looking at it and threatens to fire you over and over again until you start crying like a big girly baby).

This week… have you ever wondered how a man with no balls would sound when he sung? And, no – we’re not talking about those Justin Timberlake records that your sister has.

We’re talking about the Castrati.

The Castrati were the ’singing superstars’ of the 18th century. But – in a manner that hecklerspray suspects a good number of X Factor contestants would volunteer for should it guarantee them thirty seconds of prime-time TV exposure – they had to be willing to make a supreme sacrifice for the sake of their career.

That’s right …

"In 17th and 18th Century Italy, about 4,000 boys were
castrated each year, from the age of eight upwards, with the aim of
making a fortune as opera singers and soloists with choirs in churches
and royal palaces."

Ouch. Lucky we don’t practise such barbarism today, right, kids? Although parallels are apparently all too easy to draw. Just listen to what historian David Starkey has to say:

"It’s horribly like the child star of today, forced into
this artificiality, forced through the shocking mill of Hollywood – to
deliver that ineluctable, strange, desirable thing of star quality."

Well … possibly. Except we’re pretty sure that Daniel Radcliffe secured the part of Harry Potter without any of that pesky bollocks-ripping-offery.

The most infamous Castrati – presumably the one who was the crowning glory in the Italian Opera Top Trumps card set – was a gentleman named Allesandro Moreschi. This is because he was the only one of his kind to have his voice recorded – in 1902, aged 44, captured forever by a enterprising new gramophone company.

And guess what? The dear old BBC have put it online just for you.

Quick word of warning: you may find the sight of a nutcracker fairly upsetting for the foreseeable future ….

Read More:

Singing In The Pain – BBC News

[story by C J Davies]