Carlo Broschi or Farinelli was the most popular singer of the first half of the 18th century, the real Elvis of the Baroque, and to this day one of the most famous opera singers of all time. According to some legends, Farinelli had the greatest vocal range of all time and could sing as high as C6, and he could thank the fact that he was a castrato for these musical achievements. Well, this “thank you” may sound somewhat cynical and not exactly the most accurate, but this singer, born in a musical family from Apulia, was castrated when he was still a boy so that he would not mutate during puberty and so that his voice would remain high.
This monstrous and grotesque method was extremely popular in Baroque Europe, mostly because women did not have the opportunity to perform in operas then, so men had the thankless task of singing both male and female voices. And how to get a man who will sing sopranos, but to cut off his balls while he is still a boy. This sick practice of castration for musical purposes appeared in Italy in the middle of the 16th century, and in Gerard Corbiau’s biographical musical drama we follow what the life of the most famous castrato of all time looked like. And just as that baroque time was kitsch, so is “Farinelli” – a kitsch, pre-theatrical, very baroque film shot in an archaic style, with the sick symbiosis of the famous singer and his sickly ambitious brother Riccardo (Enrico Lo Verso) in the foreground.
And while Farinelli (Stefano Dionisi) drove women crazy (I think I experienced a musical orgasm for the first time, a female fan tells him) he was really a rock’n’roll star before that term was introduced and that’s how behaved, brother Riccardo would finish the job. And while the younger Carlo was incredibly talented, which is why he was subjected to castration in order to later become what he actually became – the best singer of his time, Riccardo was a talentless and mediocre composer who functioned solely thanks to Carlo.
Many famous composers of that time like Händel (Jeroen Krabbe) wanted to compose for Farinelli, but Riccardo did not allow it because he was his composer. He didn’t allow anyone to get close to him, he drugged him with opium, brought him women with whom he would later complete the work himself, and Farinelli seemed to have become his prisoner. Although this film was nominated for an Oscar in the category of the best foreign film, it still remained somewhat unfinished and it remains unclear what the point of the film is. In contrast to a much, much better film with a similar theme, that is, Forman’s “Amadeus”, which so perfectly depicts the relationship between the greatest musical talent of his time and the rest of society, which did not want to, and perhaps could not, understand him.