Farinelli: Il Castrato (1995)

This interesting Belgian film from 1994 has a surface subject that might make a few guys wince: an 18th-century castrato, or castrated male opera singer. A superstar in Europe, Farinelli the vocalist--despite compromised equipment--gets his share of groupies and is showered with attention and gifts from rich patrons. Meanwhile, his brother--a so-so composer whose career and fortunes are inextricably linked to his sibling, as per their father's wishes--feels like a sham for enjoying the fruits of another's success. For director Gérard Corbiau, the real story is that of the forced bond between the two men, and their unspoken awareness that their separate destinies have been slowed by the arrangement. Corbiau gives us the best of two worlds: a costume drama with an unusual, even exotic, story line, and a tender, universal tale of real love. The opera sequences are a kick: the breathless crowds, Farinelli's hammy control over the drama, and his stunning castrato voice (manufactured by Corbiau via synthesized merger of male and female voices) and all make for great fun. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Historically inaccurate

A good source of entertainment, but historically inaccurate. For one thing, Farinelli famously DID NOT sing Handel's music; he sang for the rival company in London and maintained a very antagonistic relationship with Handel. November 13, 2007

Sex and Opera

Farinelli is an amazing movie, the music, the sets-everything. It is well written, well acted and beautifully sung. You don't need to be an opera fan to love this, in fact, if you think you hate opera then see it, I think you will change your mind! September 20, 2007

Beautiful But Silly

Visually opulent, and with a stunning soundtrack, this film could have been so much better if it didn't take completely unnecessary--and foolish--liberties with the story of the real Farinelli. Unfortunately, much of the plot is just plain silly. Whether or not a castrato would have been capable of sexual relations (and it is believed that they were), it is absurd how the film proposes that Farinelli would have sex with a woman, but then had to turn her over to his uncastrated brother to finish her off, as it were. I doubt that a man's ability to ejaculate has much to do with a woman's sexual satisfaction. And the portrayal of the composer George Frideric Handel is just plain ridiculous. When I saw this film in a theater with three friends, the scene where Handel hears Farinelli sing and nearly has a heart attack, with his wig falling off, prompted all four of us to laugh out loud. (In reality, Handel didn't have as high an opinion of Farinelli's singing as some, and chose not to hire him for his own opera troupe.) The film also depicts Farinelli plotting to sing Handel's music by having a maid steal a manuscript from Handel's apartment. The result is Farinelli singing "Lascia ch'io pianga" from the opera Rinaldo--which makes no sense at all, since that aria was written for a woman soprano, not an alto castrato, and Farinelli didn't perform travesty roles. Besides, by the time of the incident portrayed, the score of Rinaldo had been published and Farinelli could have simply purchased a copy. The main attraction of this film is the soundtrack. We really have no idea what the castrati sounded like (yes, I know there is a recording of "the last castrato" made in 1902, but it's a terribly weak representation of what the great ones must have sounded like), so for the film they concocted a unique voice by digitally combining the sounds of a woman soprano and a male falsettist. The result is dazzling; my recommendation is to buy the soundtrack. The best elements of the film are the beautiful costumes and camera work. The staging of opera scenes is beautiful enough that you wish they had included complete excerpts, instead of frustratingly brief teases; at least the musical selections are complete on the soundtrack CD. March 30, 2007

Unique but Flawed

Thank goodness this prize-winning, one-of-a-kind film "Farinelli" was made, even though there are many disappointments about it. It makes a good story about the greatest singer ever; however, the plot has little to do about the real Carlo Broschi. Some scenes and ideas about him actually are the antithesis of the real man. I would guess that this story is about 10% Carlo, 10% about other known castrati, 10% about castrati in general, 20% about Baroque opera and that era, and 50% just plain fiction. As astonishing as Farinelli's voice and career were, he did not have the conflicts and drama film makers believed necessary to make a successful movie; therefore, they made it up.

My being a true music lover and also knowledgable about Baroque belle canto, I'm most disappointed in the voices used. The Sony techs knew how to electronically meld the voices of a countertenor and a female soprano, but obviously they knew little about the belle canto sound, regardless of the fact that there were clues in their own script(!), let along first-hand accounts written by knowledgable people of that time. Admittedly in 1994, better trained countertenors were only beginning to appear, so the established, average-voice one chosen may have seemed reasonable to the film makers. In addition, the breathy, warbly, imprecise approach among most female sopranos (along with their distinctly female timbre) had become engrained and accepted by most listeners since the 19th century, so the makers did not sense that this soprano's voice was inappropriate in their attempt to approximate the castrato voice. If they had been more careful in choosing, they should have insisted that supreme soprano Gundula Janowitz participate in the production. And for the countertenor, they should have chosen Andreas Scholl. Regardless of the fact that he was early in his countertenor carreer, he was known for that as well as his earlier experience as a boy soprano.

The other musical disappointment is, to keep the movie length shorter, the arias were truncated to 2/5 their original length or less. This is understandable from a film-maker's view; however, the viewer misses the intent to the Da Capo aria form where the repeated musical theme provides the singer (who in a sense was a "co-composer") with the opportunity to "show his stuff," i.e., his acrobatic vocal skills, high notes, and his musical understanding. The CD soundtrack does have the complete arias and, therefore, is more informative and satisfying.

Since this 1994 film was made, interest among music lovers in Baroque vocal works has expanded greatly with many new productions of operas, oratorios, etc., from Handel, Hasse, Bononcini, Mozart, etc. The Center for the Study of Farinelli has been established in Bologna. Farinelli's remains were discovered in 2006 and are being studied. A new production approached carefully and seriously, well researched, financed, cast, and directed, would be very welcome. March 20, 2007

baroque slice of life

Lavish, lusty, imaginative, free-wheeling bio-pic about the life of opera singer Farinelli, one of the great superstars of the 18th century. The sets and costumes are appropriately extravagant. The Baroque aesthetic is flamboyantly genuine. As Carlo and Riccardo Broschi, Stefano Dionisi and Enrico Lo Verso are both darkly beautiful and splendidly sexy.

The Church prohibited women from singing in Rome and, in its infinite wisdom, condoned the castration of talented boys to provide treble voices for the Sistine Chapel. Families would send a musical son to a conservatory for this purpose just as they might send another to a seminary for the priesthood. The great castrati, far from being greeted with the aversion of a modern sensibility, were venerated. Women wept, swooned, fainted at their performances, and they lived lives of great comfort.

Born Carlo Broschi, Farinelli was a musical genius with a voice of extraordinary facility, power, and beauty; his older brother Riccardo is portrayed here as a second-rate composer whose notoriety is entirely dependent upon the genius of his younger brother. This is just one of the historical facts that have been altered or exaggerated for the sake of dramatic effect.

Riccardo was a successful, if minor, composer. Their brotherly disputes were the subject of much gossip, but not for the reason promulgated in the film. Carlo took his stage name to honor a benefactor named Farina. He was reportedly not much interested in sex, but many castrati were highly sensual as Farinelli is depicted in the film. He never sang for Handel but the composer was a jovial man and treated musicians with respect. The decision to portray him as an ogre is the film's greatest, and most unnecessary, distortion.

The star of the film, ultimately, is the resplendent music. The voice of Farinelli (miraculously synthesized from a soprano and a counter-tenor) is glorious. The performances are joyously Baroque. And, considering the extraordinary beauty of Stefano Dionisi and Enrico Lo Verso, it is a luxurious feast for eyes as well as the ears. March 8, 2007

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