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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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, ...

We may think of the Taliban as a current example of the irrational and cruel application of fundamentalist religious ideas, but back in the 17th and 18th century, the Vatican banned the use of woman ...

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 ...

For years, Tim Hecker's complicated, haunting soundscapes have earned him acclaim and collaborations from the ambient and experimental circles all over the world. The Montreal sound artist will return ...