Farinelli

As a child, Farinelli sings in the church choir and is warned that his voice could bring about death. A newly castrated boy bursts in, warns him that his voice will bring death, and then takes his own life, leaving Carlo traumatized. He later refuses to sing a composition written by his brother Riccardo for his voice teacher Nicola Porpora.

The film proper opens at the palace of King Philip V in Madrid, where Riccardo Broschi demands to see his brother Carlo, now known as Farinelli. Carlo refuses him, marking the first clear fracture between the siblings. The tension between the brothers is laid bare for the audience.

In a public square, Carlo and Riccardo witness a cruel castrato being humiliated by an itinerant trumpeter. Carlo retaliates by humiliating the trumpeter, while Riccardo uses Carlo as bait to seduce a nearby woman; after Carlo begins to make love to her, Riccardo completes the act. The scene establishes their combustible dynamic and complicity.

George Frideric Handel hears Farinelli sing from his carriage and invites him to perform in Great Britain, insisting Riccardo be included. Handel belittles Carlo as a freak and dismisses Riccardo as a hack, leaving them to contemplate opportunities elsewhere. The bitter dynamic between master and brothers begins to set the course for their careers.

Carlo becomes famous and attracts the Comtesse Mauer, a wealthy woman more into books than opera. The brothers maintain an uneasy sexual arrangement: Carlo seduces the comtesse's maid while Riccardo completes the act. Carlo's voice matures and his ambitions grow, drawing him deeper into Handel's orbit.

Carlo falls ill with a fever, and Riccardo repeats the childhood story that the castration was necessary to save his life. Handel invites Carlo to Dresden to sing, recognizing his talent. On the way to the curtain, Carlo faints on stage and Handel departs, leaving him unsettled by the brush with failure.

In Dresden, Handel tells Carlo that King George II wants him to sing. Unnerved by the offer, Carlo faints on stage; Handel leaves in satisfaction, though the encounter underscores the pressure that surrounds his voice and his autonomy. The moment crystallizes the stakes of fame for Carlo.

Carlo is invited to London by Alexandra Lerris, while Handel's Covent Garden operation begins to undermine the Opera of Nobility, sponsored by the Prince of Wales. Financial and political tensions mount as the rival productions vie for control. Carlo eyes Handel's operas as a path to greater fulfillment.

In London, Carlo and Riccardo meet Margareth Hunter and her crippled son Benedict. Carlo proposes to her, but she refuses out of respect for her late husband. Alexandra, meanwhile, remains drawn to Carlo and grows bolder in her schemes.

Alexandra steals some of Handel's music for Carlo to perform, hoping to secure a triumphant return. Handel confronts Riccardo and sabotages the brothers' relationship, intensifying the strain between them. The rift between family and master grows deeper as ambition eclipses trust.

In a flashback-within-a-flashback, Riccardo reveals that Carlo had been a superb singer as a child, and that their father, fearing loss of the voice, drugged and illegally castrated him, promising to compose a great opera, Orpheus, in return. The truth reframes the brothers' entire dynamic and their shared guilt.

Handel meets Farinelli backstage and discloses the castration secret, granting him permission to sing Handel's stolen music. Farinelli performs the aria Lascia ch'io pianga with such power that Handel faints, overwhelmed by the performance and the weight of the truth.

The flashback ends and Carlo and Alexandra flee to the royal court of Spain, where Carlo has not sung publicly since his triumph with the Opera of Nobility three years earlier. Alexandra understands the bond between the brothers and tries to reconcile the rift, even as old wounds linger.

Carlo sings for King Philip during a solar eclipse, and Riccardo, listening, is overwhelmed by guilt and attempts suicide by slashing his wrist. He survives thanks to Carlo and Alexandra, and the brothers begin to forgive one another as the past loosens its grip.

Alexandra is pregnant with Riccardo's child, and Carlo and Alexandra treat the child as their own. Riccardo decides to leave Madrid to seek his fortune as a composer, finding comfort in the idea that he has given his brother back his share of humanity. The film closes on a note of uneasy reconciliation and hopeful distance.