castrato
- n a male singer who was castrated before puberty and retains a soprano or alto voice
- Now, it may not be immediately obvious why anyone would want to understand a series that features a stool specimen wearing a sailor hat and speaking with the voice of a castrato .
- Contributing to its unreal aura is the fact that the role of Orfeo was written for a castrato voice, which to 18th century ears sounded godlike in its sexless purity and power.
- This was no castrato, but a grown, yearning heterosexual male whose impossibly high voice set him apart, in tone and content, from the baritone norm, and made him perfect for .