Domenico Mustafà (16 April 1829 – 17 March 1912) 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, composer and choir director.
Life
Domenico Mustafà was born in the
comune
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
of
Sellano,
Italian Who's Who page
province of Perugia
The province of Perugia () is the larger of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising two-thirds of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Perugia. The province covered all of Umbria until 1927, w ...
, and had been castrated due to a bite from a pig.
He became a famous soprano castrato with the Cappella Sistina in the Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Geography
* Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy
* Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City
* Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome
* Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
. He was particularly admired for his performances of Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti.
Born in Halle, Germany, H ...
ian music. At his prime, Mustafà possessed a voice of superior strength and beauty, and he mastered the trills and coloraturas to the utmost perfection. According to Franz Habock, he had a voice "as sweet and pleasant as that of a woman" with a usable range of at least 2 octaves from C4 to C6.
Mustafà was also a composer—among his works were a famous "Miserere" and "Tu es Petrus secundum magnum." Admitted to the Cappella Sistina in Rome as a chorister in 1848, he soon became famous for his singing, intelligence, and gifts as a composer. In 1855 he made his debut as a composer in a "Miserere" for six voices, with high acclaim. Five years later, in 1860, he was appointed as choir director by the pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the A ...
.
Being a man of great honour and responsibility, he was eventually nominated as a possible candidate, and finally elected, for the post of "Direttore Perpetuo" of the Sistine Chapel in 1878. However, even before 1878, he was already involved in directing the Chapel after the death of its former director Giuseppe Baini. Also, he was an honoured lifetime member and president of the musical organisation "Società Musicale Romana" in Rome.
He came close to returning to the operatic stage when Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
considered casting him as Klingsor in ''Parsifal'' in 1882. However, the whole idea was abandoned shortly afterwards due to a role confusion—the emasculated Klingsor was not a castrato, but a eunuch castrated past puberty and thus singing baritone, not soprano.
Domenico Mustafà was also a teacher and he gave music lessons to the famous French soprano Emma Calvé in 1892. Here he taught Calvé to employ her famous "fourth voice", which was a very high and refined falsetto extending to an unearthly disembodied D6. Calvé, after hearing Mustafà perform the thrill, described it as: "strange, sexless, superhuman, uncanny."
In person Mustafà was tall and broad, rather plump, very stylish and charismatic in countenance—in older age, he always wore glasses due to his failing sight. In private he was always mild, receptive and talkative—he often used to add a joke or two or an anecdote during a conversation. He was highly praised for his intelligence and deep insights into the musical aspects.
Being a perpetual director of the Sistine Chapel, he nevertheless decided to withdraw in 1902 on the grounds of high age—appointing Lorenzo Perosi as his successor for the post of director. This was after 54 years of service in the papal chapel. The resignation was accepted in January 1903, when he left Rome. He then retired to a luxurious villa in Montefalco
Montefalco is a historic small hill town in Umbria, Italy, with a population of 5,581 in August 2017. It has been settled since pre-Roman times, and retains many of its historic buildings. From 1446 to 1861 it was part of the Papal States. It is on ...
where he spent the rest of his life, where he was occasionally visited by his friends and relatives.
He died in his home in 1912, and was buried in the cemetery of Montefalco
Montefalco is a historic small hill town in Umbria, Italy, with a population of 5,581 in August 2017. It has been settled since pre-Roman times, and retains many of its historic buildings. From 1446 to 1861 it was part of the Papal States. It is on ...
, Umbria, where his large tomb stands to this day. Mustafà's role as a director in the Sistine Chapel is considered to be of great importance, and a book about his life was written by Alberto de Angelis and released in 1926. His home villa, "Villa Mustafà", was turned into a hotel, and is now open to visitors and tourists, serving also as a museum in his memory.
See also
* Giovanni Cesari
* Alessandro Moreschi
* Domenico Salvatori
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mustafa, Domenico
1829 births
1912 deaths
19th-century Italian male actors
Italian male stage actors
Castrati
Italian male composers
People from Montefalco
19th-century Italian male singers