by Egon Botteghi

The “musicians” (euphemism used for the castrated singers) appear in Italy by the end of the sixteenth century, following a Papal Decree that forbade women to sing in church and consequently in theatres. Throughout the following three centuries, musicians ruled the European music scene, becoming one of the most important exported “goods” from Italy. Created by other men for artistic as well as political and devotional purposes, these men are described in the literature of the time as “chimeric beings,” halfway between a man and a woman,