IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eca/wpaper/2013-249916.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Rise and Fall of Castrati

Author

Listed:
  • Victor Ginsburgh
  • Luc Leruth

Abstract

Castrato singers appeared in the Western World during the 16th century. They were needed by the Church for reasons that we shall discuss, and their skills were such that opera composers also decided to use them. This created a major demand for their services. Castrati reigned supreme at the Opera until the mid-19th century and continued to sing in Italian churches until 1913. The last one died in Rome in 1922. The paper shows that economic incentives played a key role in explaining the rise and fall of this remarkable group of singers.

Suggested Citation

  • Victor Ginsburgh & Luc Leruth, 2017. "The Rise and Fall of Castrati," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2017-15, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/249916
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/249916/3/2017-15-GINSBURGH_LERUTH-therise.pdf
    File Function: Full text for the whole work, or for a work part
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giovanni Federico & Paolo Malanima, 2004. "Progress, decline, growth: product and productivity in Italian agriculture, 1000–2000," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 57(3), pages 437-464, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Palma, Nuno & Reis, Jaime, 2019. "From Convergence to Divergence: Portuguese Economic Growth, 1527–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(2), pages 477-506, June.
    2. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133.
    3. Claire Giordano & Francesco Zollino, 2015. "A Historical Reconstruction of Capital and Labour in Italy, 1861-2013," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 155-224.
    4. David Chilosi & Carlo Ciccarelli, 2021. "Southern and Northern Italy in the Great Divergence: New Perspectives from the Occupational Structure," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 47, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    5. Robert C. Allen, 2009. "Agricultural productivity and rural incomes in England and the Yangtze Delta, c.1620–c.18201," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(3), pages 525-550, August.
    6. Weisdorf, Jacob & Rota, Mauro, 2020. "Italy and the Industrial Revolution: Evidence from Stable Employment in Rural Areas," CEPR Discussion Papers 14652, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Alan Fernihough, 2013. "Malthusian Dynamics in a Diverging Europe: Northern Italy, 1650–1881," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(1), pages 311-332, February.
    8. repec:pra:mprapa:56168 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Stephen Broadberry & Claire Giordano & Francesco Zollino, 2011. "A Sectoral Analysis of Italy's Development, 1861-2011," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 20, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    10. James B. Ang & Rajabrata Banerjee & Jakob B. Madsen, 2013. "Innovation and Productivity Advances in British Agriculture: 1620–1850," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 80(1), pages 162-186, July.
    11. Steven Brakman & Herman de Jong & Maarten Bosker & Harry Garretsen & Marc Schramm, 2007. "The Development of Cities in Italy 1300-1861," Working Papers 7012, Economic History Society.
    12. Carlos Álvarez-Nogal & Leandro Prados De La Escosura, 2013. "The rise and fall of Spain (1270–1850)," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(1), pages 1-37, February.
    13. Nikolaj Malinowski & Jan Luiten van Zanden, 2015. "National income and its distribution in preindustrial Poland in a global perspective," Working Papers 0076, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    14. Tai-Yoo Kim & Almas Heshmati & Jihyun Park, 2009. "Perspectives on the Decelerating Agricultural society," TEMEP Discussion Papers 200901, Seoul National University; Technology Management, Economics, and Policy Program (TEMEP), revised Jan 2009.
    15. Izdebski, Adam & Koloch, Grzegorz & Słoczyński, Tymon & Tycner, Marta, 2016. "On the use of palynological data in economic history: New methods and an application to agricultural output in Central Europe, 0–2000AD," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 17-39.
    16. Jan Luiten van Zanden & Emanuele Felice, 2017. "Benchmarking the Middle Ages. XV century Tuscany in European Perspective," Working Papers 0081, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    17. Broadberry, Stephen N. & Irwin, Douglas A., 2006. "Labor productivity in the United States and the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 257-279, April.
    18. Bruno Chiarini, 2010. "The economic consequences of population and urbanization growth in Italy: from the 13th century to 1900. A discussion on the Malthusian dynamics," Discussion Papers 2_2010, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    19. Felice, Emanuele, 2014. "Il Mezzogiorno fra storia e pubblicistica. Una replica a Daniele e Malanima [Southern Italy between history and journalistic books. A reply to Daniele and Malanima]," MPRA Paper 55830, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Erdkamp, Paul, 2016. "Economic growth in the Roman Mediterranean world: An early good-bye to Malthus?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-20.
    21. Maja Pedersen & Claudia Riani & Paul Sharp, 2021. "Malthus in preindustrial Northern Italy?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 1003-1026, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    castrated singers; singing in the Church; Opera;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • N83 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/249916. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Benoit Pauwels (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/arulbbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.