In Farinelli’s Footsteps

So just it was name of Friday’s concert (13.11.2009) in Besedni dum in Brno, Czech Republic. Who was Farinelli? His proper name was Carlo Broschi and he lived between 1705 and 1782 year. Since in the time of baroque, the women characters were sang by men, so called castratos were needed. To boys, mostly from the poor families, the testicles were removed surgically just before the beginning of their puberty. It was almost at age of 8. In consequence of that, the boy voice was preserved and we are speaking about boy or male soprano. Since male has bit other physiologically ordered vocal cords and bigger volume of lungs, then such soprano has not only a big register but also a dynamic. Besides women may not sing in the cathedral choirs in Vatican and so the castratos were required, even if the church denounced it.

Farinelli, he himself, was considered as a star mainly due to his singing technique (mezza di voce, bel canto in his time. He sang in Italy, but also in Vienna, London and Madrid. Such greats of baroque music like Johan Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel or Antonio Vivaldi wrote just for the castratos.

Therefore, I was very curious about this concert. The reason for that was following. The male soprano Marian Radu (male soprano) sang with musical group called Ars Antiqua Austria form Austria. They play the period baroque instruments. I would like only mention that the last real castrato died somewhere in Spain in the middle of 20th century. Marian Radu is absolutely unique soloist. He was born in Romania. He has a pure natural soprano with register from c´ to c´´´ (C4 – C6). Strictly speaking, he is so called “Endocrinological castrato”, because he did not undergo the surgical operation, but testicle evolution was not finished by him. The timbre of his voice is absolutely unique and absolutely not comaparable with contratenor or women soprano.

So, I am giving you here two inspirations.