LETTER : The truth about castrati

IN HIS fascinating book The Castrati in Opera, Angus Heriot asserts that full castration was never used. The victim, often drugged with opium or another narcotic, was placed in a hot bath until virtually unconscious. Then the ducts leading to the testicles were severed, so that in time the latter shrivelled and disappeared.

Geoffrey Taunton

Portsmouth, Hants