Farinelli o sobre las derivaciones vocales de esa vieja costumbre de castrar

Abstract

The film presents some of the passages of the life of Carlo Broschi, the famous Farinelli, a castrato who delighted so many lovers of the settecentista opera. Upon witnessing a street challenge between the young singer and a young trumpeter, over which Farinelli is victorious due to his extraordinary voice, George F. Handel, at the time an official musician of the English court and being present almost by chance, proposes a trip to London. Farinelli rejects the offer which leads to a tense relation between the two of them, a relationship full of antipathies but at the same time with a certain degree of mutual recognition. In contrast to Farinelli’s scarcely addressed confinement in the Spanish court, at the peak of his career, the film is rich in showing us the varied visits of the Broschi brothers to different European scenarios, blended with episodes where Farinelli’s seductive character triggers numerous love scenes finally consummated by his brother Ricardo, anatomically intact. According to the physiopathology of prepubertal castration this seems more over-acted than real.