Tenducci: The castrated singer who spent time in a Cork jail after a secret love affair
Tenducci
The Trials of Tenducci is the intriguing title of a new release by the Irish Baroque Orchestra. Peter Whelan directs and mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught sings the greatest hits of the 18th century singing sensation, Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci. Castrated as a boy in a Tuscan hill town to preserve his beautiful voice, his career flourished in Italy and England before he was attracted to the prosperous and cosmopolitan musical scene in Dublin.
In true rock star fashion, his notoriety was cemented by a sex scandal. The swashbuckling story of his elopement with the teenage daughter of a Limerick barrister, his arrest and trial in Cork has all the elements of a juicy historical novel. It is all grist to the mill of Peter Whelan, director of the IBO who is on a mission to reconnect Irish audiences with the rich heritage of 18th century music-making in Ireland. The recording features orchestral music, songs and arias associated with Tenducci and which were favourites of Irish audiences of that time.
