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AN UNKNOWN TRIBUTE BY FARINELLI TO KING PHILIP V OF SPAIN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2021

LUCIO TUFANO
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Abstract

Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, arrived in Madrid on 7 August 1737. King Philip V and his wife Elisabeth Farnese were deeply impressed by his vocal qualities and invited him to remain in their service, on extremely rewarding terms. Although few sources concerning his first months in Spain are available, a newly discovered libretto, L'ombra di Luigi XIV il Grande, sheds light on his position at the Spanish court and his response to the privileged situation he enjoyed. The work is a short solo cantata commissioned by Farinelli and offered to Philip V for his name day in 1738. The title-page indicates Francesco Feo as the composer, but no sources for the musical setting have yet been located, nor any information about a performance of the work. This article examines the content of the cantata's text and situates it within what is known about the life of Farinelli. It also reconstructs in detail the literary career of the author of the text, Giuseppe di Rosa, who was also a magistrate and historian. Additionally, it links the genesis of this encomiastic piece with the activity of Giovanni Battista Filomarino, Neapolitan ambassador at the court of Madrid.

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Eighteenth-Century Music , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , September 2021 , pp. 253 - 269
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Bibliothèque nationale de France (F-Pn), 8 RA5 609; this libretto was part of the collection of Auguste Rondel (1858–1934), which was donated to the French state in 1920.

2 Sartori, Claudio, I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800, seven volumes (Cuneo: Bertola & Locatelli, 1990–1994)Google Scholar.

3 As far as I know, the libretto has been roughly described only by Watanabe-O'Kelly, Helen and Simon, Anne, Festivals and Ceremonies: A Bibliography of Works Relating to Court, Civic and Religious Festivals in Europe 1500–1800 (London: Mansell, 2000), 111Google Scholar; in 2011 the contents of this volume were fully transferred to the website Early Modern Festivals Books Database, https://festivals.mml.ox.ac.uk (31 January 2021).

4 Individuals whose names appeared in different forms throughout their lives, such as Philip (Philippe, Felipe or Filippo) and Charles (Carlos, Carlo) are given in the English form.

5 This circumstance is reported by Watanabe-O'Kelly and Simon, Festivals and Ceremonies, 111: ‘The dedication is signed by Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, the famous castrato.’

6 See the letter by Prince Antioch Cantemir dated 17 March 1737 in Thomas McGeary, ‘Farinelli in Madrid: Opera, Politics, and the War of Jenkins’ Ear’, The Musical Quarterly 82/2 (1998), 385 and 415, note 6.

7 See the letter by Cantemir dated 23 May 1737 in McGeary, ‘Farinelli in Madrid’, 386 and 415, note 17.

8 See McGeary, ‘Farinelli in Madrid’, 387–388.

9 See McGeary, ‘Farinelli in Madrid’, 388; Nicolás Morales, L'artiste de cour dans l'Espagne du XVIIIe siècle: étude de la communauté des musiciens au service de Philippe V (1700–1746) (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2007), 239.

10 See Daniel Martín Sáez, ‘La leyenda de Farinelli en España: historiografía, mitología y política’, Revista de musicología 41/1 (2018), 41–77.

11 Alfonso Danvila, Fernando VI y doña Bárbara de Braganza (1713–1748) (Madrid: Jaime Rátes Martín, 1905), 182; a slightly different transcription is to be found in Morales, L'artiste de cour, 239, note 189. All translations appearing in this article are mine unless otherwise indicated. My transcriptions or quotations of eighteenth-century texts preserve the original orthography and punctuation of the sources, though with some updating undertaken in the Appendix.

12 Danvila, Fernando VI y doña Bárbara de Braganza, 182–183; see also Morales, L'artiste de cour, 240. ‘La reyne’ and ‘la princesse’ are, respectively, the Queen of Portugal and her daughter Maria Barbara of Braganza, who had married Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias (the future Ferdinand VI of Spain).

13 Carlo di Borbone, Lettere ai sovrani di Spagna, ed. Imma Ascione, three volumes (Rome: Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali – Direzione generale per gli archivi, 2001–2002), volume 2, 233.

14 McGeary, ‘Farinelli in Madrid’, 389.

15 Letter dated 16 February 1738, in Carlo Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica: lettere al conte Sicinio Pepoli, ed. Carlo Vitali (Palermo: Sellerio, 2000), 142. On this exchange of correspondence see Edward Corp, ‘Farinelli and the Circle of Sicinio Pepoli: A Link with the Stuart Court in Exile’, Eighteenth-Century Music 2/2 (2005), 311–319.

16 The two appointments are transcribed in McGeary, ‘Farinelli in Madrid’, 410–411 and 412 respectively.

17 Carlo di Borbone, Lettere ai sovrani di Spagna, volume 2, 238.

18 Danvila, Fernando VI y doña Bárbara de Braganza, 183.

19 Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 143–144; the (almost) daily frequency of Farinelli's performances is confirmed by the accounts quoted in Morales, L'artiste de cour, 241, note 199.

20 Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 143.

21 Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 144.

22 Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 151.

23 Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 151–152.

24 See Daniel Heartz, ‘Farinelli Revisited’, Early Music 18/3 (1990), 435–436; a transcription for voice and piano is offered by Franz Haböck, Die Gesangskunst der Kastraten: Eine Stimmbiographie in Beispielen, volume 1 (Vienna: Universal, 1923), 126–131.

25 See Giuseppe Sigismondo, Apotheosis of Music in the Kingdom of Naples, ed. Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Giulia Giovani and Raffaele Mellace, Introduction by Rosa Cafiero (Rome: Società editrice di musicologia, 2016), 174, 304.

26 See Magda Marx-Weber, ‘Neapolitanische und venezianische Miserere-Vertonungen des 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhunderts’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 43/2 (1986), 23–25; Hanns-Bertold Dietz, ‘Durante, Feo, and Pergolesi: Concerning Misattributions among their Sacred Music’, Studi pergolesiani / Pergolesi Studies 2 (1988), 128–143; and Magda Marx-Weber, ‘Lamentationskompositionen des 18. Jahrunderts: Leonardo Leo und Francesco Feo’, in ‘Critica musica’: Studien zum 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Festschrift Hans Joachim Marx zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Nicole Ristow, Wolfgang Sandberger and Dorothea Schröder (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2001), 185–200.

27 See Beatrice Barazzoni, ‘Die geistlichen Kantaten von Francesco Feo’, Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 81 (1997), 67–81.

28 The three scores are listed in the legal inventory published by Sandro Cappelletto, La voce perduta: vita di Farinelli evirato cantore (Turin: EdT, 1995), 212, 213, 216.

29 Despite variation in the sources, I consistently use the preposition ‘di’ for the family name.

30 Le bbinte rotola de lo valanzone was published in Naples for the first time in 1746 and again in 1787 (the title, which can be translated as ‘the twenty weights of the big scale’, alludes to the name of the institution, literally ‘Academy of the arcade of the steelyard’); here I quote from the critical edition contained in Poeti e prosatori del Settecento, ed. Rosa Troiano, two volumes (Rome: Gabriele e Mariateresa Benincasa, 1994), volume 1. For the original rules see Giovanni Giuseppe Carulli, Notizia della origine del Portico della Stadera e delle leggi colle quali si governa (Naples: Stamperia muziana, 1743).

31 Pagano, Le bbinte rotola de lo valanzone, 144; in a footnote the author adds that di Rosa was ‘giudice della Gran Corte della Vicaria e regio istoriografo’ (judge of the Grand Court of the Vicaria and royal historian). ‘Livio’ is the Roman historian Titus Livius and ‘Giovio’ is the Italian Paolo Giovio (1483–1552); the Vicaria was the appeal tribunal, both criminal and civil, of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

32 Giuseppe di Rosa, Istoria d'Europa che incomincia da’ negoziati della pace di Riswich del 1697 fino a’ due trattati di Belgrado del 1739 conchiusi fra l'imperadore, la Moscovia e la Porta, twelve volumes (Naples: Gennajo e Vincenzo Muzio (volume 1), then Angelo Vocola (volumes 2–12), 1740–1755). The work should have covered the period from 1697 to 1739, but the last published volume stops at 1718.

33 Di Rosa, Istoria d'Europa, volume 2, xx.

34 L'Andromeda. Drama per musica da cantarsi in occasione delle felicissime nozze degli illustrissimi ed eccellentissimi signori li signori D. Gio. Battista Filamarini e D. Vittoria Caracciolo principi della Rocca, duchi di Perdifumo, conti del castello dell'Abate, signori dello stato della città di Policastro, delle terre di Cutro e suo stato, di Rocca Bernarda &c., dedicato alla medesima eccellentiss. signora. Musica del signor Domenico Sarri (Naples: Francesco Ricciardi, 1721). The only extant copy is in the Biblioteca del Conservatorio Statale di Musica Giuseppe Verdi, Milan (I-Mc), Racc. Dramm. 6606.

35 See L'Andromeda, iii–v.

36 Ausilia Magaudda and Danilo Costantini, Musica e spettacolo nel Regno di Napoli attraverso lo spoglio della ‘Gazzetta’ (1675–1768) (Rome: ISMEZ, 2009), Appendix (on CD-ROM), 347.

37 See Teresa M. Gialdroni, ‘Le serenate di Domenico Sarro: alcune precisazioni e integrazioni’, in La serenata tra Seicento e Settecento: musica, poesia, scenotecnica, ed. Niccolò Maccavino, two volumes (Reggio Calabria: Laruffa, 2007), volume 1, 276.

38 See L'Andromeda, viii.

39 See Cappelletto, La voce perduta, 171, note 6. The Brosco form of the surname is also used in the Spanish documents related to the granting of the knighthood of the Order of Calatrava: see Emilio Cotarelo y Mori, Orígenes y establecimiento de la ópera en España hasta 1800 (Madrid: Tip. de la Revista de Arch., Bibl. y Museos, 1917), 102–105, and Nicolás A. Solar Quintes, ‘Nuevas aportaciones a la biografía de Carlos Broschi (Farinelli)’, Anuario musical 3 (1948), 194–198.

40 See Anne Desler, ‘“Il novello Orfeo” Farinelli: Vocal Profile, Aesthetics, Rhetoric’, two volumes (PhD dissertation, University of Glasgow, 2014), volume 1, 36, note 12. The text of Angelica was by Pietro Metastasio; on the encomiastic librettos he wrote for Naples in this period see Rosy Candiani, Pietro Metastasio da poeta di teatro a ‘virtuoso di poesia’ (Rome: Aracne, 1998), 32–74.

41 See Sartori, I libretti italiani, record 12428a; Farinelli sang the role of the Angel.

42 See L'Andromeda, 7–8, 22.

43 Varj componimenti per le nozze degl'illustriss. ed eccellentiss. signori D. Vinciguerra Rambaldo conte di Collalto e D. Antonia de Silva de’ conti di Montesanto dedicati all'illustriss. ed eccellentiss. signore D. Giuseppe de Silva y Meneses marchese di Villasor, conte di Montesanto, consigliere di Stato di S. M. C. C., cavaliere del Toson d'oro e presidente del supremo Consiglio di Spagna a Vienna (Naples: Francesco Ricciardo, 1733).

44 See Copia di lettera colla quale un personaggio che si trovava in Vienna risponde ad un suo amico d'Italia sopra tre quisiti che gli fece (Trivigi: Gasparo Pianta, 1733), 3–5.

45 See Varj componimenti per le nozze, 10.

46 See Varj componimenti per le nozze, 11–33.

47 Apertura della Colonia Sebezia fatta in occasione del glorioso arrivo dell'eccellentissimo signore D. Giulio Visconti Borromeo Arese cavaliere del Teson d'oro, consigliero intimo di Stato, maresciallo &c., viceré, luogotenente e capitan generale del regno di Napoli (Florence, 1733).

48 See Apertura della Colonia Sebezia, 41–42.

49 Giuseppe di Rosa, Il vaticinio d'Apollo alludente alla felicissima conquista del Regno di Napoli fatta dall'invittissime armi spagnole . . . dedicato alla regal maestà di Carlo di Borbone re di Napoli, Infante di Spagna, duca di Parma, Piacenza, Castro &c., gran principe di Toscana (Naples: Francesco Ricciardo, 1734); the poem, in two books, is followed by a sonnet.

50 Di Rosa, Il vaticinio d'Apollo, vi.

51 See Componimenti de’ pastori arcadi della Colonia Sebezia in lode delle reali nozze di Carlo di Borbone re di Napoli e di Sicilia &c. colla serenissima principessa Maria Amalia Walburga di Sassonia (Naples, 1738), 211.

52 Il Polinice. Dramma per musica da cantarsi in occasione delle reali festive nozze della sacra real maestà di Carlo Borbon Infante delle Spagne, re delle due Sicilie e di Gerusalemme, duca di Parma, Piacenza e Castro e gran duca di Toscana, e della sacra real maestà di Maria Amalia Valburga nata principessa elettorale di Sassonia e reale di Polonia, che si sollennizzano nel palagio di Don Gio: Battista Filomarino principe della Rocca &c., gentil-uomo di camera ed ambasciadore straordinario della maestà sua nella corte cattolica. Dedicato alla sacra real cattolica maestà di Elisabetta Farnese regina delle Spagne, dell'Indie &c. (Madrid, 1738), Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo, Santander, 31.285; see Germán Vega García-Luengos, Rosa Fernández Lera and Andrés del Rey Sayagués, Ediciones de teatro español en la Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo (hasta 1833), four volumes (Kassel: Reichenberger, 2001), volume 3, 1060–1061.

53 See Il Polinice, iii–viii.

54 See Il Polinice, ix–xi.

55 See Il Polinice, x.

56 See Juan José Carreras, ‘“Terminare a schiaffoni”: la primera compañía de ópera italiana en Madrid (1738/39)’, Artigrama: Revista del Departamento de Historia del Arte de la Universidad de Zaragoza 12 (1996–1997), 99–121, and Juan José Carreras, ‘En torno a la introducción de la ópera de corte en España: Alessandro nell'Indie (1738)’, in España festejante: el siglo XVIII, ed. Margarita Torrione (Málaga: Centro de ediciones de la Diputación de Málaga, 2000), 323–347.

57 See Gaceta de Madrid (8 July 1738), 115–116, quoted also in Crónica festiva de dos reinados en la ‘Gaceta de Madrid’ (1700–1759), ed. Margarita Torrione (Toulouse-Paris: CRIC-Ophrys, 1998), 200.

58 Il Polinice, x.

59 Biblioteca statale Oratoriana dei Girolamini di Napoli (I-Nf), AMCO MS 230.4. The collection is currently inaccessible; the record of the online public-access catalogue of the Italian National Library Service offers a transcription of the title: ‘Il Polinice / Parte Seconda della Serenata a Cinque Voci / Che in occasione delle Reali nozze della Maestà del Re / delle due Sicilie, e la Maestà di Maria Amalia Valpurga / Principessa Reale di Polonia, dovrà Cantarsi in Casa di S. E. / il Sig.r Principe della Rocca Ambasciadore della Maestà sua / alla Corte di Madrid / del Sig.r Feo’. This source has been identified by Juan José Carreras in ‘La serenata en la corte española (1700–1746)’, in La serenata tra Seicento e Settecento, ed. Maccavino, volume 2, 612, 621.

60 Gaceta de Madrid (28 January 1738), 16 (quoted also in Crónica festiva, 199). The involvement of the Italian singers caused a controversy: see Carreras, ‘La serenata en la corte española’, 625–626.

61 See Carreras, ‘La serenata en la corte española’, 611, 621.

62 The manuscript score is preserved in I-Nf, AMCO MS 230.1: ‘L'Oreste / Parte Prima / Serenata a cinque Voci da Cantarsi alla Real / corte di Madrid per l'anni che compie La Maestà / del Rè delle due Sicilie a 20 Gennaro / del 1738.’

63 See Lucio Tufano, ‘Madrid 1744: Calzabigi, Leo e i festeggiamenti per le nozze dell'Infanta di Spagna con il Delfino di Francia’, Studi musicali 10/1 (2019), 257–260.

64 See Gaceta de Madrid (6 May 1738), 72: ‘Sus magestades, y altezas se mantienen con perfecta salud en su palacio del sitio de Aranjuez. El dia primero de este mes, en que se celebrò la fiesta de San Phelipe, cuyo nombre tiene el rey nuestro señor, se vistiò toda la corte de gala en aquel real sitio, y concurriò con la grandeza y ministros estrangeros al besamanos, que con aquel motivo huvo en palacio’ (Their Majesties and highnesses remain in perfect health in their palace at Aranjuez. On the first day of this month, on which was celebrated the feast of Saint Philip (the name-day of our lord the king), the entire court dressed up in festive clothing at that royal place, and together with the nobles and the foreign ministers attended the hand-kissing that took place in the palace for that reason).

65 See Margarita Torrione, ‘Felipe V y Farinelli: ‘Cadmo’ y ‘Anfión’. Alegoría de una fiesta de cumpleaños (1737)’, in El Conde de Aranda y su tiempo, ed. José A. Ferrer Benimeli, Esteban Sarasa and Eliseo Serrano, two volumes (Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico, 2000), volume 1, 233–234.

66 See Torrione, ‘Felipe V y Farinelli’, 236–242; the author hypothesizes that the music of the serenata was by Francesco Corselli, the Infantes’ music teacher. The participation and role of Farinelli can be deduced from his letter to Pepoli dated 16 February 1738, in Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 144.

67 McGeary, ‘Farinelli in Madrid’, 412. Farinelli was very happy not to tread the boards any more. He had already expressed this desire to Pepoli on 23 May 1735: ‘sempre più mi metto in testa la massima di lasciare la professione prima che lei lascia me’ (more and more I conceive the purpose of leaving the profession before it leaves me). Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 136. On 16 February 1738 he announced to the same: ‘Dio ha esaudito le mie preghiere più tosto di quello ch'io speravo: l'anno prossimo avevo di già fissato il non cantar più in teatri, non potendo ne più soffrire né le fatiche né il teatro, né il costume della turba’ (God answered my prayers sooner than I hoped: I had already decided not to sing in the theatres next year, as I could no longer suffer the hardships, nor the theatre, nor the behaviour of the crowd). Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 143.

68 See Margarita Torrione, ‘Fiesta y teatro musical en el reinado de Felipe V e Isabel de Farnesio: Farinelli, artífice de una resurrección’, in El Real Sitio de La Granja de San Ildefonso: retrato y escena del rey (Madrid: Patrimonio Nacional, 2000), 222, and Morales, L'artiste de cour, 242–243. An ensemble of three chamber musicians accompanied Broschi in the serenata he performed in October 1739 to welcome to Alcalá Louise Élisabeth of France, wife of the Infante Felipe; see Gaceta de Madrid (27 October 1739), 315–316 (quoted also in Crónica festiva, 204), as well as the singer's letter to Pepoli dated 14 November 1739 (Broschi Farinelli, La solitudine amica, 157).

69 See at least Jacques Joly, Les fêtes théâtrales de Métastase à la cour de Vienne (1731–1767) (Clermont-Ferrand: Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 1979).

70 I know very few examples of encomiastic pieces partially or totally based on historical subjects. The untitled cantata by an unknown poet and an unknown composer performed in Leghorn in 1756 to solemnize the birth of Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria is based on a dialogue between the shade of Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740), grandfather of the child, and Fame; see In occasione delle pubbliche feste in Livorno per la nascita del serenissimo arciduca Massimiliano Francesco Saverio Giuseppe Antonio Giovanni Venceslao. Componimento per musica (Leghorn: Antonio Santini[, 1756]). The characters of Gli Elisi o sia L'ombre degli Eroi by Ranieri Calzabigi and Vito Giuseppe Millico, offered to the King of Sweden Gustav III during his stay in Naples in 1784, are two famous Swedish sovereigns, Gustav I (1496–1560) and Christina (1626–1689); see Lucio Tufano, I viaggi di Orfeo: musiche e musicisti intorno a Ranieri Calzabigi (Rome: Edicampus, 2012), 139–181.

71 See Margarita Torrione, ‘El espacio afectivo del príncipe: Felipe V, Duque de Anjou, en los palacios de Luis XIV (1683–1700)’, Reales Sitios: Revista del Patrimonio Nacional 177 (2008), 4–27.

72 See Adamczak, Audrey, ‘Les almanachs gravés sous Louis XIV: une mise en images des actions remarquables du roi’, Littératures classiques 76 (2011), 63–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Tonolo, Sophie, ‘L'allégorie, en image et en texte, dans les almanachs d’époque Louis XIV conservés à la Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France (1645–1690)’, in S'exprimer autrement: poétique et enjeux de l'allégorie à l’âge classique, ed. Pioffet, Marie-Christine and Spica, Anne-Élisabeth (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2016), 49–63Google Scholar. See also the catalogues of two important exhibitions: Préaud, Maxime, Les effets du soleil: almanachs du règne de Louis XIV (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1995)Google Scholar and Montclos, Brigitte de, Almanachs parisiens, 1661–1716 (Paris: Paris-Musées, 1997)Google Scholar.

73 Clockwise from top left: the battles of Luzzara (15 August) and Cremona (30 January), the triumphal entry of Philip V into Naples (20 May), Marschal Villars's victory over the Imperial army near Huningue (battle of Friedlingen, 14 October), Marquis of Villadarias's defence of Cádiz (August–September), the bombardment of Trieste (August), the conquest of the city of Guastalla (11 September) and the passage through Milan of the King of Spain (18 June).

74 The identification of Heresy and Fraud is based on Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, the famous and internationally widespread iconographic repertory published for the first time in Rome in 1593. I consulted a later edition: Ripa, Cesare, Iconologia overo Descrittione di diverse imagini cavate dall'antichità & di propria inventione (Rome: Lepido Facii, 1603), 173–175Google Scholar, 216–217.

75 The French king proudly shows Philip's success to a young man on the far-right side of the scene, who is probably James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1766), nicknamed The Old Pretender. His father, the Catholic James II, had been deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and went into exile with his family to France, where he found protection with his cousin Louis XIV (the first of the above-mentioned verses clearly alludes to this circumstance). On James II's death in 1701, James Francis Edward was recognized by Louis as the rightful heir to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland. Therefore the gesture depicted in the 1703 calendar means that the Roi Soleil supports the young prince's claims to the British crown and is willing to offer him help as he has already done with Philip.

76 See di Rosa, Il vaticinio d'Apollo, 20–21.

77 See di Rosa, Istoria d'Europa, volume 1, xiii–xviii.

78 Di Rosa, Istoria d'Europa, volume 1, xiv.