Castrato And His Wife

The story of Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci, eighteenth-century castrato, celebrity, and heart-throb, and his elopement and love affair with his teenage pupil Doroethea Maunsell. Ranging from the salons of princes and the grand opera houses of Europe to the remote hill towns of Tuscany, Helen Berry explores their story through previously-unseen records, including eyewitness accounts, and the commentaries of newspapers and court records of the day. The tale of the castrato and his wife opens up a new history of attitudes towards sex and celebrity in Georgian Britain, and explores questions about the meaning of marriage that resonate in our own time.