As recorded in the baptismal register of the church of S. Nicola in Andria, his father Salvatore was a composer and maestro di cappella of the city's cathedral, and his mother, Caterina Barrese, a citizen of Naples.

In 1706 Salvatore also took up the non-musical post of governor of the town of Maratea (on the western coast of what is now Basilicata), and in 1709 that of Terlizzi (some twenty miles south-east of Andria).

Already a successful opera composer, in 1715 Porpora was appointed maestro at the Conservatory of S. Onofrio, where his pupils included such well-known castrati as Giuseppe Appiani [de], Felice Salimbeni, and Gaetano Majorano (known as Caffarelli), as well as distinguished female singers such as Regina Mingotti and Vittoria Tesi; Farinelli may well have studied with him privately.

Salvatore Broschi died unexpectedly on 4 November 1717, aged only 36, and perhaps the consequent loss of economic security for the whole family provoked the decision for Carlo to be castrated.

Under Porpora's tutelage, his singing progressed rapidly, and at the age of fifteen, he made his debut a serenata by his master entitled Angelica e Medoro.

In this Serenata "Angelica e Medoro", the two leading roles were entrusted to two highly acclaimed singers: Marianna Benti Bulgarelli (aka "la Romanina") and Domenico Gizzi, Soprano castrato at the Royal Chapel of Naples.

Farinelli surpassed the trumpet player so much in technique and ornamentation that he "was at last silenced only by the acclamations of the audience" (to quote the music historian Charles Burney).

In 1724, Farinelli made his first appearance in Vienna, at the invitation of Prince Luigi Pio di Savoia, director of the Imperial Theatre.

In 1726, Farinelli performed in Parma and Milan, where Johann Joachim Quantz heard him and commented: "Farinelli had a penetrating, full, rich, bright and well-modulated soprano voice, with a range at that time from the A below middle C to the D two octaves above middle C. ... His intonation was pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, so that he performed the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease and certainty.

Quantz is certainly accurate in describing Farinelli as a soprano - since several arias in his repertoire require a sustained C6 - these include "Fremano l'onde" in Pietro Torri's opera Nicomede (1728) and "Troverai se a me ti fidi" in Niccolò Conforto's La Pesca (1737) [2] His low range apparently extended to F3, as in "Al dolor che vo sfogando", an aria written by himself and incorporated in a pasticcio called Sabrina, and as in two of his own cadenzas for "Quell' usignolo innamorato" from Geminiano Giacomelli's Merope.

In a duet in Orlandini's Antigona, Farinelli showed off all the aspects of the beauty of his voice and refinements of his style, executing a number of passages of great virtuosity, which were rewarded with tumultuous applause.

In these important drammi per musica, performed at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo of Venice, at his side sang some other singers of the first rank: Nicola Grimaldi, detto Nicolino (a mezzo-soprano castrato, who had earlier performed for Handel), the female soprano Lucia Facchinelli, another castrato Domenico Gizzi ("Virtuoso della Cappella Reale di Napoli"), and the renowmed bass Giuseppe Maria Boschi.

During this period it seemed Farinelli, loaded with riches and honors, was so famous and so formidable as a performer that his rival and friend, the castrato Gioacchino Conti ("Gizziello") is said to have fainted from sheer despondency on hearing him sing.

There he was received by the Emperor Charles VI, on whose advice, according to the singer's first biographer, Giovenale Sacchi, Farinelli modified his style, singing more simply and emotionally.

Sacchi's source for this must have been Charles Burney's notes on his visit to Farinelli in 1770, published in London in 1773 in The present state of music in France and Italy..., here pp.

Ferdinand was a keen musician, and his queen consort, Maria Bárbara of Portugal, was a highly accomplished harpsichordist for whom Domenico Scarlatti wrote most of his sonatas.

Under Phillip V Farinelli had gradually assumed a role in the production of operas, encouraged by Queen Isabel Farnesio (Elisabeth Farnese), although having little or nothing to do with the musical side of the performances.

Farinelli returned to Italy where he lived out his days at the beautiful villa he had built outside Bologna (he had acquired citizenship of that city as well as the necessary land as long ago as 1732).

Though rich and still famous, visited by such notable figures as Charles Burney, Leopold Mozart and his son Wolfgang Amadeus, and Casanova, he would have been lonely in his old age, having outlived many of his friends and former colleagues.

His original place of burial was destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars, and in 1810 Farinelli's great-niece Maria Carlotta Pisani had his remains transferred to the cemetery of La Certosa in Bologna.

He occasionally composed, writing a cantata of farewell to London (entitled Ossequiosissimo ringraziamento, for which he also wrote the text), and a few songs and arias, including one dedicated to Ferdinand VI.

He respected his colleagues, composers, and impresarios, often earning their lifelong friendship as a result, whereas Caffarelli was notoriously capricious, malicious, and disrespectful of anyone sharing the stage with him, to the point of cackling and booing fellow singers during their own arias.

Farinelli's supposed sexual escapades are a major element of the film's plot, and are totally spurious according to historians (primarily, Patrick Barbier's "Histoire des castrats", Paris 1989).

[5] It was transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End in the final months of 2015, with the role of Farinelli doubled between speaking and singing, with Iestyn Davies performing the latter.