1580 CE - Sir Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation of the Earth.
Photo of the Day
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An Airbus A321 on final assembly line 3 in the Airbus plant at Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport, Germany.
In the News
French, US Planes Strike ISIS, Britain to Join Coalition
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Iraqi PM Says ISIS Plans Subway Attacks in US and Paris
US Attorney General Holder to Step Down, Successor Faces Array of Challenges
Boko Haram Fighters Kill 18 in Northeast Nigeria: Witnesses
'Missing Links' Found Between Birds and Dinosaurs
Quote of the Day
"The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull". --Dean Acheson
Song of the Day
Artist - Eddie Floyd
Album - Knock On Wood
Film of the Day
Director - Bruce A. Evans
Starring - Kevin Costner, Demi Moore
Wiki of the Day
A castrato (Italian, plural: castrati) is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.
Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents a boy's larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by both sexes) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. Prepubescent castration for this purpose diminished greatly in the late 18th century and was made illegal in Italy in 1870.
As the castrato's body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his epiphyses (bone-joints) did not harden in the normal manner. Thus the limbs of the castrati often grew unusually long, as did the bones of their ribs. This, combined with intensive training, gave them unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity.[1] Operating through small, child-sized vocal cords, their voices were also extraordinarily flexible, and quite different from the equivalent adult female voice. Their vocal range was higher than that of the uncastrated adult male (see soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, sopranist, countertenor and contralto). Listening to the only surviving recordings of a castrato, one can hear that the lower part of the voice sounds like a "super-high" tenor, with a more falsetto-like upper register above that.
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