BIBLIO is the largest independent book marketplace in the world, with over 100 million books.

Skip to content

The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds Volume 16
Stock photo: cover may vary

The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds Volume 16 Hardback - 2015

by Martha Feldman

Add to wish list

Reader reviews for The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds Volume 16

Write a review for this book

There are no reviews for this book yet. Be the first to write a review!

Your review will be anonymous unless you login or create an account first.

Overall rating
Remember: You’re rating the book as a work, not the seller or the condition of the specific copy you purchased!

Important Terms and Guidelines

  • Please focus on the book’s content and context. Also, add any personal comments as to how you enjoyed the book. Substantiate your likes and dislikes. You may make comparisons to other books.
  • Reviews must be at least 140 characters in length.
  • Please do not reveal critical plot elements.
  • This is not a help line. Contact customer support if you need help.
Your review must not include:
  • Obscenities, discriminatory language, or other insulting language not suitable for public domain
  • Advertisements, “spam” content, or references to other products, offers or websites.
  • Email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses or other contact information.
  • Overly critical comments about other reviews or reviewers
  • Time-sensitive material (i.e. promotional tours, seminars, lectures, etc.)
  • Availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information

From the publisher

The Castrato is a nuanced exploration of why innumerable boys were castrated for singing between the mid-sixteenth and late-nineteenth centuries. It shows that the entire foundation of Western classical singing, culminating in bel canto, was birthed from an unlikely and historically unique set of desires, public and private, aesthetic, economic, and political. In Italy, castration for singing was understood through the lens of Catholic blood sacrifice as expressed in idioms of offering and renunciation and, paradoxically, in satire, verbal abuse, and even the symbolism of the castrato's comic cousin Pulcinella. Sacrifice in turn was inseparable from the system of patriarchy--involving teachers, patrons, colleagues, and relatives--whereby castrated males were produced not as nonmen, as often thought nowadays, but as idealized males. Yet what captivated audiences and composers--from Cavalli and Pergolesi to Handel, Mozart, and Rossini--were the extraordinary capacities of castrato voices, a phenomenon ultimately unsettled by Enlightenment morality. Although the castrati failed to survive, their musicality and vocality have persisted long past their literal demise.

From the rear cover

"Working in from the broadest anthropological reflections to the most minute points of physiology and endocrinology--by way of musical and social history, the theory and practice of singing, the insights of three centuries' worth of philosophers and psychologists, all illustrated with the rarest pictures and recordings--The Castrato is a scholarly and literary feast." --Richard Taruskin, University of California, Berkeley, and author of The Oxford History of Western Music

"After centuries of anxious myth-making, finally we have a book about the castrati that we can trust, learn from, and enjoy. Martha Feldman has given us a meditation as thought-provoking as it is wide-ranging. After this book, the topic will never be quite the same: with Feldman's imagination to guide us, the castrato's resonances, both musical and more broadly cultural, will linger in the memory."--Roger Parker, coauthor of A History of Opera

Details

  • Title The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds Volume 16
  • Author Martha Feldman
  • Binding Hardback
  • Pages 496
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of California Press
  • Publication date 2015-02-20
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • ISBN 9780520279490 / 0520279492
  • Weight 1.76 lbs (0.80 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.1 x 6.78 x 1.35 in (23.11 x 17.22 x 3.43 cm)
  • Themes
    • Aspects (Academic): Historical
    • Cultural Region: Western Europe
  • Category Music/Songbooks
  • Library of Congress subjects Castrati
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2014011273
  • Dewey Decimal Code 782.86

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 10/01/2015, Page 0

About the author

Martha Feldman is Mabel Greene Myers Professor of Music, Romance Languages, and Literatures and the Humanities at the University of Chicago. She is the author of City Culture and the Madrigal at Venice and Opera and Sovereignty: Transforming Myths in Eighteenth-Century Italy and coeditor of The Courtesan's Arts.
Back to top↑

More Copies for Sale

The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds

The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds

by Martha Feldman

  • New
  • Hardback
Condition
New
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
1
Seller
The Saint Bookstore
Biblio Top Seller
Item price
A$91.16
A$19.24 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Hardback. New. An exploration of why innumerable boys were castrated for singing between the mid-sixteenth and late-nineteenth centuries. This book shows that the entire foundation of Western classical singing, culminating in bel canto, was birthed from an unlikely and historically set of desires, public and private, aesthetic, economic, and political.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$91.16
A$19.24 Delivery to USA
Castrato

Castrato

by Martha Feldman

  • New
  • Hardback
Condition
New
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
545
Seller
Ria Christie Collections
Item price
A$101.74
A$15.45 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Hardback. New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; An exploration of why innumerable boys were castrated for singing between the mid-sixteenth and late-nineteenth centuries. This book shows that the entire foundation of Western classical singing, culminating in bel canto, was birthed fr
Add to wish list
Item price
A$101.74
A$15.45 Delivery to USA
The Castrato
Stock photo: cover may vary

The Castrato

by Feldman, Martha,

  • New
Condition
New
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
1
Seller
GreatBookPrices
Item price
A$96.58
A$5.86 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
new.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$96.58
A$5.86 Delivery to USA
The Castrato
Stock photo: cover may vary

The Castrato

by Feldman, Martha,

  • Used
Condition
New
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
1
Seller
GreatBookPrices
Item price
A$96.58
A$5.86 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
like new.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$96.58
A$5.86 Delivery to USA
The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds

The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds

by Feldman, Martha

  • Used
  • Near Fine
  • Hardback
Condition
Near Fine
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
1
Seller
CARDINAL BOOKS ~~ ABAC/ILAB
Item price
A$77.37
A$33.01 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
USA: University of California Press, 2015. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Hardcover, in dust jacket. Clean, tight and unmarked. Very neat -- a sound and handsome copy. .
Add to wish list
Item price
A$77.37
A$33.01 Delivery to USA
The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds (Volume 16) (Ernest Bloch Lectures)
Stock photo: cover may vary

The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds (Volume 16) (Ernest Bloch Lectures)

by Feldman, Martha

  • New
  • Hardback
  • first
Condition
New
Edition
First Edition
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
1
Seller
Ergodebooks
Item price
A$112.97
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
University of California Press, 2015-02-20. First Edition. hardcover. New. 6.00x1.40x9.00. Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$112.97
Free Delivery to USA
The Castrato – Reflections on Natures and Kinds
Stock photo: cover may vary

The Castrato – Reflections on Natures and Kinds

by Feldman, Martha

  • New
  • Hardback
Condition
New
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
2
Seller
Revaluation Books
Item price
A$163.51
A$29.00 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Univ of California Pr, 2015. Hardcover. New. 454 pages. 9.50x6.25x1.50 inches.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$163.51
A$29.00 Delivery to USA
Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds (Ernest Bloch Lectures) (Volume 16)
Stock photo: cover may vary

Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds (Ernest Bloch Lectures) (Volume 16)

by Feldman, Martha

  • New
Condition
New
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
1
Seller
Jubilee Books
Item price
A$139.07
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
New. Brand new and still unused
Add to wish list
Item price
A$139.07
Free Delivery to USA
The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds (Volume 16) (Ernest Bloch Lectures)
Stock photo: cover may vary

The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds (Volume 16) (Ernest Bloch Lectures)

by Feldman, Martha

  • Used
  • Good
  • Hardback
Condition
Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780520279490 / 0520279492
Quantity available
1
Seller
Bonita
Item price
A$140.86
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
hardcover. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$140.86
Free Delivery to USA
Show all copies
Back to top↑

Please wait a moment while we load the requested page.