Art: Skating at Sloten

Alessandro Moreschi (11 November 1858 - 21 April 1922) was a castrato singer of the late 19th century and the only castrato to make solo recordings.

Alessandro Moreschi was born into a Roman Catholic family in the town of Monte Compatri in the Papal States, near Frascati (Lazio). It is possible that he was born with an inguinal hernia, for which castration was still thought to be a cure in nineteenth-century Italy. Another possibility is that he was castrated later, around 1865, which would have been more in line with the centuries-old practice of castrating vocally talented boys well before puberty. In any case, much later in life, he referred to his enjoyment of singing as a boy in the chapel of the Madonna del Castagno, just outside his native town.

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