Shakespeare's
Globe, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
11.02.15
We
meet the King first. He's Philip V of Spain, grandson of Louis
Quatorze and embroiled in war.
Mark
Rylance brilliantly suggests the delusional dreamer, prey to
depression and sudden rages. He's alone on his divan bed, save for
the goldfish in the bowl; a companion as well as a quarry …
The
ailing king is stranded “at the end of the world”, in a place
with no song. He seems beyond help. Metastasio, prolific librettist
and business-man – a bluff Colin Hurley – despairs. Devious
minister De la Cuadra [Edward Peel] plots and fumes. His physician –
Huss Garbiya – is sympathetic and enlightened, but powerless to
effect a cure.
It's
left to Isabella Farnese – a wonderfully caring Melody Grove - to
realise that the singer she heard in London - “ a long note, held
...” might hold the key to recovery.
And
so the two men, both kings against their will, meet in a wary game of
question and answer. “Are you famous ?” “Farinelli is famous.”
And here is the key to the depiction of the superstar castrato.
There's Carlo the man, [Sam Crane] unfailingly charming and
courteous, modest despite his fame. And the world-famous opera
singer, mobbed and cossetted wherever he goes. Sung, superbly, by
Iestyn Davies [William Purefoy later in the run]. They appear
together at key moments, the one the shadow of the other; at the end
there is a touching moment of mutual acknowledgement, after Farinelli
has been persuaded by Vincenzo, a humble tailor [no spoiler, please],
to sing one last time – what else but “Lascia ch'io pianga”.
Monarch
and musician can lay aside their crowns, escape into the forest and
the music of the spheres.
Claire
van Kampen's play is a potent blend of reminiscence – Farinelli's
first opera, the fountains at Versailles – escapist fantasy – A
Watteau woodland backdrop – and total theatre: the Wanamaker
audience involved as witnesses of the freak show opera in the forest.
production photograph by Marc Brenner
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