The eighteenth-century castrato soprano Farinelli (Carlo Broschi) was probably the most accomplished and celebrated singer in recorded history. Although we cannot know exactly what Farinelli sounded like, there is a large body of anecdotal evidence about the great beauty of his voice and his extraordinary vocal accomplishments.
In Gérard Corbiau's 1994 film, "Farinelli, il castrato", this evidence was consulted in a serious attempt to re-create a great castrato voice using sophisticated methods of acoustic synthesising. Though it is impossible to assess how true to the original it is, the result is certainly fascinating.
It is known that the castrato voice sounded far more feminine than masculine and indeed the castrati were frequently understudied by women. This was one major reason that a modern sopranist like Aris, whose voice is distinctly masculine in 'colour', was not chosen for the film. The other is simply that no non-castrato singer is physically capable of performing the astonishing feats of vocal control for which many castrati, not only Farinelli, were noted.
The creation of this 'voice' was a remarkable achievement. Even more remarkable is the fact that today any living, breathing singer exists who can perform this repertoire. Aris's CD, Superbo di me stesso , which was released the year before the film, attracted a lot of attention and extremely favourable reviews and comparisons. I highly recommend this wonderful CD. Music samples from this and Aris's other recordings can be heard on this site.
Visit the on this site. (Please be patient. This page may be slow to load.)
The Farinelli Studies Centre in Bologna exists to promote information about the singer Farinelli and other celebrated castrati. The centre also organizes concerts and competitions of vocal music for the sopranist repertoire as well as seminars, study conventions and musicological research.
