FRANCO FAGIOLI

Works by Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Adolph Hasse, Francesco Geminiani, Nicola Porpora, Giuseppe Sellitto, Pietro Locatelli.

Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, was the most famous castrato of the 18th century. He possessed a prodigious voice that soon attracted the attention of the Spanish monarchs, leading to his appointment as musician to Philip V and his successor Ferdinand VI. In the 1990s, his figure was rescued from obscurity by director Gérard Corbiau in the film Farinelli, a notably fictionalised biography. This concert instead seeks to reveal the excellence of the voice that miraculously cured the depression of Philip V. And no one is better suited to the task than the magnificent Argentine countertenor Franco Fagioli, acclaimed at La Scala, Covent Garden and the Paris Opera. With solid technique and a wide vocal range, he is ideally suited to embody Farinelli through works by Porpora —his teacher— Hasse, Geminiani and Vivaldi. He is joined by Gabetta Consort, directed by violinist Andrés Gabetta, an ensemble specialising in rediscovering wonderful rarities of the Italian and French Baroque.