Castrated eunuchs have been prized as palace attendants who do not pose a risk as harem guards for much of modern civilization. All of the genitalia was removed in ancient China; however, other types of eunuchs in Italy, known as castrati, only had their testicles severed from the body to make them sing like male sopranos. The popularity of the castrato grew throughout Europe from around the 16th century until the turn of the twentieth century, when it was widely discouraged.
Alessandro Moreschi, who died in 1922 after recording some of the first and last castrati singing on Earth, is the castrato who modern humans may have heard sing. A few of Moreschi’s works are widely available as viral videos in 2011. The practice of castrating boys to sing like women for the rest of their lives was considered abhorrent by the government and the Catholic Church by the time he died, despite the fact that castrati had performed the role of soprano in the church’s storied all-male choirs for centuries. Though Moreschi is credited with being the only castrati heard by modern citizens, Carlo Broschi, who went by the name Farinelli at the height of castrato popularity in the 18th century opera scene, is perhaps the most famous castrati of all time.
Though eunuchs can be the result of a genetic defect or unintentional castration, many others have been created by ruling classes since Biblical times. After it was discovered that the hypogonadism caused by castration of boys suspended pubescent changes brought on by male hormones in the gonads, the phenomenon evolved into the castrato in Italy in the 1500s. The voice stayed high but developed a distinctively piercing tone with training, rather than the trachea thickening and the voice deepening.
If a child has exceptional singing abilities, the church may ask his parents to make him a lifelong castrato, foregoing sex and procreation, similar to what priests are asked to do. The Catholic Church began replacing its top boy sopranos with castrati adults in the late 1500s, according to the Urological Sciences Research Foundation (USRF). For many generations during Europe’s Renaissance period, Italian opera houses followed suit.
The surgical procedure that a young castrato was forced to endure before the onset of puberty typically began with opium anesthesia, with the child submerged in a warm, relaxing bath that dropped the testes as far away from the body as possible. Then, at the vas deferens, the scrotum was sliced open and both testicles were removed. According to New Scientist magazine, Farinelli’s body was exhumed in 2006, and scientists discovered two features common to castrati: long limbs and a hollowing effect in the forehead. Hyperostosis frontalis interna is a condition that primarily affects postmenopausal women in 2011.