At the height of the castrati’s fame, up to 4,000 boys a year were castrated in the pursuit of operatic superstardom.

This is the story of Alessandro Moreschi — the last castrato singer to have ever lived.

He was born into a time when the Catholic Church turned a blind eye to castration for the purposes of singing, yet lived to see it outlawed by a new papal decree. He stood at the crossroads of shifting ideologies and religious conviction, straddling two worlds that could no longer coexist.

His life marked the end of a controversial era — one that challenged the gender norms of its time.

He was not the greatest, nor the worst…but simply the last.