Week 2: Is This Real Life?

I'm still reading The Bells: A Novel. The major conflict in the story is the main character dealing with his castration to keep his beutiful soprano voice for life.

I was wondering if this still happens today. It turns out that this phenomenon mainly happened in the first three centuries of Opera (1600-1900). The main motivation seems to be the refusal to let women join holy choirs in Europe. With no female voices, it became difficult to fill in Soprano parts. Children were often used, but to preserve a soprano for life, there was only one choice. Odd.

Choir boys have Pope Leo XIII to thank for bringing an end to the practice.

The conflict is gruesome and sad, but the love of music in this boy, and probably the author, is amazing. I can't wait to find out how the boy, Moses, resolves his loneliness in the latter half of the book.

Time read this week: 3 hours

Total Time read: 6 hours