Here’s a great little story starring Farinelli. I used it in my latest publication, performing editions of the Galliard sonatas. Farinelli was quite the stud, even post ‘snip!’

In 1722, when he was only 17 years old, the great castrato, Farinelli entered into a messa di voce duel with an obbligato trumpeter that launched and defined his career as one of the greatest singers of all time. In Porpora’s opera, staged in Rome, the two soloists traded messa di voce phrases back and forth, each trying to rival the other in brilliance and force. The audience, sensing the contest, began to take sides. The soloists sounded the last phrase together in thirds, making the swell and trill so long that both seemed exhausted. The trumpeter gave up, but Farinelli, in the same breath, with a smile on his face, swelled to another trill followed by rapid embellishments that were never heard to end, but were overcome by the cheers of the audience.
Henry Pleasants, The Great Singers (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966), 71.