The first thing that comes to mind is the word vanity. But for the many members of the privileged class, have only one thing in mind and it is perfectly combined with excellence. They argue that what they wanted is to find a way to produce the best music as well as the best means to offer songs to their Creator. They will stop at nothing to get what they desire. Still, they had to negotiate a few obstacles. The first one is the low value given to women in medieval times. This led to the rise of the castrato. Later on, this practice faded away giving rise to a new kind of virtuoso singer, the Prima Donna. Together the male castrato and the female Prima Donna revolutionized European opera, changing the rules of the game so to speak. The so-called “cult of the performer” transformed how composers make music and how the general public views singers. Castration Castratos are male singers who went through the ordeal of castration before the onset of puberty. The main goal is to preserve the male child’s high voice and preventing it to develop into that of an adult man, one with a distinctively low timbre. While the castration succeeded in preserving the high voice similar to a woman, the adult vocal cords added another bonus which created a male castrato singer that combines the voice of a young boy with the vocal strength of a man. It is an out-of-this-world and honestly speaking it is the sort of thing that modern men and women find disturbing. In fact, the Pope issued orders to ban this kind of practice (Kelly, 2004). But it seems that demand for this type of singer was so great that no one can really put a stop to the practice of male castration even as late as the 19th century. At the height of their popularity castratos dominated Italian opera (Rosselli, 1992). Unfortunately, the popularity and influence of castratos led to the castration of a significant number of young boys who were undoubtedly aspiring to become the next superstar. A more detailed analysis of the significance of castratos is provided in the following historical account: Males castrated before puberty … are more likely than ordinary males to grow to an unusual height. Some – not all or even most – attained an unusual vocal power, range, and length of breath because an enlarged thoracic cavity combined with an undeveloped larynx allowed a mighty rush of air to play upon small vocal chords. The resulting tone, in the best singers, was felt as extraordinary, at once powerful and brilliant, it did not sound like what we hear from most counter-tenors (Rosselli, 1992). It is easy to understand why castratos are paid more substantially than other singers. It is the combination of quality and quantity, their extraordinary voice coupled with the high demand for their kind of singing. As many family’s desire that their kids belong to this elite group of artists, the popularity of castratos spread all over Europe. A few of them are treated like rock stars of the modern music industry. An example was Senesino, a superb singer of Italian descent. In 1720 alone, he earned an astonishing income of 3,000 guineas (Kelly, 2004). This kind of treatment can sometimes get into the heads of castrati. According to one account, Senesino used his star power to disagree with composers even if these composers are celebrities in their own right (Kelly, 2004). This is expected of th