With “operatic” now a synonym for excessive grandiosity, and the demanding diva de rigueur for any opera, it is easy to forget the primal, visceral nature of the early years of the art. To paraphrase what is said in the fascinating new Broadway play “Farinelli and the King,” which opened here Sunday night, opera once was a much dirtier business.

Not so much galas, donors and elitism as candles, sweat and story. Those latter three nouns are one way to sum up what this strikingly original new play from Shakespeare’s Globe in London — penned by Claire van Kampen, performed mostly in ambient candlelight and starring van Kampen’s husband, Mark Rylance — has to offer.