Farinelli and the King

Last updated

Farinelli and the King
Written by Claire van Kampen
Date premiered11 February 2015
Place premiered Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Original languageEnglish
GenreDrama

Farinelli and the King is a 2015 play with music by Claire van Kampen. The play involves King Philip V of Spain who is troubled with insomnia. It premiered in London in 2015 and on Broadway in 2017.

Contents

Productions

The play made its world premiere at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London on 11 February 2015, running until 7 March. [1] The production transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre where it was co-produced by Sonia Friedman, again starring Mark Rylance. [2] It played a limited run from 14 September 2015 [3] until 5 December. [4]

The play had its Broadway premiere, again starring Mark Rylance and directed by John Dove, at the Belasco Theatre. Previews started 5 December 2017 with an official opening on 17 December 2017. The limited run concluded on 25 March 2018. [5] The play recouped its Broadway capitalization. [6]

Synopsis

King Philip V of Spain suffers from mental troubles which have made his counsellors deem him unfit to rule. As the play opens, he is seen fishing for his pet goldfish in a large brandy glass, then panicking when his Queen and second wife, the Italian Isabella Farnese, lights some candles, and extinguishing them with the water from the goldfish glass. Isabella travels to London, where she hears the famous castrato Farinelli sing and gets the idea that the inspiring and soothing power of his music could help her husband emerge from depression. She asks the impresario Rich, producer of The Beggar’s Opera, to present this proposal to Farinelli; he treats her contemptuously as just another crazed fan of Farinelli until she leaves and he reads her note and realizes to his horror that she really is the Queen of Spain.

Farinelli comes to Spain and to the court, and King Philip makes him prove who he is by asking him harsh questions. Farinelli reveals that it was his brother Riccardo who castrated him when he was ten to preserve his wonderful soprano voice, and answers yes to Philip's blunt query as to whether he can have sex with a woman. (Men castrated solely for purposes of singing lost only their testicles, so this is true.) He then sings for Philip.

(The Singer, billed as such, is a countertenor dressed in a costume identical to the one the actor playing Farinelli wears, and who sings Farinelli's musical role. There are two reasons for this. One is casting: a good actor and a wonderful countertenor singer are rarely found in the same body. The second is dramatic: Farinelli-the-man looks at the super-celebrity Farinelli-the-singer as a distinct 'other' self.)

When Farinelli/The Singer has sung beautifully for the King, Philip's chief counsellor and his doctor come in with a complex budget report and a document of abdication; if Philip cannot understand the budget report, they will get him to abdicate. Philip pages hastily through the budget report and suddenly makes incisive and brilliant comments on its omissions and mistakes. The music therapy has worked, and the abdication is shelved.

Farinelli continues to sing for Philip and Isabella, and the King continues to rule viably, but is still whimsical. He decides to go and live in the middle of the forest so that he can hear the stars singing. Farinelli and Isabella go with him, and Farinelli gives a concert in the woods, to which all the local villagers and forest-dwelling commoners come uninvited. The theater audience stands in for these spectators, Philip addressing some audience members as specific local characters, and Farinelli sings for all.

Farinelli and Queen Isabella develop feelings for each other, and Farinelli/The Singer sings her a love aria which is heartfelt and emotional rather than just brilliant and impressive like his earlier arias. They realize that they must get Philip to leave the forest. He does, lamenting that he had almost got to be able to hear the singing of the stars. He continues to be able to rule, and is last seen dressing in ceremonial armour and mounting an effigy of a horse to pose for an official portrait. Meanwhile, Isabella gets an opera house built in Madrid despite courtiers’ comments that opera will never succeed in Spain.

Rich, who has appeared from time to time commenting on developments in the theatrical and political world, meets Isabella again, no longer at court because Philip is dead and her hostile stepson is King. Farinelli is then seen in retirement in Bologna. His friend and tailor begs him to sing his greatest aria, Handel's "Lascia ch’io pianga" (“Let me weep”), which is even more sincerely emotional than his outpouring to Isabella. As The Singer fills the theater with the beautiful sadness of the aria, Farinelli's friend quietly leaves him alone. At the end, The Singer touches Farinelli affectionately and withdraws.

Cast

Note: All cast members reprised their roles for each production

Awards and nominations

Original West End production

YearAward CeremonyCategoryNomineeResult
2016 Laurence Olivier Awards [7] Best New PlayNominated
Best Actor in a Play Mark Rylance Nominated
Best Actress in a Supporting RoleMelody GroveNominated
Best Set DesignJonathan FensomNominated
Best Costume DesignJonathan FensomNominated
Outstanding Achievement in Music Iestyn Davies, the Musicians and the Singers for performing and Claire van Kampen for arrangingNominated
WhatsOnStage Awards Best New PlayNominated
Best Actor in a PlayMark RylanceNominated

Original Broadway production

YearAward CeremonyCategoryNomineeResult
2018 Outer Critics Circle Awards [5] Outstanding New Broadway PlayNominated
Outstanding Lighting DesignPaul RussellNominated
Outstanding Orchestrations Claire van Kampen Nominated
Drama Desk Awards [8] Costume Design for a Play Jonathan FensomWon
Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play Paul RussellNominated
Outstanding Wig and Hair Design Campbell Young AssociatesNominated
72nd Tony Awards [9] Best Play Nominated
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play Mark RylanceNominated
Best Scenic Design in a Play Jonathan FensomNominated
Best Costume Design in a Play Jonathan FensomNominated
Best Lighting Design in a Play Paul RussellNominated

Related Research Articles

<i>Jesus Christ Superstar</i> Rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

Jesus Christ Superstar is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with much of the plot centered on Judas, who is dissatisfied with the direction in which Jesus is steering his disciples. Contemporary attitudes, sensibilities and slang pervade the rock opera's lyrics, and ironic allusions to modern life are scattered throughout the depiction of political events. Stage and film productions accordingly contain many intentional anachronisms.

A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a specific kind of countertenor) may match the soprano's range of around C4 to C6. Countertenors often have tenor or baritone chest voices, but sing in falsetto or head voice much more often than they do in their chest voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farinelli</span> Italian castrato singer

Farinelli was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli has been described as having had soprano vocal range and as having sung the highest note customary at the time, C6.

A sopranist is a male singer who is able to sing in vocal tessitura of a soprano, usually through falsetto or head voice technique. This voice type is a specific kind of countertenor. In rare cases an adult man may be able to sing in the soprano range using his normal or modal voice and not falsetto due to endocrinological reasons, like Radu Marian, or as a result of a larynx that has not completely developed as is allegedly the case of Michael Maniaci.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rylance</span> British actor, playwright and theatre director (born 1960)

Sir David Mark Rylance Waters is an English actor, playwright, and theatre director. He is known for his roles on stage and screen having received numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Olivier Awards, and three Tony Awards. In 2016, he was included in the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. In 2017 he was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartlett Sher</span> American theatre director (born 1959)

Bartlett B. Sher is an American theatre director. The New York Times has described him as "one of the most original and exciting directors, not only in the American theater but also in the international world of opera". Sher has been nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the 2008 Broadway revival of South Pacific.

Russell Keys Oberlin was an American singer and founding member of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua ensemble who became the first, and for years the only, countertenor in the United States to attain general recognition—in The New Yorker's words, "America's first star countertenor." A pioneering figure in the early music revival in the 1950s and 1960s, Oberlin sang on both sides of the Atlantic, and brought a "full, warm, vibrato-rich tone" to his recitals, recordings, and his performances in works ranging from the thirteenth-century liturgical drama The Play of Daniel to the twentieth-century opera A Midsummer Night's Dream.

<i>Awake and Sing!</i> Drama by American playwright Clifford Odets

Awake and Sing! is a drama play written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belasco Theatre</span> Broadway theater in Manhattan, New York

The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 and designed by architect George Keister for impresario David Belasco. The Belasco Theatre has 1,016 seats across three levels and has been operated by The Shubert Organization since 1948. Both the facade and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks.

<i>Farinelli</i> (film) 1994 Italian film

Farinelli is a 1994 internationally co-produced biographical drama film directed by Gérard Corbiau and starring Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, Elsa Zylberstein, and Jeroen Krabbé. It centers on the life and career of the 18th-century Italian opera singer Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, considered the greatest castrato singer of all time; as well as his relationship with his brother, the composer Riccardo Broschi.

Sam Crane is an English actor. He attended Oxford University and LAMDA, where he won the Nicholas Hytner Award. He played Farinelli in Claire van Kampen's Farinelli and the King opposite Mark Rylance at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and reprised his role when the production transferred first to the Duke of York's Theatre and then to the Belasco Theatre on Broadway. He is also known for playing Winston Smith in Headlong's production of 1984 in the West End, Fred Walters in the BBC's six-part drama series Desperate Romantics and Frederick Abberline in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Syndicate. In 2017 he played Patrick Plunket in an episode of the Netflix series The Crown. Since 13th October 2022 Sam has been playing the lead, Harry Potter, in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Burstein</span> American actor (born 1964)

Danny Burstein is an American actor and singer. Known for his work on the Broadway stage, he's received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, two Drama Desk Awards and nominations for three Grammy Awards.

<i>Farinelli</i> (opera) Opera by John Barnett

Farinelli is an opera in two acts, described as 'serio-comic', by John Barnett, to a libretto by his brother Charles Zachary Barnett. Produced in 1839, it is the third of the composer's large-scale operas, and was the last to reach the stage. The hero is the castrato singer Farinelli, although the storyline of the opera is fictional.

<i>Jerusalem</i> (play) Play by Jez Butterworth

Jerusalem (2009) is a play by Jez Butterworth; it opened in the Jerwood Theatre of the Royal Court Theatre in London. The production starred Mark Rylance as Johnny "Rooster" Byron and Mackenzie Crook as Ginger. After receiving rave reviews, its run was extended. In January 2010 it was transferred to the Apollo Theatre; it played on Broadway in the summer of 2011.

Iestyn Davies is a British classical countertenor.

<i>Beautiful: The Carole King Musical</i> 2014 jukebox musical

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical with a book by Douglas McGrath that tells the story of the early life and career of Carole King, using songs that she wrote, often together with Gerry Goffin, and other contemporary songs by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector and others.

Claire Louise van Kampen, Lady Rylance is an English director, composer and playwright. She composed the music for Mark Rylance's 1989 performance as Hamlet and shared the 2007 Sam Wanamaker Award with him. Her composing credits include music for productions of the plays Days and Nights and Boeing-Boeing.

Matt Harrington is an American stage actor, best known for his work in the Broadway production of Matilda the Musical, in which he replaced Tony Award winner Gabriel Ebert in the role of Mr. Wormwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupert Gavin</span>

Sir Rupert Alexander Gavin is a British businessman and theatre impresario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rylance on screen and stage</span> English actor

Mark Rylance is an English actor known for his work in film, television and theatre.

References

  1. Bosanquet, Theo (6 March 2015). "Sam Wanamaker Playhouse announces new productions after 'triumphant' first season" . Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  2. "Farinelli and the King starring Mark Rylance transfers to West End". 6 March 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  3. "Full cast announced and tickets on sale for Farinelli and the King starring Mark Rylance". 30 September 2015. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  4. Coveney, Michael (30 September 2015). "Farinelli and the King (Duke of York's)" . Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Farinelli and the King Belasco Theatre-2017-2018 Playbill
  6. McPhee, Ryan. " 'Farinelli and the King', Starring Mark Rylance, Recoups Broadway Investment as Limited Engagement Ends" Playbill, 26 March 2018
  7. Awards 2016 olivierawards.com, retrieved September 3, 2017
  8. Lefkowitz, Andy (3 June 2018). "SpongeBob SquarePants & More Win 2018 Drama Desk Awards". Broadway.com. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  9. "2018 Tony Award Nominations: 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and 'Mean Girls' Lead the Pack" Playbill, May 1, 2018