To Move the Passions - a podcast by The Religion, Race and Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia

In 1902, a young American headed to the Vatican to record a voice unlike any other. His subject was Alessandro Moreschi—the last known castrato. That is to say, a man castrated in childhood in order to preserve a high singing voice.

Castrati's high, yet powerful, voices were in constant demand in both sacred and secular spaces across Europe for centuries. We talk to UVA's Bonnie Gordon about how the interpretation of a single biblical passage helped launch that demand, and how their otherworldly voices became a tool for conversion—and the center of a debate about the nature of human bodies and souls.

Further episodes of Sacred

Further podcasts by The Religion, Race and Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia

Website of The Religion, Race and Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia