May I comment here ? I think this is a very good idea;the libretto is almost ready-made and there would be no difficulty in choosing the music !! I don't know whether you have heard Angelo Manzotti's CD "Arie di Farinelli" ? his voice is exceptional in range , colour and control, for the emerging male soprano, to realise the part of Tonio. Otherwise, David Daniels has a special quality which emerges on the stage. "Morphing" might be an answer; techniques of melding must surely be better now since the "Farinelli" film. A point of interest; around 1980 + , a pastiche was performed, based on the novel "Porporino", by Dominique Fernandez, winner of the Prix Medicis. This novel was available in French and Italian only, as far as I know; its subtitle was " P...ou les mysteres de Naples." This is a little different, in that it celebrated a special kind of friendship, "everyone" was in it, and the ending was even more "Gothic" than "Cry to Heaven". This pastiche was performed at Aix; the soprano part was taken by the high tenor, Bruce Brewer, and the alto (Porporino) of the title, was sung by James Bowman. Did any one on the List see it ? I have never been able to trace a video or a tape of this performance, and I don't think it has been "done" since, unless anyone knows otherwise ? Fernandez, by the way, is the mentor of Patrick Barbier, who has written several books about the castrati. Elsa http://www.cix.co.uk/~velluti July 2000
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