For a solid portion of musical history, castrato singers or ‘castrati’ had a prominent role in operas, churches and courts across Europe. But why were young boys forced to undergo the gruesome ...

Most people think castrating choirboys is inhumane - but not singer Ernesto Tomasini. "I regret not having been castrated," he says. "I would have perfectly happily given up my masculinity for my art.

A new exhibition, however, is hoping to overcome the public's squeamishness on the subject by telling the stories of the band of castrati singers who worked for the composer George Frideric Handel. It ...

Castrati, boys castrated before the onset of puberty to preserve their high-pitched voices, played heroic male leads in Italian opera from the mid-17th to late 18th centuries. Farinelli, born Carlo ...

There is no such thing as old music. Regardless of when a piece was composed, it comes to life only at the moment when someone plays or sings it. Music only exists as sound, even if imagined in the ...

IT was barbaric in origin but beautiful in result - the sound of the castrati was once a musical sensation. But the gelded singing stars of centuries ago have long since passed into history, leaving ...

Ivan Hewett is The Telegraph’s Classical Music Critic and an author whose works include Music: Healing The Rift, a personal history of modern music. He has been involved in music as a composer, ...

To celebrate the launch of New Scientist‘s latest book, Farmer Buckley’s Exploding Trousers, we’ve asked its editor, Stephanie Pain, to select four of her favourite blasts from the past, together with ...