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

castrato A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to ...

'' 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 (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

, 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 whose service he remained until 1655, when the Swedish invasion broke up the court. Four years later the Prince, afterwards Wladislaus IV, of Poland, secured Ferri's services for the Court of

Sigismund III Sigismund III Vasa ( pl, Zygmunt III Waza, lt, Žygimantas Vaza; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden and Grand Duke of Finland from 1592 to ...

, 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 poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

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.

References

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