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Theatre

Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes: Monsters and Prodigies: The History of the Castrati

When

Friday Mar 20, 2009 (7:30pm)

Saturday Mar 21, 2009 (7:30pm)

Sunday Mar 22, 2009 (3pm)

Where

Museum of Contemporary Art

220 E Chicago Ave

312.280.2660

Price

$25

Museum of Contemporary Art says…

Equal parts history lesson, tabloid sensation, and Baroque spectacle, Monsters and Prodigies elucidates and parodies the 18th-century phenomenon of castrati — boys castrated to preserve their angelic sopranos. Co-writer and company head Claudio Valdes Kuri smatters his tale (insert "cutting" pun here) with centaurs, a surgeon/opera-critic set of conjoined twins, and a eunuch-phile Napoleon (!). The pre-pubescent worship eventually gives way to Enlightenment rationality, and Monsters plants itself right at the crossroads: extravagant opera meets measured archeology, with just the right slice of cheery juvenilia.