"Evviva il coltellino!"

I recently bought Cecilia Bartoli's new CD, Sacrificium, about the art of the castrato (young male singers castrated in childhood to preserve their beautiful, pre-breaking voices; ecstatic audiences would call out "Evviva il coltellino!" at their curtain calls--"Long live the little knife!" Ugh). According to the excellent liner notes, most of the poor young men did not find fame and fortune, but ended up in a Church choir or as a monk (or the less fortunate as beggars). But a few were the pinnacle of celebrity, sought-after, acclaimed, and very wealthy. Was it worth it? Only they could say, I guess.

Today is the birthday of one of those who found success, Baldassare Ferri (December 9, 1610--September 10, 1680), an Italian castrato said to have "extraordinary endurance of breath, flexibility of voice, and depth of emotion." He was born at Perugia to a poor family (almost all these boys came from poor, desperate rural families). It's not known how he was discovered or when the surgery was performed, but by age 11 was a chorister to Cardinal Crescenzo at Orvieto. He remained in the cardinal's service until 1650. Four years later Wladislaus IV of Poland (then a prince) secured Ferri's services for the court of Sigismund III in Warsaw; by 1655 he was at the most prestigious Imperial court at Vienna.

He received many honors and accolades from royalty all over Europe. In 1643 he was made a knight of St. Mark in Venice; in 1654, he sang before Queen Christina of Sweden. Five years before his death he retired and returned to Italy, dying an extremely rich and respected man who left most of his fortune to charity.

Have you seen the movie Farinelli (about another famous castrato) or read The Devil in Music, the last of Kate Ross's wonderful Julian Kestrel mysteries, which featured a castrato singer as a suspect?