Farinelli (Carlo Broschi)

For those of you who know your western music history, classical singer history and 90’s movie history (1994), you know that Farinelli (1705-1782), a castrato, is lauded as one of the greatest singers in the history of opera.

In those days, after being castrated at a young age (ouch!) in order to preserve their pre-pubescent voice quality when the rest of their body continued to grow and develop into adulthood, castrati, and other singers of the day would go off to study with the great maestros of the time in order to build their voices and hone their craft.

Often, they would move into their voice teacher’s home and clean and do chores (and heaven knows what else, poor things) for room and board. They trained intensively for a life on the opera house stages hoping that one day they would have what was required to make it as a big star.

Farinelli clearly had what it took. He is reported to have had a wide-ranging, soaring, powerful voice, rich with dynamics, that could do all the tricks and serve all the embellishments – long phrases, trills, melismas. He performed around Europe and some of the most famous songs of the day were composed for his voice. From the elaborate and demanding nature of these songs, we can see just how magnificent his vocal pyrotechnics must have been! I’m sure he embellished the embellishments!

But, knowing a bit about Farinelli and his exciting voice and career is not the main point here… the question is:

Would Farinelli study voice online if he were alive (testicles or no testicles) today?

I think he would.

Why?

Well, we don’t move in with our voice teachers any more… for good reason (professional boundaries clearly had not been invented yet!) but, it does take a lot of time, practice and experience to develop our voices to the fullest.

We need an immersive experience to grow.

How else, in modern times could we have that kind of immersive experience other than online, in our own home.

Technology allows us to take singing lessons and voice classes online, as well as listen to music, chat with other singers… we can even perform online.

So yeah, Farinelli would study singing online, because that’s how he could get that “all in” experience today.

How can YOU achieve that immersive vocal study at home?

The Singing Self Program is an “all in,” immersive online experience.
There are 275 hours of classes and content – not including the Secret Bonus Library that opens up when you complete the main program. You can immerse yourself in vocal learning.

Now, admittedly, it’s not about developing your 18th Century vocal and musical skills per se (sorry Farinelli), nor is it about operatic singing per se, but it is about developing your body/mind/voice/self in general – no matter what kind of singer you are or want to be.

And in PHASE 3 we get into the particulars of many vocal styles and challenges. I think Farinelli would particularly enjoy the series of classes called EXPRESSING VOCAL UNITY: Exploring your “Big Body,” “Big Voice,” and “Big You” Singing Self in which we explore vocal acoustics through movement and awareness.

Who knows… with that kind of training he might have been even better than the best singer in the history of opera!