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OPERA: ONE GOD, ONE FARINELLI! BATERSEA ARTS |
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Taken from the Independent
Nick Kimberley; 08-31-2000
THE CASTRATO Farinelli was a vocal superstar of the baroque era. Pity, then,
today's poor countertenor, forever overshadowed by the mythic magnificence
of the castrati who provide most of his repertoire. And whereas the castrati's
name proudly boasts ofthe sacrifice they made to achieve their vocal splendour,
the countertenor is a mere falsettist, the very word carrying a sneer of
disdain.
It takes balls, then, for Nicholas Clapton to incarnate Farinelli in One
God, One Farinelli, "freely translated and adapted" by Clapton
himself from Quel delizioso orrore! by Guido Barbieri and Sandro Cappelletto.
In this version, we get two Farinellis:the old singer, reminiscing fondly
and acerbically about his younger self, whose voice Clapton brings to life.
The first sound we hear from the decaying Farinelli, played by Richard O'Brien
in Victor Meldrew mode, is not a mellifluous soprano roulade,but a mightily
relieved fart.
His guts may be rotting but his memory survives intact, and from his villa,
where he is drawing up his will, his thoughts wander back to his glory days.
He bombards us with would-be withering recollections - of Casanova, of his
rival Senesino, of theinfant Mozart, and of mad King Philip of Spain, whom
he serenaded for years in an attempt to cure his "hypochondria gravis".
And every now and then, memory is salved by the sound of his voice in its
pomp.
This is a nice conceit. With Clapton behind a ragged gauze, his voice seemed
to reach us, precisely, through the mists of time, but sadly the singer
was suffering a throat inflamation, and bravely though he battled, he could
not negotiate the outrageousflourishes of the arias he sang (by Handel,
Hasse, Porpora and Giacomelli). When his older self evoked a trill, the
young Farinelli could only manage a tiny wobble, and of the singer's legendary
long breaths there was hardly a trace.
Of course, this could be the point: the old man mis-remembering and being
caught out when reality intrudes. It was a possibility allowed for by Robert
Shaw's staging which, in Claire Lyth's designs, was efficient enough, but
O'Brien needs a firmer hand.He seemed less than wholly engaged, his role
supplied with insufficient bons mots to support the amount of barbed camp
with which he wanted to invest it. Clapton' s instrumental support (harpsichord
David Wright, Christopher Suckling baroque cello) wasmore enthusiastic than
refined, and on another evening the singer, never less than wholehearted,
will give a fuller account of the musical demands that faced Farinelli.
There's the seed of a real show here, but on this first night it rather
went off at half- cock.
BAC's Opera 2000 Festival continues until Saturday
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