For a review in The Art Newspaper, Tobias Carroll discusses Castrato Phantoms: Moreschi, Fellini, and the Sacred Vernacular in Rome by Martha Feldman.Click here to learn more about the book. Click here to read the full review. An excerpt appears below:

“Recordings made by the castrato Alessandro Moreschi (1858-1922) remain some of the only documents that explain his enduring appeal. But the voice was not his only significant characteristic. His (adoptive) lineage connects him to another renowned artist, the Italian film-maker Federico Fellini. As the musicologist Martha Feldman explains, this relationship—Alessandra, the “last” castrato’s granddaughter, married Fellini’s brother Riccardo—can deepen our understanding of Fellini’s films and aesthetic, along with the complexities of Italian notions of masculinity in the 20th century.

Castrato Phantoms abounds with historical detail about the sacred and secular worlds through which both Moreschi and Fellini moved. It also explains how some of those boys from poor families who survived the mutilation (many died) developed such distinctive voices in later life, although very few achieved success as singers within the Catholic Church or European elite culture such as the Opera Seria.”