Clarification: When I write, I don't prepare or organize my ideas, I just write what I would say if I was talking to you in person, so sometimes my blogs end up a little messy. I don't even proof-read what I write before posting it so you may find grammatical mistakes and poorly written sentences. Sometimes I'll read my blogs a day or two after publishing them and I may re-write things that weren't too clear and any embarrassing grammatical mistake. Also, English is not my first language, so I apologize if reading my blogs become a struggle. Of course, if this is the case, I would imagine you wouldn't continue reading.


Jul 28, 2012

Farinelli: The Origins Of My Roommate's Name.


Every now and then I talk to people who ask me why my roommate has such a complicated name, and I always have to give them the same long ass explanation, which is probably useless and a waste of time because they are probably just trying to make conversation and don't really care about the origins of the name. Whatever the case, I'm just going to write the story here so I can just tell them to read this blog if anyone asks me again. So here it goes...




Farinelli was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, and he was one of the 1st rock stars that ever existed. He was also a castrato, which Wikipedia defines as "a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity". This was a terrible practice that took place a few hundred years ago among poor families in certain parts of Europe. The family would "sacrifice" on of their kids hoping the kid would become rich and famous and help the family out. What's even worse is that most times the kids' voices would actually get fucked up, and the kids would be sent back home without any compensation, as if they were broken merchandise, to become the subject of terrible jokes and humiliations for the rest of their lives. It's really sad.

Farinelli had a better fate. I guess we could say better, even when just by the fact that he had his nuts chopped off, the word better seems a little too happy.  Either way, he went to become one of the most famous castratos ever. I became familiar with Farinelli after watching an Italian movie called... can you guess? Farinelli. The movie is based on his life, although, it's not 100% accurate. In the film, Farinelli's sidekick was his elder brother, Riccardo (not a castrato), who wrote most of the music Farinelli performed. Women would fall in love with Farinelli's voice and with him, to the point of having "musical orgasms" during Farinelli's performances, however since he wasn't capable of performing "that other way" backstage, Riccardo would come and take care of the groupies. It's a good film, and I recommend it. Here's the trailer:



When my roommate moved in with me he was just a kitten his name was just Niko. It was supposed to be a temporary thing, the last thing I needed at that time was to make my life more complicated. But he ended up staying a little bit longer, and then I finally accepted that he was staying for good. At one point I had to get him neutered, and while this supposedly helps male cats have a happier life, I felt terrible doing so. It felt wrong. The day that happened I decided to add Farinelli to his name in honor of Carlo, and I thought it was only fair to give him a better, more dignified name. I just call him Mr. Farinelli out of respect.

In a way, Farinelli and I are like the original Farinelli and his brother, with the difference that in our case, my roommate conquers and keeps the women, and I'm just the sidekick in charge of writing about him on Facebook. That's fine with me, it really doesn't bother me, for some reason it seems I always hang out with the one guy who all women fall in love with, so this is not any different, I just want him to become famous once and for all so he can start paying rent, and I can hire someone to come and pick his poop up.

And that's the story, I live with one cool motherfucker.





Bonus:

If you're interested in knowing about the castrati, there's lots of info about it online, but one of the craziest things I've found is the actual audio recording of the very last castrato that ever lived. It's also the only castrato ever recorded. He was Alessandro Moreschi, and I believe he was in his 60's at the time of this recording and had lost some of the qualities of his voice, but nevertheless, listening to it was a very cool and weird experience. Here's that recording:




One more thing, I find it super funny that when I Google "farinelli" this is what I see:

:D


Again, I won't proof-read this until tomorrow. Don't judge me!

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