Published:
May 10, 2021 at 7:04 am
It is the autumn of 1734 and the King’s Theatre on London’s Haymarket is packed to the rafters. As the last notes of the opera fade away, the fashionable audience erupts into frantic applause. The star singer steps forward to take a bow, when from the pit a well-heeled woman screams out: “One God! One Farinelli!”
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Farinelli was the stage name of Carlo Broschi (1705–82), the most famous opera singer of the 18th century. He was something akin to a modern-day rock star. He commanded huge fees, audiences reacted hysterically to his performances, women lusted after him and he was seen as a threat to the establishment. But there was something very unusual about Farinelli: he was a castrato.