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Gugliemo Gonzaga and the Castrati*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Richard Sherr
Richard Sherr*
Affiliation:
Smith College
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Extract

While it is well known that castrati ruled the Italian operatic stage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, very little scholarly work has been done on the first phase of their history. The little that can be gleaned from special studies, from general articles about musical life in the late sixteenth century, from various histories and biographies, and from two articles dealing specifically with the introduction of castrati into the papal chapel suggests that castrati entered Italy in the middle of the sixteenth century, and were needed to support (eventually supplant) boy sopranos and male falsettists employed by chapel and church choirs. The present study takes a further look at the early days of the castrato, concentrating on the court of Guglielmo Gonzaga, third Duke of Mantua (r. 1550—1587), a man who was apparently extremely interested in this type of singer.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , Spring 1980 , pp. 33 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1980

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Footnotes

*

This article is an expanded version of a paper read at the Forty-Fourth Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October, 1978. Research was carried out partially with the help of a Summer Stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities. I would also like to thank here Dr. Adele Bellù, Archivista of the Archivio di Stato, Mantua, and her staff for their extremely cordial and helpful assistance.

References

1 Haböck, Franz, Die Kastraten und ihre Gesangskunst (Stuttgart, 1927)Google Scholar; Heriot, Arthur, The Castrati in Opera (London, 1956)Google Scholar; Anthon, Carl, “Some Aspects of the Social Status of Italian Musicians During the 16th Century,” Musica Disciplina (Journal of Renaissance and Baroque Music), 1 (1946), 111–123, 222-239Google Scholar; Ambros, August Wilhelm, Geschichte der Musik, vol. IV (Leipzig, 1909), 464–466 Google Scholar; Boetticher, Wolfgang, Aus Orlando de Lassos IVirkungskreis (Kassel, 1963), pp. 76 Google ScholarfT.; Hucke, Helmut, “Die Besetzung von Sopran und Alt in der Sixtinischen Kapelle,” Miscelánea en Homanaje a Monseñor Higinio Anglés (Barcelona, 1958—61), I, 379—406 Google Scholar; Anthony Milner, “The Sacred Capons,” The Musical Times, 114, No. 1561 (March, 1973), 250-252.

2 For general discussions of music during his reign, see Bertolotti, Antonio, Musici alia corte dei Gonzaga in Mantova dal sec. XV al XVIII (Milan, 1890)Google Scholar; Canal, Pietro, “Della Musica in Mantova,” Memorie del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze lettere ed arti 21 (1879), 655–744 Google Scholar; MacClintock, Carol, Giaches de Wert (1535-1596), Life and Works (Rome, 1966)Google Scholar. For Guglielmo as composer, see Gallico, Claudio, “Guglielmo Gonzaga, Signore della Musica,” Mantova e i Gonzaga nella civiltà del rinascimento (Mantua, 1977), pp. 277–283 Google Scholar (also in Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana, 11 (1977), 321-334), and Sherr, Richard, “The Publications of Guglielmo Gonzaga,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, 31 (1978), 118–125 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 “ … havendo con gran ceremonia fatto udire a questa ecc.za la musica di queste Dame, mentre aspettava ch'ella dovesse esultarle al cielo ella proruppe dicendo forte di mode che fu sentito dalle Dame e dalle Duchesse che erano presente, Gran cose son le Donne; in effetto io vorrei esser inanzi un asino che una Donna, e con questo si levò e fece levar ogn'altre perche se desse fine al cantare … “ Taken from Anthony Newcomb, “The Musica Secreta of Ferrara in the 1580's,” Ph.D. diss., Princeton, 1970, p. 404.

4 Laura Peverara, see Newcomb, p. 40.

5 For an interesting discussion of Davari and his work, see Bellù, Adele, “Il Davari e le sue ricerche nell'Archivio Gonzaga,” Mantova e i Gonzaga, pp. 481–491 Google Scholar.

6 I have indicated in Appendix A when a letter is quoted or paraphrased in either Canal or Bertolotti. In all cases, my own quotations and paraphrases are based on the original documents. Needless to say, this list does not pretend to contain all the letters on this subject that may exist in the Archivio Gonzaga.

7 This letter is transcribed in Appendix B.i.

8 Mantua, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Gonzaga (hereafter ASG), busta 2573. Bertolotti, p. 40, prints a list of the ducal chapel without date, but containing Fordos.

9 This is, at least, my reading of the passage “ … ch'io crederei che fosse men male veder havergli figliuoli, et che havessero solumente habilità di farsi …” The letter is transcribed in Appendix B.2.

10 Letter of December 31, 1582.

11 “ … che prencipalmente siano buoni cattolici et gioveni quieti, si che si possa sperare longa et amorevole servitù da loro. Che siano sicuri nel cantare et habbiano buona voce Se havranno contrapunto, et sapranno sonare di leutto per cantarvi dentro saranno tanto piu cari “ Since this letter is only partially quoted in Canal, I give the whole text in Appendix B.3.

12 Ma veramente la voce del figliolo non m'è piaciuta, perche ella è debile, et alquanto rauca, et quando egli canta dava fatica in andar'alto, et non mette le voci quiete, et non ha dispositione di gorgi, et come quello ch'è avezzo à cantare in choro, non sà nissuna canzone a mente onde non lo havendo io giudicato al proposito di V. A., è tanto piu ch'essendo d'età di dicesette anni, come il zio proprio m'ha detto se bene non gli mostra, non è da sperare che lavore sia per migliorare… .”

13 It should be mentioned that there are scattered references to French castrati in literature about music in sixteenth-century France; see, for example, François Lesure and D. P. Walker, introduction to Claude Le Jeune, Airs (Rome, 1951), vol. I, and Cazeaux, Isabelle, French Music in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (New York, 1975)Google Scholar. Nevertheless, most people are very surprised, not to say shocked, to learn that there were any French castrati.

14 Questo putto che cosi vole esser nominato fu tenuto un grande valent'huomo nel principio ch'egli arrivo qui sapendosi ch'era stato per cantore di s. e. costi, et puoco gli mancò se non entraste alia cappella di S. S.ta ma poi al parangone di molt'altri pur spagnuoli castrati è risuscito molto meno di quello che questi musici credevano, et il sudetto S.r Car.le l'accettò al suo servigio per non haver altri castrati….”

15 “ … perche non si ritrovando se non rarissime di quelli animali et essendo quelli puochi che si trovano tutti volubili come huomini di puoco senso non mi par di dover haver altra mezza che di far che venga….“

16 I cannot go through all these negotiations here. Those for Marenzio are discussed fully in Steven Ledbetter, “Luca Marenzio: New Biographical Findings,” Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1971.

17 Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi … a far pasaggi (Rome, 1593).

18 “Di M. Gio. Luca non ho havuto niente conoscenza domestica et però non posso dire, come egli riesca in privato in publico, cioè dove si canta à voci alquanto piene, come appunto in quelli oratori, l'ho sentito alcune poche volte, et come dagli altri l'ho udito sempre commendare, cosi à me n'è paruto molto bene, ma però mi è piaciuto assai pur la sua dispositione, che la voce, non che questa mi paia cattiva, ma crederei, che potesse esser migliore la sua parte ordinariamente è di soprano tuttavia nel tempo che egli stette in cappella di N. S.re cantò sempre, si come intendo, il contralto, forse per non accoppiar il suo falsetto alle voci naturali de'castrati.“

19 See Appendix B.4.

20 The first reference to castrati in the papal chapel up to now has been a notice in the Diarii Sinstini for 1588, dated May 18 (Diario 14, fol. 76v), stating that a “Jacomo Spagnoletto eunoco” had been admitted to the chapel in place of Jacques Brunet; this is followed on June 7, 1588, by a note that a “ … soprano castrato sopranumerario … chiamato Martino … “ had been accepted (i.e., he would get the first vacant post; see Hucke). Further information is added by another document in the archives of the Cappella Sistina (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella Sistina 625, fols. 1—2). Brunet was a soprano who was leaving the chapel to return to a benefice in France, and the Castrato (full name, Jacomo Vasquez) was hired to replace him. The castrato Martino's last name was Soto.

The first castrati in the chapel were apparently all Spanish, and in the seventeenth century, Pope Clement VIII dismissed all the Spanish falsettists to make room for castrati, thus beginning a tradition in the papal chapel that was to last until the twentieth century. It was not until 1599, however, that an Italian castrato was allowed to join the chapel.

The presence of Italian castrati eventually caused certain problems related in a seventeenth-century document in the Cappella Sistina collection (VatS 679, fols. 1—2V). The document contrasts the good old days when the castrati were all Spanish with the (middle?) seventeenth century when they were all Italian. The Spanish castrati, it seems, used their position in the chapel to acquire benefices in Spain on which to retire, and so would serve the chapel only as long as their voices lasted, then returning to Spain. The Italians, on the other hand, stayed on long after they had lost their voices, and were even forced to hire substitutes to sing for them on occasion. (This document, attributed to Antimo Liberati [a member of the chapel from 1661 to 1692], is mentioned in Adami, Andrea, Osservazioni per ben regolare il Coro della Cappella Pontificia [Rome, 1711], pp. 190–191 Google Scholar.)

In any case, Scipione's letter of 1586 states clearly that there were castrati before 1588; Conforto's service in the chapel is mentioned in the past tense. In fact, Conforto was in the chapel from December, 1581, to October, 1585, so castrati must have been in the chapel in force in the early 1580s.

21 See Appendix B.5. The letter is given in its entirety because it was incorrectly paraphrased by Bertolotti.

22 In 1589, he joined the Cappella Giulia in Rome. See Rostirolla, Giancarlo, “La Cappella Giulia in San Pietro negli anni palestriniani,” Atti del convegno di studi Pakstriniani, ed. Francesco Luisi (Palestrina, 1977), p. 227 Google Scholar.

23 ASG, busta 943, letter from Capilupi dated April 12, 1586.

24 Bottrigari, Hercole, Il Desiderio and Vincenzo Giustiniani, Discorso sopra la musica, trans. Carol MacClintock (Rome, 1962), p. 69 Google Scholar.

25 The idea that castrati entered chapel choirs after having been employed at courts is also put forth by Anthon.

26 Ambros, vol. IV, 464.

27 The operation producing castrati, as described by Charles d'Ancillon in his Traité des eunuques (Berlin?, 1707), did not involve the removal of anything. The operation producing the Moslem eunuch did.

28 For a recent discussion of Ottoman history and society, see Douglas Balfour, John Patrick, Kinross, Baron, The Ottoman Centuries: the Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (London, 1977)Google Scholar.

page 55 note 1 Margaret of Austria, illegitimate daughter of Charles V and married to Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma.

page 55 note 2 Bertolotti paraphrases this letter on p. 67 and makes several errors: the name of the castrato is not mentioned in the letter, Gio. Paulo da Urbino is a tenor not a contralto. Bertolotti also read Trombone as meaning a trombone player, but it seems from the context that he was a singer.

page 56 note 1 ASG, busta 1381, “Ho parlato imedimament col castratino, il qual mi a deto che al presente non puo far detterminatione alcuna della persona sua per un travaglio grande che ha al presente il qual e questo che havendo preso moglie alcuno mesi sonno et essendo dormito lungo tempo seco, havendo havuto licentia da un prete parrochiano il qual per questo effetto e prigione et il papa lo travaglia cio e la congregatione, et anchor lui dicendo che per esser castrato non poteva pigliar moglie, si che fia che questo negotio non e finito non veder far rissolutione nissuna della persona ne prometter di certo a nissuno….“

page 56 note 2 About half of d'Ancillon's book is devoted to the question.

page 56 note 3 Mantua, Archivio di Stato, buste Davari 16. Canal simply prints Davari's transcription.