MUAR 211 Cain Listening to Historic Voices-Activity #2: Atto Melani and patronage Roger Freitas, Portrait of a Castrato: Politics, Patronage, and Music in the Life of Atto Melani Cambridge, 2009: 1-8 (12), 15-17 & 23-32. What primary sources have been most valuable to Freitas in his study? What primary sources did he draw upon? Where and for whom specifically did Atto Melani work during his time as a musico? To what factors does Freitas attribute the fact that Melani's biography and related sources have drawn so little scholarly interest? Why have people not written much about Melani previously? What does Freitas mean when he writes (p. 3): "Indeed, the field of feminist studies has established biographical models specifically for the unimportant subject." Why does he says this? According to Freitas, Domenico Melani (Atto's father) did not decide to have four of his sons castrated out of duress or for money. On the contrary, he probably saw the decision as natural if not inevitable, and perhaps even as a generous one. What are some of the factors in Domenico's world that might have led him to this view? Why was this normal in Domenico's world? What was the stance of the Catholic Church at this time regarding castration? How did the Church "directly fuel this practice"? What are your thoughts regarding Freitas's comparison of a father castrating his musically talented son to a football dad encouraging his athletically talented son to take performance enhancing drugs?