Rezia Kalniņa’s heroine, Izabella Farneze, is a perfectly played role, in which professional diplomatic moves naturally blend with soul experiences. Girts Kesteris plays a mentally deranged person in the character of Philip V.
Advertising photo (Mārčas Baltskars).
Maija Svarinska, “Kultūrzīme”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
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Only the voice of the music resounded in Viestura Kairis’ “Farinelli and the King” performance. However! This voice can be alive and very necessary at all times.
It is difficult to write about this show. Its presentation was quite brilliant, but the essence, it seems, is rather modest. The stumbling block is probably related to the actor’s unexpected illness, which is why several premieres of the show are canceled and only one of them is played at the end.
Therefore, I saw the show for the second time quite recently, convinced that it has become more compact, so to speak, more precise in the development of the action. However, it does not bring true joy of revelation. Perhaps it is no coincidence that some viewers sometimes doze off.
This ruthless opening of my observation is intentional, because Viesturs Kairišs is not only a professional director, but also a true artist, which is why almost always the voice of his time is heard in his works and a perceptible perspective towards the future. This time he only sounded the voice of the music. However! This voice is capable of being alive and very necessary at all times, and perhaps that is why the director seems to have stepped aside.
It is true that the horse, whose cost Juris Žagars once told, has not given up on anything. Born in South Africa, where they are made to life size, the horse basks in all its glory from the start of the show. A lot, a little more and you will immediately start to get bored, but here comes King Philip V, mentioned in the title of the comedy “Farinelli and the King”, who, joking with the horse, tries to pamper him in various ways. . After a while it becomes clear that a king’s dream is unfolding before us.
Yes, this is how the show begins, written by Claire van Kampen, a contemporary English playwright, director and composer. In 2015 she conquered the London stage with this work, but a few years later it also gained popularity in America. Farinelli and the King is a Baroque drama about the empowering nature of love and music. It tells the dream of the Baroque era: culture as a salvation from everyday life and so hard. Basically a dream forever.
As I have already said, even an art theater show begins with a dream. We see the horse and the king. Here the horse gushes and taps, here it rests on its hind legs and staggers, and is helped to do so by the puppeteers Matīss Millers and Mārtiņš Gailis, as well as Kārlis Arnolds Avots, who is in charge of it.
Then Queen Isabella Farnese appears on the stage, and after a while the king wants to throw a noose of rope taken from his horse at her, trying to strangle the woman. The dream of this king also reveals his passion, his torment and his psychopathy.
Then there are reality scenes, in which Queen Isabella Farnese and the famous eighteenth-century singer Farinelli, whose real name is Carlo Broschi, play a leading role. The queen invites her from England to Spain, hoping that the singer’s charming voice will help the king recover. This chant is performed by Rūdis Cebulis, a student with a fantastic voice. His extraordinary voice almost echoes what we know about the culture of the Baroque era, where women were not allowed to sing, but everything was performed by special singers: the castrati.
So was Farinelli. Speaking of music, I cannot fail to mention the musicians Daci Zālīti-Zilberti and Ieva Shablovska (harp and cello), who are seated next to the extension of the stage next to the audience hall. The performance of both is lively and lyrical, and with their musical accompaniment Farinelli’s song also begins. Too bad that at the end of the show they are not invited to go up on stage to bow together with R. Cebuli.
With the first canto of Farinelli the gradual reprise of the king also begins. There are no great depths to be found in the character of Philip V. Perhaps even the style of production does not allow the actor Įrts ķesteris to sink into the essence of the role. He plays a mentally deranged person and the actor, willy-nilly, begins to use expressive timbres, but they obscure the viewer’s vision of the king’s soul. But only the king’s soul could convince us from the court that he had been freed from the shackles of disease by the soul of music.
In general, as I said, there are some scenes for which it is difficult to find a justification. For example, the king, who has recovered his health and prepares for war, wears an 18th-century military uniform. But he dresses so long and scrupulously that the significance of the episode remains entirely obscure. If only the details of this form were presented to us. Other characters are also pretty superficial, but they no longer have an opportunity to reveal themselves.
I can say this about the intriguing de la Cuadra, played by Kaspars Dumburs, and Dr. Servi, played by Juris Bartkevičs. Perhaps because the camera in the foreground shows the multifaceted emotions of John Rich, the English theatrical impresario played by Kārlis Arnolds Avots, his character is also more memorable (camera operator Arturs Gruzdiņš), as is Artūrs Kalķa’s boyfriend. , Miguel.
Rēzija Kalniņa surpasses the most naturally lying places. Her character Isabella Farnese acts according to the tasks assigned by destiny, the main one being that her husband recover and take on the mission of commander in chief, while her Spain faces a war with France. A perfectly interpreted role, in which business diplomatic moves naturally blend with soul experiences and a sense of duty. Also worth mentioning is her royal bearing and bearing, which is certainly facilitated by the costumes of the costume designer Kristīne Jurjāne.
Natural also Artūrs Skrastiņš, who plays Farinelli when he doesn’t have to sing. The image of a man who knows how to love against all odds.
Advertising photo (Mārčas Baltskars).
Artūrs Skrastiņš, who plays Farinelli when he doesn’t have to sing, is just as natural in his role. The image of a man who knows how to love against all odds. He will invite Isabella with him to England, but the queen will remain with her king until the end of her fate.
Philip V dies. Over time, a modern man approaches Farinelli, who has already stopped singing, asking him to sing something from the repertoire dedicated to the king. Slowly, the curtain begins to approach from both sides, but in the center remains an apparently simple but significantly expressive scenography, that is a Spanish landscape with the outline of a rocky mountain range, which at the same time is just like the background of the story: nothing of concrete, only such peculiar walls, which are separated from above and below by a longitudinal visual distribution as an entrance to the depths of the story and an exit from them (scenographer Reinis Suhanovs).
At the end of the show, the curtain almost completely covers this visual silence, the desire for eternal hills, and in front of it, only the modern man of Artūrs Skrastiņas Farinelli and Ęirtas ķesteras remains, at whose request Farinelli takes a modern smart device, searches something and turns on the same song that Rūdis sang to King Onion.
At the exit, we hear the recording of the song, we see the face of R. Cebuļas Farinelli, but our contemporary G. is sitting next to the musician. Kester. A grand finale: real music confirms that the history of humanism cannot end.
INVESTIGATION
Clair van Kampen, Farinelli and the King, a production at the Daile Theater
Direction: Viesturs Kairišs, set designer Reinis Suhanovs, costume designer Kristīne Jurjāne, lighting designer Jevgēnijs Gansburgs, music consultant Juris Vaivods, choreographer Jana Jacukas.
Protagonists: Įrts Ķesteris, Artūrs Skrastiņš, Rēzija Kalniņa, Kaspars Dumburs, Juris Bartkevičs, Kārlis Arnolds Avots, Matīss Millers, Rūdis Cebulis, etc.
Upcoming performances: October 28, November 12.
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