It seems unthinkable to us today, but for centuries parents allowed their young sons to be sexually mutilated before puberty if they seemed to have great promise as singers. That’s because there was enormous social reward for the castrati. Mutilating an eight- or nine-year-old boy was also a kind of hormonal therapy which had a range of physiological effects on everything from his bones, to his gait, to his vocal cords.

And it was that change to the vocal cords which was so desirable. Crowds swooned to hear “the voice of angels” — though they were just as often maligned as beasts. When Pope Benedict XIV tried to ban the barbaric practice in the 1700s he was powerfully resisted due to the great cultural demand for them. It was only in the late 19th century that the Italian government decided they could no longer “stay out of the matter.” The barbaric practice was rightly banned by the Italian state in 1868 and then soon after in the Church by Pope Leo XIII. Justice was served, cultural tastes moved on, young boys with good voices got to have normal lives again, and today we can look back upon it with a sense of cultural superiority. Except, we can’t.