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Post by jandl100 on Sept 11, 2019 6:58:05 GMT
 An album of songs that are known to have been sung by the Italian castrato Farinelli (1705 – 1782), the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi. The cover would appear to portray a transgender person, presumably intended to represent a castrato. All very nice and, of course, very politically correct. It is a bit unfortunate that castrati were, in fact, unable to grow beards. I suppose the image could be intended to represent a castrato with stage makeup on. The cover art is proving to be rather incendiary and controversial online. So, what do the denizens of TAS think? - is this album cover a genuine attempt to foster and promote transgender rights or just Decca trying to cash in on the political correctness of the current LGBTetc movement, or something else entirely? Even trying to equate forced castration with current LGBT issues seems a bit off to me. ------ P.S. The real Farinelli ...  |
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Post by julesd68 on Sept 11, 2019 11:50:19 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Sept 11, 2019 12:40:05 GMT
Without over-thinking it, I just don't like the image.
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Post by Pinch on Sept 11, 2019 12:53:46 GMT
The person pictured is Bartoli, right? My understanding is that, in the past, she has worn a beard when performing pieces for castrati ( link). My guess would be that the intention is not to represent a castrato, or indeed a trans person, but simply to acknowledge, in a rather playful way, that the pieces she's performing are not intended to be performed by a woman. She's obviously playing with notions of gender, which is very topical. But it's not obvious to me that the intention is to imply any deep connection between her work and transgenderism. I quite like the cover. Put me in mind of this cover (from 1999) which is similarly playful. |
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Post by Slinger on Sept 11, 2019 13:08:32 GMT
It strikes me as a rather crass gimmick. It has slightly less than the square-root of f*ck-all to do with LGBTQ+ rights and, as rightly pointed out, castrati cannot grow facial hair. There is zero connection between the cover and the content (not that that's anything new) apart from Ms. Bartoli herself, but it's not the first time she's posed for an "odd" album cover either.  ...or dressed a bit strangely  The whole affair is given an extra little twist by the fact that there is some speculation about her own sexuality. Somebody in marketing had a "brainwave" and somebody else signed off on it. My personal hope would be that Decca reissue the album with a different cover. I wouldn't say it was blatantly offensive, just "wrong". Jules is spot-on with Dana International though.  |
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