The Last Castrato

Alessandro Moreschi is one of the last castrato singers and the only one whose voice was recorded on a phonograph. Alessandro was born in 1858 in the commune of Monte Compatri in the Papal States. As a child, he was diagnosed with an inguinal hernia, the only treatment for which was castration. At age 15, he became the first soprano in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, and at the age of 25, he entered the Sistine Chapel, where he served for 30 years. Moreschi's outdated singing technique sounds odd to a modern listener and can be misinterpreted as a weakness. That is why the assessment of the singer's work was divided into two camps. One calls him a mediocre singer, remembered only for being the last of his kind. Others say that Alessandro's recordings are a remarkable monument to the forever-vanished art of castrato singers.