Making of Castrati
Boys with good singing voice had a great possibility to be castrated 2 hundred
years ago in Italy. Normally the operation was made in childhood or just
before the puberty at 7 to 12 years age. There were experienced barbers but
also surgeons who made the cut. Naturally the cruel operation was made without
anesthesia, because there were no methods to kill the pain. The barber had
2..3 helpers in his backroom.Before the operation the boy was asked to pee and
then he had some strong wine with honey to drink. The almost sleeping boy was
undressed naked and put into a hot bath.In the warm water the surgeon made the
first serious examination of the boys scrotum.He was naturally also interested
in his penis, which he examined throughly. He tried to pull the
long,uncircumcised foreskin back to expose the glans .Some boys had tight
foreskin or adhesions and it was good sign that the boy´s genitals are still
immature and it was the right point of time for the operation.This exa!

mination was done gently, without pain. .It was almost pleasant for the boy.
Surgeon stroked the soft skin of the scrotum and massaged the tiny testicles
to try how the scrotum was released.He examined carefully both testicles and
cords.He looks also for hernias.

When his scrotum was released and the testicles can be easy manipulated the

boy was tied with spread legs on the table. Then the barber took a sharp razor
in his right hand. With his left hand he cupped the testicles and weighted the

boys virgin balls. The barber then took both testicles between his forefinger
and thumb. He pressed the testicle gently so that the skin of the sac was
tense and shiny. The barber made quickly two incision a 3/4 inch long on the
sac's skin and opened the sac.In this time the boy started to cry because the
pain was sharp.The surgeon pressed the first testicle out from the wound,
bounded the cord and released the testicle from the cord.In this moment the
pain was culminated and one helper tried to calm the crying boy. The same
procedure was followed on the other side. Two bleeding wounds appeared on the
empty sac.The wounds were bandaged and the boy attended for some days.

This period of history was cruel and only small part of the mutilated boys was
succesfull,but hundreds of the boys were mutilated.