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Rylance & Company Celebrate Opening Night of FARINELLI AND THE KING
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Nov 3, 2022
The critically acclaimed Shakespeare's Globe production of Farinelli and the King, starring three-time Tony Award-winner (Twelfth Night, Jerusalem, Boeing-Boeing) and Academy Award-winner (Bridge of Spies) Mark Rylance, opened last night, December 17, 2017 at Broadway's Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). The production plays a strictly limited engagement for 16 weeks only through Sunday, March 25, 2018.
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Tony Award winner Mark Rylance is back on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre in Farinelli and the King
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And we caught up with him and company just minutes after their opening night curtain rang down
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Once again, I want to thank you, like I just told you, for one of the most glorious nights I've spent in the theater
0:36
It is always great to have you come back to Broadway. It is opening night. How do you feel tonight
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It's very thrilling. Opening nights, it's a very friendly audience and it's a lot of fun
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There's a lot of laughs in the show. So it's fun when there's a responsive audience, you know
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But also this city is so famous for song, for music and singing, popular song
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and to bring this, what was very popular music. The first time singers were singing for people rather than for the church and private families
1:06
To bring that to New York is very special. What fascinates you about this whole story
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Like I said, I had seen the film, I had read some books on this. What fascinated you about The King and the Farinelli
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A number of things. How it worked, why music was able to restore him
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We know music's good for people who've lost their memory when they get older. it stirs the memory but maybe there's some potential of it to harmonize people who are out
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of kilter that the music somehow does it I don't know that's the question and the other question is
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why Farinelli gave up everything he had and just sang for this man for the rest of his life he never
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sang in public and he was as famous as St. Michael Jackson was in his time and very wealthy and loved
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and he gave it all up just to have this particular effect on this king
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So that's an interesting part of the story, too. Well, first of all, it is opening night
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Your Farinelli and the King has come to Broadway. How do you feel? Oh, I am beyond excited
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I mean I overwhelmed by the reception that we had here And it as if people have really taken us to their hearts and that means a very great deal to me That all I wanted really
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Well, New York and America is obsessed with your husband, Mark Rylance. He could do anything in this town, but this is such a beautiful story and such a beautiful play, which I told you before, I'm fascinated with this story. Were you always fascinated by the story
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Well, when I heard about it, it was news to me. And I've worked as a composer for most of my life
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And I'd seen the film Farinelli, which I think was in the 90s, and it's great
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But it doesn't go as far chronologically as this story does. This story starts where that film finishes, really
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And to me, this is the most interesting part, that this castrato gives everything up
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to sing to this very sad, unwell person. And he makes him, well, he restores functionality
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He gives him back his life. So I thought, this is a story that I have to write
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It is your Broadway debut. It is opening night. How do you feel tonight
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I feel really excited. It's really fun, yeah. It's on Broadway, you know, having fun
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What was today like for you? Because, you know, Broadway debuts are really special. They only come once
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You'll be back. But what was today like? Was it a stressful day? Was it a relaxed day
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What was your day like? My day was fine, you know. It was just the heat
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I had my day. I had my morning. You know, got up slowly, spent time with my family
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And then I came in this afternoon and did a show. Yeah, it was great. I love that, Mark, you all meet beforehand for voice
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Don't you? Talk a little bit about that. Yeah, so we come in probably about two hours before curtain up
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We do a big, quite intense vocal warm-up and physical warm-up all together
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which is quite unusual, yeah, to do it that bigger thing all together
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But it's great. So we all come together. We all kind of, you know, work together
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Then we have a little game. We play this amazing game called Isle Ball, which is..
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What's it called? Isle Ball. Okay, yeah, it's really fun. It's a bit like..
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It's our own thing. And it's becoming bigger and bigger. and I think maybe in about four years it might be an Olympic sport I think Yeah we rule it We get medals So here we are at your Broadway debut Farinelli and the King
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How do you feel? I'm elated. I'm exhausted. I'm so happy we've opened
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It's such a strange thing to open after two weeks for an opera. We just open and then we close after seven shows
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So, yeah, finally, we get to sort of relax in a way
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and just give what we've done over the last two weeks for the next 14
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yeah I can't believe it really I never dreamed I would be on Broadway
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because it's not something that an opera singer would necessarily consider they needed to do
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but it's such an honour to work with Mark Rylance and this cast
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they're such an amazing cast and long may it rain for the next 14 weeks
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I was going to ask you what this whole journey has been like for you, it's the beautiful melding
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of two different worlds and I love what he's done, there's a singing Farinelli
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and a speaking Farinelli yet you blend so beautifully well by small coincidence we we look not too dissimilar i
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mean if there was a police lineup of people who looked a bit like us we'd be in it um and
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i think any singer would tell you that they completely connect with this idea of two people
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being one body i mean farinelli was farinelli the stage name and carlo broski the man
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and you know singing rules our lives a lot of the time we have to go to bed early we can't drink we
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can't talk for too long and then likewise our lives have to rule our singing we have to take
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holidays we have to spend time with our family and so it completely makes sense to to me that
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there are two people on the stage um and i likened it i've said this many times to when you go to
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watch warhorse the play and you see this big cage of a horse with the puppeteers for the first five
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minutes you're like hang on this looks like some guys moving stuff around and then by the end of
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the evening you have this emotional connection with what you totally believe to be a horse so
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So in that respect, I think that's kind of where we're going with the two Farinellis
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To start with, it's quite arresting to the audience. They've seen Sam for a few minutes acting, and then suddenly I turn up singing
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But I hope that makes it even more emotional for some of the music that many people won't know
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So here we are. It is your Broadway debut. How do you feel? So happy So happy that it done that we had a lovely audience It a very warm audience just so delighted What a glorious role Talk about who you play
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I play the Queen of Spain, Isabella Farnese, and she was an extraordinary woman
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She was married to Philippe V, and he suffered from depression. depression and she heard Carlo Broski Farinelli sing in London and she was the kind of a pioneer
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of an early form of music therapy. So she brought this singer, she heard him sing and she brought
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him to the palace and he sang for the king and the king was able to rule for a good few years
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after that. So it was a success and they lived together and Farinelli never sang in public again
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It is your Broadway debut. It is opening night. How do you feel
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Do you know, I feel absolutely fantastic. It was a great audience. It had a great reception. It's a great play. What can go wrong
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What a wonderful role you get to play. Talk about the man that you play and what you love about him
7:44
Well, he's the only Spaniard in the play. His concerns really is Spain and the government and the existence of Spain
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And he's up against this, what he would call, Nancy fancy opera world, which he doesn't understand at all
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So he's fighting that right from the beginning. But his beliefs are in the right place
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He's concerned for Spain. And so, although he's a villain, a bit of a villain, his heart's in the right place
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What are you enjoying the most? What am I enjoying? Oh, I'm just enjoying still being an actor
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and have been lucky in my life to find something when I was very young
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and have good fortune and be able to still be doing it
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and just relaxing and enjoying it. Do you remember what you were thinking when you took your bow tonight
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back on Broadway for opening night? I was thinking, should I call my wife up? I hadn't prepared, and I was thinking, should I say something
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And I thought, no, no, let's just do it as we normally do it
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and not do anything special
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