Ferdinandus [Hernando]  Bustamante {Paul IV-Pius IV}

Soprano [castrato]; [Palencia]; nephew of Franciscus Bustamante; in the chapel of the duke of Alba, Viceroy of Naples, February 1558; admitted 27 April 1558; mandati: April 1558-January 1561; in March 1561, Hernando appears in the salary rolls of the chapel of the Duke of Ferrara, and he remained in Ferrara at least until 1609.

Hernando Bustamante entered the chapel under the same controversial cloud as his uncle Francisco Bustamante (see Franciscus Bustamante). He seems to have been a singer of some ability. During 1560, he was often fined because he had gone to sing in other places, and furthermore apparently was recruited out of the papal chapel to serve the Duke of Ferrara where he was joined by his brother Domenico. In 1589, Hernando was the most highly remunerated singer in the Ferrarese chapel. NEWCOMB has deduced that Hernando and Domenico were both castrati; if this is true, then Hernando would be the first documented castrato in the papal chapel, preceding by thirty years the first unequivocal notice of one (see Jacomo Vasquez).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: CELANI, p. 753; CASIMIRI; FREY, Die Diarien, p. 143; NEWCOMB, Anthony. The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579-1597 (Princeton, 1980), p. 169; OWENS, Jessie Ann. Review of Anthony  NEWCOMB,   The Madrigal at Ferrara 1579-1597.  Early Music History  1 (1981), pp. 374-75.