La Zambinella is a celebrated castrato opera singer with whom the protagonist Sarrasine becomes infatuated after mistaking him for a woman. He is also the reclusive elderly relative of the de Lanty family who frightens Madame de Rochefide with his deathly appearance. The revelation of his identity, both as a castrato and as the uncle of the Comtesse de Lanty, is the main point of anagnorisis in the novella’s climax. The novella creates suspense and mystery by hiding the truth of La Zambinella’s identity from both the reader and Madame de Rochefide until Sarrasine himself learns the truth. Hints and foreshadowing abound, however—for instance, in the malicious mirth of the other performers and in La Zambinella’s tentative hints that he is not a woman. La Zambinella’s attitude to Sarrasine is primarily characterized by fear of reprisal. 

La Zambinella is particularly significant to the theme of The Artificiality of Gender Roles because, as a castrato, he occupies a position between conventional conceptions of masculine and feminine. He performs female roles and embodies many of the “weaknesses” stereotypically associated with women during Balzac’s time, such as timidity, delicacy, and capriciousness. However, there is little evidence that La Zambinella identifies as anything but a man, seemingly only dressing as a woman for work and, at the behest of his fellow performers, in order to prank Sarrasine. It is implied that La Zambinella is in a relationship with the Cardinal, who is euphemistically referred to as the younger man’s “protector,” a socially subversive but not uncommon arrangement for castrati that was often exploitative. La Zambinella makes no secret of his resentment of the childhood operation that rendered him a castrato, as he considers himself both incapable of love and fundamentally broken. Nevertheless, as an elderly man, La Zambinella seems to be attempting to recapture his youthful beauty and allure despite his weakened physical state and implied dementia, sporting gaudy finery and makeup. He also shows marked fondness for Marianina, his young great-niece, whose beauty and singing talent recall La Zambinella’s own youth. 

The novella reveals little else about La Zambinella because his tale is related by a narrator whose source of information is suspect and whose motivation is to entertain and seduce rather than to provide an accurate account. Moreover, the narration focuses on Sarrasine’s incomplete and flawed perception throughout, making La Zambinella more an object for his desires than a round character in his own right. This is typical of literary and historical depictions of castrati, who have often been a subject of interest but are almost always presented from an “othering” or even objectifying perspective. Just as artists’ interpretations of La Zambinella, as well as his own work as a performer, obscure his true self, so too do literary representations mold the modern perception of castrato identity. For this reason, La Zambinella is key to the theme of Art and the Impact of Representation on Identity.