Frankie Valli--a Eunuch/Castrato???

[Jim_B]

For quite a while eunuchs found work as singers–a good amount of music was written expressly for the lilting voice of the castrati–but, unfortunately, show business has changed, and the only castrato who’s found steady work since the turn of the century has been Frankie Valli.

(This quote is from this Straight Dope classic by Cecil Adams.)

So Cecil Adams says Frankie Valli is a castrato? Is this true? He was actually castrated as a child to be a tenor as an adult?? I want to think Cecil Adams is joking, but he writes it in such a serious tone. No evidence whatsoever of a joke, at least in this part of what he is writing.

So what is it? Joke or the truth? Thank you in advance to all who reply

[saoirse]

@Jim B.

(This quote is from this Straight Dope classic by Cecil Adams.)

So Cecil Adams says Frankie Valli is a castrato? Is this true? He was actually castrated as a child to be a tenor as an adult??

Okay number one, I’m a tenor. Being a tenor is very [checks] yes, very different from being a castrato. And yes, Cecil is joking. Had he decided to anwer the question just a couple years later, it would have been a Michael Jackson joke.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

As Frankie Valli has been married for about 22 years, and fathered 3 children, the chances of him having been castrated as a child are not very likely.

Or else the surgeon did a really bad job!