Definition of castrato Castrato
cas•tra•to
We found 10 definitions of castrato from 6 different sources.
Advertising
What does castrato mean?
WordNet
NounPlural: castratoes |
||
| castrato - a male singer who was castrated before puberty and retains a soprano or alto voice |
= synonym
= antonym
= related word
= antonym
= related word
Wiktionary 
- castrato (Noun)
A male who has been castrated, especially a male whose testicles have been removed before puberty in order to retain his boyish voice. - castrato (Noun)
A male soprano or alto voice produced by castration of the treble singer before puberty, intended to conserve his voice; the singer. - castrato (Adjective)
Castrated; especially castrated prepubescently. - castrato (Adjective)
Having, using or containing the voice of a castrato noun. - castrato (Adjective)
Originally composed for a castrato.
Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘
- castrato (n.)
A male person castrated for the purpose of improving his voice for singing; an artificial, or male, soprano.
OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω
-
castrato
A male soprano, mezzo-soprano, or alto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.
Wikipedia 
-
A castrato (plural: castrati) was a type of singer that was very popular in the early days of opera. Castrato is an Italian word that means “castrated”. A castrato was a man who sang soprano. Most of the main soprano roles in operas by Handel and other composers of that time were written for castrati. Nowadays they are always sung by female sopranos because we do not have castrato singers.
The practice of castrating young boys who had good singing voices was quite common in Italy in the 17th century. Castration is an operation in which the sex organ which will make a boy become a man is removed. When the boy grows up he will not be able to have children. The vocal chords will not thicken so that his voice will not break as it normally does with boys in their teens. He will continue to have a high voice for the rest of his life. Castration was illegal in many parts of Italy, but there were plenty of people who would perform the operation secretly. The reason why parents let their children be castrated was probably the same as the reason that parents in some parts of the world still sell their children today: they are desperately poor and people promise them that this is a way to give their child a brilliant future.
Once a boy was castrated he would go to a special music school where children learned singing and musical instruments. The castrati pupils were given special treatment. They were fussed over and kept warm to stop them from getting colds. When they grew up they hoped
Part of speech
🔤- castrato, noun, singular of castratos.
Pronunciation
Word frequency
Sign Language
Your last searches
Last searches
Advertising
Advertising