“The castrati – or evirati, as they were politely called – are perhaps the most freakish phenomenon in Western musical history. Eunuchs had been a common feature of the courts of the Islamic world long before they appeared in 17th-century Italy, which seems to be the only Western country where castration was widely performed – the operation was illegal, but parents of the victims just mumbled about unfortunate encounters with wild boars, and prosecutions were rare.”