The remains of the celebrated 18th-century Italian castrato Farinelli have been exhumed to find more about his peculiar powers as a singer, a university professor said on Thursday.
“We are looking for additional information about possible pathological signs in the singer, whether or not linked to the fact that he was castrated,” said Professor Gino Fornaciari, of Pisa University.
The remains were removed from a cemetery in the northern city of Bologna where the singer died in 1782.
Maria Giovanna Belcastro, of the laboratory of bioarchaeology of Bologna University, told the newspaper La Repubblica analysis of the remains “could tell us about the circumference of his rib cage and the size of his mouth”.
Any physical peculiarities might explain the legendary singing gifts of Farinelli, whose real name was Carlo Broschi and who achieved European fame in the first half of the 18th century.
Born in Naples in 1705, he settled in Madrid where he had great influence at court and on political life due to his popularity with the monarch. He returned to Italy in 1759 and settled in Bologna for the rest of his life.
The research project on his remains involves the Italian universities of Bologna, Pisa and Florence, and York University in Britain.
“We have exhumed the entire skeleton but it is in very poor condition,” said Fornaciari. “The operation was very delicate because his bones were piled beside those of his niece who was buried with him.”
Bologna University will reconstitute and restore the skeleton before proper work of analysis can begin, he said.
“We would like to find out more about his lifestyle by investigating his diet and his morphology, although we already know he was big and naturally robust,” said Fornaciari. — AFP