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.