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Definition: Castrato |
CastratoNoun1. A male singer who was castrated before puberty and retains a soprano or alto voice. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "castrato" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1888. (references) |
Etymology: Castrato \Cas*tra"to\, noun. [Latin expression, properly present participle of castrare. See Castrate.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This practice was begun in the 16th century and reached its peak in 17th and 18th century opera. The male heroic lead would often be written for a castrato singer (in the operas of Handel for example). When such operas are performed nowadays, a woman or countertenor takes these roles.
Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents the boy's larynx from being fully transformed by the normal physiological effects of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by boys and girls) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. As the castrato's body grows (especially in lung capacity and muscular strength), and as his musical training and maturity increase, his voice develops a range, power and flexibility quite different from the singing voice of the adult female, but also markedly different from the higher vocal ranges of the uncastrated adult male (see soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, sopranista and contralto).
Probably the most famous castrato was the 18th century singer Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli. In 1994 a film was made about him, Farinelli Il Castrato.
In 1870 the practice of castrating promising young singers was outlawed in Italy, the last country where it was still in custom.
The only acknowledged castrato to make phonograph recordings was Alessandro Moreschi, the last surviving castrato of the Pope's choir. Moreschi recorded disc recordings for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company in 1902 and again in 1904. Critical opinion is divided about Moreschi's recordings; some say they are of little interest other than the novelty of preserving the voice of a castrato for Moreschi was a mediocre singer, while other critics detect the remains of a quite talented singer who was unfortunately past his prime by the time he recorded.
In more modern times, Ugo Farell has been suspected of being a castrato.
There have also been reported cases of so-called "natural castrati" who were born with hormonal disorders that reproduce the above "desired" effects of castration without the surgeon's knife.
Some uncastrated male singers are able to use their voices up into the soprano register, apparently without the use of the falsetto voice, and are known as sopranistas. There are very few such singers performing today. Sopranistas are also able to perform some music which was written for castrati, and composers such as Rossini wrote parts specifically for sopranista.
See also: eunuch
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Castrato."
Crosswords: Castrato |
| Non-English Usage: "Castrato" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Italian (castrated, castrates, eunuch). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Farinelli: il castrato (1994) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Castrato" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Castrato" is used about 13 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 13 | 97,576 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "castrato": semi-castrato. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
castrato | 10 |
farinelli il castrato | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "castrato"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
German | kastrat (eunuch, gelding). (various references) | |
Manx | fer spoiyt (eunuch), caboon (capon, gelded cock). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | astratocay.(various references) | |
Swedish | kastrat (barrow, castrate, castrated animal). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "castrato": castrator, castrators, castratory, castratos. (additional references) | |
| |
"Castrato" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Astrasoi, Castano, castati, castra, castralto, castrata, Cetraro, Hartarto. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "castrato" (pronounced 'Cas*tra"to'): Agitato, Allegretto, Anito, Araguato, Arnatto, Assiento, Avigato, Ayuntamiento, Bassetto, Basto, Braziletto, Busto, Canoncito, Canto, Carapato, Cavetto, Cento, Cinquecento, Concerto, Concetto, Contrafagetto, Cornuto, Corvetto, Couranto, Devoto, Ferretto, Flauto, Fugato, Giusto, graffito, grotto, gusto, impasto, inamorato, junto, larghetto, legato, lento, libretto, lotto, manifesto, Manto, Marcato, memento, Misurato, moderato, molto, mosquito, Moto, Motto. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-o-r-s-t-t" | |
-1 letter: cottars, ostraca. | |
-2 letters: actors, aortas, attars, carats, castor, costar, cottar, cottas, ottars, scrota, stator, strata, tarocs, tarots, tatars, tracts. | |
-3 letters: actor, aorta, ascot, attar, carat, carts, coast, coats, costa, cotta, orcas, ottar, ratos, roast, rotas, sacra, scart, scatt, start, stoat, tacos, tacts, taroc, taros, tarot, tarts, tatar, toast, toras, torcs, torts, tract, trots. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-o-r-s-t-t" | |
+1 letter: actuators, autocrats, castrator, castratos. | |
+2 letters: abstractor, activators, aristocrat, attractors, castigator, castration, castrators, castratory, greatcoats, masticator, transactor. | |
+3 letters: abstraction, abstractors, aerostatics, aristocrats, astrocytoma, astronautic, attractions, captivators, castigators, castrations, cataractous, catastrophe, comparatist, masticators, masticatory, nonabstract, stratocracy, transaction, transactors, translocate. | |
+4 letters: abstractions, altercations, anticipators, aristocratic, articulators, artiodactyls, astrocytomas, astronautics, auscultatory, azotobacters, bacteriostat, catastrophes, catastrophic, coarctations, comparatists, contrastable, cosurfactant, deactivators, decapitators, ectoparasite, facilitators, fractionates, intercoastal, metathoraces, nonabstracts, overabstract, ratiocinates, recantations, satisfactory, scatteration, spectatorial, thalassocrat, transactions, translocated, translocates, vaticinators. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.