Reflection on the Barogue Era and the Castrati

After our most recent lecture on the preforming arts during the Barogue era I had and entirely new understanding and an overwhelming appreciation for what took place during the 1600's into the 1700's.   Prior to this lecture I lacked almost any appreciation for Opera; I had always felt as though it was just a bunch of people screaming. However, now that I have been presented with the history behind the Opera and what went into creating it I now have an overwhelming appreciation for it, not only as a type of music, but also as an art form. I would compare Opera to a magnificent painting, except musical notes are used in place of paint and the human voice is used in place of a brush. What I was really impressed with about the Opera during the 1600's was the Castrati. The operation that was preformed and the beautiful voice that resulted from such a procedure took my breath away. I was so interested in learning more about the Castrati that I set aside the time this weekend to watch the BBC documentary on them. I was fascinated about how the Castrati grew from children into adults and why they sounded the way they did. I learned about how the shorter vocal folds that resulted from the castration of a boy combined with the larger vocal tract of a man worked in unison to created the very distinct sound of a Castrati. If you watch the first part of the documentary that I have linked in this post it will explain exactly how the Castrato sound was created.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ZAraf5wMc