Baldassare Ferri (9 December 1610 – 10 September 1680) was an Italian ''

castrato A castrato (Italian; : castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur in one who, due to an endocrino ...

'' singer. He is said to have possessed "extraordinary endurance of breath, flexibility of voice and depth of emotion".

History

He was born in

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

, and at the age of eleven was a chorister to Cardinal Crescenzi, at

Orvieto Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...

. In his youth, he had an 'ugly accident', which necessitated an 'operation which permanently preserved his magnificent soprano voice'. He remained a chorister in Orvieto until 1655, when the Swedish invasion broke up the court. Four years later the Prince, and later Wladislaus IV, of Poland, secured Ferri's services for the Court of Sigismund III, at Warsaw. In 1655 the singer entered the service of Ferdinand III in Vienna. He received many honors from royalty and the nobles of various countries, and was one of the most renowned singers of his time. In 1654 he journeyed to Sweden to sing by request before Queen Christine, his voice even then being famous throughout Europe. He was made a knight of St. Mark of Venice in 1643,

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s were written in his honor, and he was crowned by his countrymen with roses. Five years before his death Ferri returned to his native country. He died exceedingly rich and left a great deal of money to charity. His voice was a wonderful organ, a beautiful soprano, with a limpid quality that musicians of the time declared was "indescribable." His intonation was perfect and all musicians spoke of his length of breath which was almost inexhaustible, and at all times his singing was quiet and expressive. While singing, Ferri was often 'motionless as a statue'.

References

Castrati 1610 births 1680 deaths Musicians from Perugia 17th-century Italian male actors 17th-century Italian male opera singers Male actors from Umbria {{Italy-opera-singer-stub