Carlo Broschi Farinelli A Manuscript Description of the Operas and Festivities at the Spanish Court 1747 – 1758 Transcription of the 1758 ms held in the Royal Library, Madrid with an introduction, an illustrated and annotated translation, and appendices by Michael Latcham 2023 668pp with illustrations, full colour, 210x297 cm, hard cover, ISBN 978-3-87397-299-5 Musikwissenschaftliche Schriften, Band 57 € 148,- Portrait of Farinelli engraved in London in 1735 by Joseph Wagner after a painting by Jacopo Amiconi Farinelli, like many young Italian boys of the eighteenth century, was castrated, thus preserving his soprano voice. Born near Naples in 1705, he probably made his debut there in 1720. Known in Italy simply as il ragazzo, the boy, he sang in the major opera houses of Italy. His fame became widespread. He sang at the court in Vienna and was given the title Chamber virtuoso to His Imperial and Catholic Majesty by Emperor Carl VI. He was enticed to London by members of the English aristocracy. When he arrived in 1734 he was invited to sing at court where he was accompanied at the harpsichord by Anne, the Princess Royal. After two seasons singing for the Opera of the Nobility, Farinelli was in France. There Louis XV honoured him by hearing him perform at Versailles, and ‘applauded him in a Manner that astonished the whole Court’. The exuberant adulation given to Farinelli for his public performances in London must have contrasted with the dignified praise he received at the courts of Vienna, London and Versailles. In London he was also publicly exposed: the wonder, beauty and agility of his voice were praised, the presents he was given and the large sums of money he earned were reported in the press; he was also the object of crude epithets and obscene caricature. Farinelli was relieved when he was invited by Queen Isabel Farnesio of Spain to come to the Spanish Court. A week after his arrival there he sang late at night for King Felipe. The king was chronically distraught and distressed but Farinelli’s singing appears to have helped the situation already that first night and he was immediately given the position of Royal Chamber Musician, at the command only of the king and queen. Two days later his title was changed to Criado familiar – family servant – to the king. Farinelli’s letters to his friend and patron Count Sicinio Pepoli in Bologna express his joy that he was regarded as a son of the royal house and that he could come and go in the king’s chamber as he pleased. The letters also express Farinelli’s unhappiness, not only remembering the unpleasant side of London but probably too a realisation of the disrespect shown to him by being mutilated as a boy: Farinelli wrote to Pepoli that to hear himself singing caused him pain, it was poison to him. He sang for king Felipe almost every night for nearly nine years. The introduction to this book argues that although Farinelli’s castration made him suffer it also preserved his voice, leading not only to his fame as a singer but also to a new life and identity at the Spanish court. Under the next king, Fernando VI, he became Director of the Court Opera in 1746, he was made a Knight of the Order of Calatrava in 1750, and he became executive director of the entertainments held at Aranjuez, the favourite royal seat of the king and the queen, Fernando VI and Maria Bárbara de Bragança. These entertainments included not only the serenatas performed on the king’s name day but also the wonderful excursions on the river Tajo involving five large decorative vessels. One of them was La Real, a gilded barge with a small band of the court musicians at the prow, the king, the queen and Farinelli in the cabin or outside it at the stern, the most prominent courtiers also aboard. The king and the queen, both pupils of Domenico Scarlatti, after taking shots at game driven into an enclosure for this pleasure, would often accompany Farinelli when he sang some arias. The hunting took place on every trip, the singing depended on the weather. Once Farinelli sang inside the cabin with all the windows closed to keep out the cold except for one on the port side, kept open so that all those admiring the spectacle from the river bank could hear. So it was that Farinelli sang again in public, not on stage, not at a royal or imperial court but in an open-air theatre he had created, his main actors a king and a queen, his audience the crews of the boats, all in beautiful costumes probably designed and made by Farinelli’s costumiers at his Royal Opera House, the musicians on La Real and on the Fragata San Fernando y Santa Barbara from his orchestra, the members of the court on board these two vessels and on one other, the lighting comprising tens of thousands of candles, arranged and designed by Farinelli all along the river banks, at the landing stage with its reception tent decorated on the interior with mirrors and candles, and more candles arranged in huge pyramids on the way back to the palace as the king and queen drove past in their coach with some of those from on board La Real – the Masters of the Horse and the Royal Chamberlains – while Farinelli would have retired to his magnificent house nearby, given him by the king in 1750. All this is told in the Descripción. A page from the Descripción showing La Real and the start of a full description. Tables follow giving all the names of those aboard. Farinelli’s manuscript, the Descripción, was compiled in 1758. Of the 500 pages 150 are blank. The first half of the book starts with a description of Farinelli’s res-possibilities as Director of the Opera. The names of the singers, most of them Italian, are given with the details of their contracts, of their accommodation, of the care taken of them, the meals to which they were entitled, of their expeditions to the country on holy festival days – even the tantrums of two prima donnas. A list of the operas sung at the opera house at the main palace, El Buen Retiro, then just outside Madrid, and of the serenatas given at Aranjuez, all of these directed by Farinelli, are given, as are the names of the composers and librettists and even the costs of printing the librettos. The names of all the musicians, those at the opera at El Buen Retiro, the smaller number at Aranjuez, those on board the vessels, those that played in the gardens at Aranjuez, the singers drawn from the Chapel Royal to sing the choruses at the opera, the members of the band of the Royal Guard who played on stage. The rehearsals for the opera are described. A long description of the duties of the stage carpenter and all his assistants, of those of the costume designer and the costume makers are given. The second half of the Descripción presents each vessel of the royal fleet, their maintenance, the accommodation and church made for the sailors, exact details of each expedition and of all the guests on board for each sailing. Farinelli presented the Descripción to King Fernando and Queen Maria Bárbara in 1758, just two months before the Queen died. The King retired to Villa Viciosa, another royal palace, and died there in 1759, virtually unapproachable and fatally distraught. In 1760 his half-brother, Carlos III, came to the throne. He put a stop to the operas and sent all the Italian musicians home. Farinelli was sent back too but with a letter thanking him for all he had done, with all his possessions including wonderful paintings, the keyboard instruments left to him by the queen, and all his riches given him by the king and the queen. King Carlos also ordained that Farinelli’s enormous salary was to be paid to him for the rest of his life. Farinelli eventually died in his beautiful house outside Bologna in 1782. Another illustration from the Descripción, this one showing Farinelli presenting his book to King Ferdinando and Queen Maria Bárbara de Bragança in May 1758. This edition of the Descripción begins with an introduction giving a new view of Farinelli’s life at the Spanish Court. Of the three main sections that follow, the first is a complete transcription of Farinelli’s book, which he wrote in Spanish, with no additions. The second section has the same but divided into small sections, each one provided with an English translation, commentary and extra illustrations. The third section comprises the complete English translation with no additions. All three sections give all the illustrations from the Descripción. Sixteen appendices follow. These include complete transcriptions of two letters from Farinelli to Pepoli in Italian, a long description in Spanish from the Gaceta de Madrid of a serenata and an opera directed by Farinelli, excerpts from the wills of Maria Bárbara and from the inventories of their possessions, the original appointment given Farinelli by Felipe V and a contemporary description, in French, of the Buen Retiro opera house, all these items with translations. Essays on the keyboard instruments owned by Farinelli and the queen, on Sacchi’s 1785 biography of Farinelli, and on three paintings by Amiconi follow. Various tables and two indexes complete the work. This is a primary source book, not only for Farinelli’s biography but also for important aspects of musical life at the court of Spain in the mid-eighteenth century and the relationship of the king and queen to music.weiterlesen