LETTER : The truth about castrati

Sunday 19 November 1995 00:02 GMT

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IN HIS fascinating book The Castrati in Opera, Angus Heriot asserts that full castration was never used. The victim, often drugged with opium or another narcotic, was placed in a hot bath until virtually unconscious. Then the ducts leading to the testicles were severed, so that in time the latter shrivelled and disappeared.

Geoffrey Taunton

Portsmouth, Hants

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LETTER : The truth about castrati

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