Matteo Sassano

thumb| Matteo Sassano, called Matteuccio (1667 - 15 October 1737), was a famous Italian castrato, also called "the nightingale of Naples" (il rosignuolo di Napoli) because of his extremely beautiful soprano voice and virtuoso singing.

== Life == === Childhood and youth === Born in San Severo, Kingdom of Naples, Sassano was the son of the widow Livia Tommasino and Giuseppe Sassano. Nothing is known about his early childhood. A barber from his hometown, who presumably performed the fateful orchiectomy procedure, had contacts in Naples with one Alessandro de Liguoro, a barber with a shop near the palazzo of the Apostolic Nuncio on Via Toledo; the latter picked up little Matteo, took him in, looked after him and subsequently became a confidant for the singer. Alessandro also ensured that the nine-year-old Matteo could enter the . There, for the next 10 years, he received perfect musical and vocal training under the direction of Giovanni Salvatore and Donato Oliva.