|
Tale of misery
The Castrato and His
Wife
By Helen Berry
Oxford
£9.99
 how does a eunuch marry
a wife and produce a child? In th late 18th century London, all talk
was of the famous Italian opera singer, Giusto Fernando Tenducci, and
the wealthy young Anglo-Irish heiress, who defied her family to be
with him. Tenducci's origins weren't just humble, they were brutal.
Thanks to the subsequent divorce between him and his young wife, we
have court documents testifying to what happened to impoverished young
boys who had good voices. Castration wasn't lawful in Italy, but many
turned a blind eye to it. Berry, in a dispassionate account of a
troubled life, questions the father who would inflict this on his son,
but explains how, as a castrato, he would be protected by the church
and encouraged in a singing career. The extraordinary
"marriage" between Tenducci and Dorothea Maunsell, when
Tenducci was at the height of his fame, was useful to both parties,
saving her from an arranged marriage and allowing him to prove his
manhood. Dorothea, alas, wasn't as in love with her husband as he was
with her, but the journal she published on her part in the affair is a
rare example of a woman speaking out about the physical details of the
most intimate of matters. —
The Independent
|
