Fact is stranger than fiction

My son and I were walking along the streets of Vienna on the Saturday evening of our visit, on our way to the Musikhaus, when suddenly, the most exquisite streams of music came from somewhere on the street ahead of us. We were in Kaertnerstrasse and my ears were in bliss from the melody gushing towards us. It was the most heavenly female voice singing Mozart's "Ave verum corpus" - one of my favourite songs - and we rushed ahead to see who it was that was singing. Imagine my astonishment when, horror of horrors, it wasn't a female singing but a bona fide male. A male singing much better than many females I've heard, waaaay better than I can or ever will be able to sing! And it was then and there that I decided - when I grow up, I wanna sing like this castrato:



I have always been fascinated by castrato singers - even read a couple of novels with castrato singers in them, both set in Venice. But honestly, how many men would be willing to sacrifice their manhood for their art? Nowadays, probably none, although this was not always the case, albeit the young male had little or no say in the matter. But look at what wiki says about the effects of castration and decide for yourselves whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages:

Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents a boy's larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by both sexes) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. As the castrato's body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his epiphyses (bone-joints) did not harden in the normal manner. Thus the limbs of the castrati often grew unusually long, as did the bones of their ribs. This, combined with intensive training, gave them unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity. Operating through small, child-sized vocal cords, their were also extraordinarily flexible, and quite different from the equivalent adult female voice, as well as higher vocal ranges of the uncastrated adult male. Listening to the only surviving recordings of a castrato, one can hear that the lower part of the voice sounds like a "super-high" tenor, with a more falsetto-like upper register above that.

I I were a guy, I'm not sure if I would be willing to give up my sexual identity for my art. But upon reading the wiki article - the vocal range of prepubescence is largely retained, unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity, voices that were extraordinarily flexible - I would consider for just a millisecond of a millisecond of going under the knife. Of course, I would never do it, but imagine the possibilities that would lie ahead? If nothing else, I would make quite a killing busking the streets of Vienna, 'cause I can tell ya, the Viennese castrato had quite a booty in that little hat of his...nonetheless, at the end of the day, I would prefer that my booty remain intact between my legs instead of having it lying on a street somewhere...