Farinelli - Estasi in canto

“Farinelli Estasi in Canto”, a show that has already been performed at the Museum of Musical Instruments of Rome, at the Court Theatre of the Reggia di Caserta and at the Royal Museum Academy of San Fernando in Madrid will be performed again in the prestigious Ara Pacis Museum.

The renowned monument, sacrificial altar, that evokes the Divine will become a triple symbol of Farinelli: of his being “modified” (an angel rather than a real man), of his being a victim of the brutal practice of castration (that is a mutilation of the soul even before that of the body) and of his being consecrated in the world as a divinity. The exceptional set is the Ara Pacis Museum, which evokes the settings of many works that Farinelli put on show on the libretto of Pietro Metastasio (Didone abbandonata, Catone in Ustica, Semiramide, Alessandro nelle Indie, etc.)

“Farinelli Estasi in Canto” is an interdisciplinary show created by Anna Cuocolo and by the art historian Vega de Martini with costumes and set by Alberto Spiazzi. For the first time, the show will be rivisited by the Visual Director Paolo Miccichè, who will enhance the emotions matching virtual images with the architectural areas.

Farinelli’s states of mind will be interpreted through dance by the famous international star Giuseppe Picone.
The figure of Farinelli, representing the wildest forms of Baroque, acquires great metaphorical meaning as a passage between the human and supernatural state with a focus on initiation to spiritual sublimation, where dance is mingled with musical and theatrical moments created by the Director Anna Cuocolo.

Passions and states of mind are evoked in a scenic reconstruction that is inpired by 17th and 18th century Neapolitan and Spanish paintings. The performance includes bold lights, strong contrasts between warm and cold tones and even precious fabrics, with effects of velvet, silk and satin. The choice of the musical background is based on a fancy disparity that draws from a vast sample of expressions and suggestions, usefully representing the complicated individuality of Farinelli from both and emotional and evocative point of view. On one side are the moods and glories of the difficult late Baroque period, with its gaudiness, excess, disenchantment and “dangerous relations” and on the other side is a call for the native land, a journey down to the roots and the relationship with the Neapolitan culture, full of noble and popular stratifications.

Music by Haendel, Hasse, Pergolesi, Scarlatti and Broschi will be played live with instruments of the time and adequately styled voices proposing the character in all his historical value. The splendid music, on magnetic tape, of a great Neapolitan musician of today, Sergio Rendine, transfers the figure of Farinelli to contemporary dimensions, projecting it out of the time in which he lived.