Gugliemo Gonzaga and the Castrati

Abstract

While it is well known that castrati ruled the Italian operatic stage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, very little scholarly work has been done on the first phase of their history. The little that can be gleaned from special studies, from general articles about musical life in the late sixteenth century, from various histories and biographies, and from two articles dealing specifically with the introduction of castrati into the papal chapel suggests that castrati entered Italy in the middle of the sixteenth century, and were needed to support (eventually supplant) boy sopranos and male falsettists employed by chapel and church choirs. The present study takes a further look at the early days of the castrato, concentrating on the court of Guglielmo Gonzaga, third Duke of Mantua (r. 1550—1587), a man who was apparently extremely interested in this type of singer.

Verstümmelte Körper?

“…235; Anthony Newcombe, The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579-1597, Bd. 1, Cambridge 1980McClary, Fetisch, S. 206;Sherr, Gonzaga;Gerbino, Castrati, S. 342ff. 86 Siehe Anthony Milner, The Sacred Capons, in: The Musical Times 114/1561Times 114/ (1973, S. 250-252.…”

Investigating participant values, beliefs and practices in one-to-one tertiary classical singing lessons: a collective case study

“…As well as their principal instrument lessons, students at a conservatoire may have had lessons in singing, keyboard, other musical instruments, music history, theory and composition (Arnold, 2014;Kassler, 1972;Potter, 2000Potter, , 2006Rosselli, 1988Rosselli, , 2000Sands, 1942Sands, , 1943Sands, , 1944Sawkins, 1987;Camiz, 1991;Sherr, 1980;Riemann, 1895;Burney, 1959Burney, , 1969Butt, 1994;Rainbow, 1989, Wright, 2005. Rosselli (1988Rosselli ( , 2000 notes that the presumed division between music maestro and the conservatoire environment was not explicit: "even within institutions the relationship with the officially appointed teacher was a personal one" (1988, p. 159).…”