Farinelli vs Handel: The Castrato Who Emptied His Rival's Opera House

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FARINELLI vs HANDEL go head to head — and every jab is rooted in real history.

FARINELLI

Herr Handel, your grand company sat half-empty while London queued for a single held note of mine - the voice, not the ledger, is what fills a hall.

HANDEL

A single note is a firework, Signor Farinelli; I build cathedrals of sound that outlast the applause and the applauder.

FARINELLI

Cathedrals - yet you begged Europe's finest throats to sing your lines, so admit your marble needs my breath to live.

HANDEL

Your breath fades when the lungs do; my 'Messiah' will be sung in a thousand years, long after the last man forgets there was ever a Farinelli.

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