Farinelli (film)

Farinelli is a 1994 internationally coproduced biographical drama film directed by Grard Corbiau and starring Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, Elsa Zylberstein and Jeroen Krabb. It centers on the life and career of the 18thcentury Italian opera singer Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, considered the greatest castrato singer of all time as well as the relation with his brother, composer Riccardo Broschi.

Although Dionisi provided the speaking voice originally in French, Farinellis singing voice was provided by the Polish soprano, Ewa MalasGodlewska and a countertenor, Derek Lee Ragin, who were recorded separately then digitally merged to recreate the sound of a castrato. Its musical director was the French harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset. The musical recording was made at the concert hall, the Arsenal in Metz, with the orchestra Les Talens Lyriques.The movie is not dubbed into English it is spoken in French and Italian, with subtitles. This matches fairly well the actual situation at the time, when French was the lingua franca of Europe, much as English is throughout the world today, and most letters, commentaries, official documents and books were written in that language, even well beyond the borders of France. In many scenes, Riccardo Broschi speaks to his brother in Italian, while Carlo replies in French also, the English court visiting the Covent Garden Theatre speaks in French to the actors and composers, and that also is fairly acceptable from an historical standpoint. ........

Source: Wikipedia