English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

In the Milanese carnival of 1792, the virtuoso castrato Luigi Marchesi (1754-1829) performed Niccolo Antonio Zingarelli’s opera Piro re d’Epiro, in which, as was the custom, he richly elaborated Zingarelli’s simple melodic lines. Four renditions of the aria “Cara negl’occhi” and the rondo “Chi mi da consiglio,” performed on four different nights, were transcribed by the composer Václav Pichl. These transcriptions—essentially performance recordings from the 18th century—offer a unique and remarkable document of castrato singing, in particular Marchesi’s extraordinary ability. In this essay, I analyze Pichl’s transcriptions of Marchesi’s vocal acrobatic display—virtuosity and technique due in part to ‘natural gift’ and in part to the unnatural physiological intervention of castration. The essay compares each variation and provides an analysis contextualized by historical performance practices and by specific analysis of the music and text that provided the basis for Marchesi’s extraordinary vocal pyrotechnics.

Vocal Materiality and Expression in Intentionally Compromised Vocal Physiology: The Cause and Effect of the Castrato Superstar Luigi Marchesi