Klarinet Archive - Posting 000160.txt from 1995/04

From: "F. Tereshchenko" <ftereshc@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: A question of considerable delicacy
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 20:50:57 -0400

On Tue, 11 Apr 1995, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> Ahem! Blush. Er.... I have a question of some delicacy that I
> am restrained from placing on a musical listing of greater breadth.
> Besides there are doctors on this list and maybe they can give me
> a private answer if a public one is too, er..., uh, .... delicate.
> This is not a clarinet issue. It is not even too much about a musical
> issue.
>
> I saw "Farinelli" which is about a castrato. I know exactly what a
> castrato is; i.e., a singing man who, in his youth and before his
> voice changed, was castrated so as to permit the voice to remain
> unchanged though the body matured physically. The result was a
> great deal more than a counter-tenor. It was a male soprano of
> unusual power. There is nothing like it today and, for the movie,
> the character of the voice had to be created through electronic means
> (which are described on a French www posting).
>
> In the movie, Farinelli is sexually active. The impression given is
> that he is able to perform sexually with a woman, but cannot, of
> course, impregnate her since he has no testes and, therefore, no
> sperm. And with this lies my question: could a castrated man perform
> sexually; i.e., is it possible to have both an erection and the
> consequent orgasm (spermless, of course) even though castrated?

Yes

> In effect, is the sexual drive continued even in the absence of
> testicles?

Yes

> Or is seminal fluid capable of being generated in the
> absence of the sperm that it is intended to carry?

No

>
>
>
>
> ====================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> (leeson@-----.edu)
> ====================================
>