Farinelli (1994) Reviews

If you're a classical music buff, as I am, this one is for you. Most of the action takes place in London of the 1720s and 1730s, where rival companies waged "Opera Wars" to put each other out of business. One of them was headed by Handel, who went to Italy to hire singers and then wrote music for them to perform. He also conducted his operas from the harpsichord. The legendary Italian castrato Farinelli sang for the other opera company, and Handel was never able to hire him away from it. Much color and authenticity in this movie. Loved the characters, the music, the costumes, the stage machinery. I thought Jeroen Krabbe was outstanding as Handel. Would be happy to see him return as this legendary composer in a future film.
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Six stars would be better!! I have seen this movie three times, it is incredibly good, despite the english subtitles. I am going to rent it again. It is funny, historical, imaginative, serious, and guaranteed to make the men watching be on guard. Nice story based on fact.
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I don't know about anyone else, but I just wasn't convinced by the voiceover. I think this movie would have had more impact if it was more convincing. Instead of someone with the power of Pavarotti and the range of Mariah Carey, we got, well, a woman's voice. Although I'm not sure what else they could have done, the voice that was clearly a woman's just didn't make much sense on how the guy had so much sexual influence over the women. I do have to admit that I don't really know what a castrato would actually sound like, so maybe they did sound just like that and for some strange reason women found it attractive. But as a memeber of a modern audience who doesn't understand this, I found the movie had less impact than it could have had merely because of the voice.
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