University of Bristol Department of Historical Studies Best undergraduate dissertations of 2013 Aaron Taylor The Reception of the Castrati in Early Eighteenth-Century London The Department of Historical Studies at the University of Bristol is com- mitted to the advancement of historical knowledge and understanding, and to research of the highest order. We believe that our undergraduates are part of that endeavour. In June 2009, the Department voted to begin to publish the best of the an- nual dissertations produced by the department’s final year undergraduates (deemed to be those receiving a mark of 75 or above) in recognition of the excellent research work being undertaken by our students. This was one of the best of this year’s final year undergraduate disserta- tions. Please note: this dissertation is published in the state it was submitted for examination. Thus the author has not been able to correct errors and/or departures from departmental guidelines for the presentation of dissertations (e.g. in the formatting of its footnotes and bibliography). © The author, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the prior permission in writing of the author, or as expressly permitted by law. All citations of this work must be properly acknowledged. Student No. 1004425 The Reception of the Castrati in Early Eighteenth-Century London Anon, The Most Illustrious Signor Senesino’s Landing in England, 1737-8, ©Gerald Coke Handel Collection, Foundling Museum, accession no. 5636 Undergraduate Dissertation, 2013 Department of Historical Studies, University of Bristol 1 Student No. 1004425 Contents List of Illustrations 3 Abbreviations 4 Introduction 5 1) ‘All the Polite World Will Flock There’: Italian Opera and London’s Beau Monde 12 2) ‘The Greatest Appearance that has been Known’: The Castrati and ‘Celebrity’ 18 3) ‘Those Ruiners of England’: Wealth and Foreignness as Satirical Tropes 25 4) ‘This Charming Demi-Man’: Gender, Sexuality, and the Castrati 31 Conclusion 38 Appendix I: A list of notable castrati and the dates of their stay in London 40 Appendix II: ‘Al lampo dell’armi quest’alma guerriera,’ from George Frideric Handel and Nicola Haym, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, 1724 41 Bibliography 46 2 Student No. 1004425 List of Illustrations Frontispiece: Anon, The Most Illustrious Signor Senesino’s Landing in England, 1737-8 1 Fig. 1: Anon [attrib. Hubert-François Gravelot or Michael Vandegrucht], The Opera 6 House or the Italian Eunuch’s Glory, 1735 Fig. 2: Alexander van Haeken [after Charles Lucy], Carlo Broschi Farinelli, 1735 10 Fig. 3: Anon, The Man of Taste, 1733 14 Fig. 4: William Hogarth, Masquerades and Operas, 1724 16 Fig. 5: Anon, Senesino, Cuzzoni and Berenstadt [probably a scene from Handel’s 17 Flavio] 1723 Fig. 6: ‘Al lampo dell’armi quest’alma guerriera,’ from George Frideric Handel and 19 Nicola Franceso Haym, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, 1724, bars 15-20 Fig. 7: William Hogarth, Marriage A-La-Mode, Plate IV, 1745 21 Fig. 8: Joseph Wagner [after Jacobo Amigoni], Carlo Broschi detto Farinelli, 1734-9 23 Fig. 9: William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress, Plate II, 1735 27 Fig. 10: Anon, Satire of a Castrato Singer, 1742 28 Fig 11: Anton Maria Zanetti, Caricature of Farinelli, 1694-1757 32 Fig. 12: ‘Al lampo dell’armi quest’alma guerriera,’ from George Frideric Handel and 34 Nicola Franceso Haym, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, 1724, bars 39-47 Endpiece: Anon, The Ladies Lamentation for ye Loss of Senesino, 1737-8 51 3 Student No. 1004425 Abbreviations BJECS British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies COJ Cambridge Opera Journal Deutsch Otto Erich Deutsch, Handel: A Documentary Biography, (London, 1955) THJ The Historical Journal 4 Student No. 1004425 The Reception of the Castrati in Early Eighteenth-Century London Introduction The Opera House or the Italian Eunuch’s Glory (fig. 1), a satirical print after William Hogarth, appeared in London in 1735. The image depicts a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, inscribed ‘Brittains [sic.] attend- view this harmonious stage/ And listen to those notes which charm the age.’ The principal performer, adored by the audience in the pit, is a castrato. The image merges high culture with low– the fashionable women in the boxes, and the two gentlemen below them, defecating against a wall– just as it merges the serious with the farcical– the castrato singer, and the lute player, who has dropped his instrument to elope with a female admirer below the stage. It is ‘humbly inscribed to those generous encouragers of Foreigners and ruiners of England,’ and contains– with undisguised bitterness– ‘a list of the rich presents Segnor Farinello [the castrato Farinelli] condescended to accept of the English nobility and gentry for one night’s performance in [Handel’s] Opera Artaxerses.’ In this print is contained the full range of the reactions of English society to the Italian castrati. It shows the crowd’s delight, but pours scorn on the ‘brutish noise, [which] offend[s] our Ears’; it details gifts from the nobility, but calls them ‘ruiners of England’; it shows opera’s popularity, but laments that ‘Shakespeare to the Italian Eunuchs yield.’ It is an image of great contradiction, and one which illuminates the culture of its age. The tradition of castrating talented boy-sopranos to preserve the quality of their unbroken voice originated in Italy, probably in the sixteenth century, where the castrati provided the higher parts for church choirs.1 From the seventeenth century the better of these singers began to move from the church to secular operas, and from Italy across Europe, sometimes with extraordinary success.2 The first castrato to visit London was probably Siface, who performed only private concerts, in 1687. The first to gain fame and wealth in London was Nicolini, who arrived in 1708, and three years later premiered Handel’s Rinaldo.3 From then until the departure of the most famous castrato, Farinelli (fig. 2), in 1737, the castrati were a cultural phenomenon of I am very grateful to Katherine Hogg of the Foundling Museum, London, and Martin Wyatt of Handel House Museum, London, for their generous help in locating primary documents for this essay. 1 Patrick Barbier (trans. Margaret Crosland), The World of the Castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Operatic Phenomenon, (London, 1996), 19-34 2 Ibid, 173-208; Piotr Scholz (trans. John Broadwin and Shelley Frisch), Eunuchs and Castrati: A Cultural History, (New Jersey, 2001/1999), 271-90 3 Angus Heriot, The Castrati in Opera, (London, 1956), 129-35 5 Student No. 1004425 unprecedented celebrity.4 Their talent and popularity supported two opera companies, and they became established in the highest echelons of society.5 Fig. 1: Anon [attrib. Hubert-François Gravelot or Michael Vandegrucht], The Opera House or the Italian Eunuch’s Glory, 1735, ©Trustees of the British Museum Yet the contemporary perception of the castrati remained problematic; their subversion of gender norms– both on and off the stage– and their centrality to the developing notion of 4 A list of notable castrati, and dates of their stay in London, is provided in Appendix I. For ‘celebrity,’ see footnote 8. For the castrati’s fame, see McGeary, ‘Farinelli’s Progress,’ Berta Joncus, ‘One God, so many Farinellis: Mythologising the Star Castrato,’ BJECS, 28:3, (2005) and Joseph Roach, ‘Cavaliere Nicolini: London’s First Opera Star,’ Educational Theatre Journal, 28:2, (1976) 5 The rivalry between the Royal Academy of Music and the ‘Opera of the Nobility,’ and between their star performers, is well documented. See Daniel Heartz, ‘Farinelli and Metastasio: Rival Twins of Public Favour,’ Early Music, 12:3, (1984); Suzanne Aspden, ‘“An Infinity of Factions”: Opera in Eighteenth-Century Britain and the Undoing of Society,‘ COJ, 9:1, (1997); Elizabeth Gibson, The Royal Academy of Music, 1719-1728: The Institution and its Directors, (New York, 1989) 6 Student No. 1004425 ‘taste’– particularly English taste– was the cause of resentment, mocking and confusion.6 A reception study of the castrati in London is therefore historically interesting for two reasons. First, it can inform our understanding of the castrato phenomenon, providing a context for the musical developments they inspired, notably the popularity of Italian Opera in London. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the castrati provide a case study for our understanding of the culture of early eighteenth century: the rise of ‘taste’ and the beau monde, the development of gender norms, and the new culture of ‘celebrity.’ The relevant historiography for such a study is, to a great extent, divided between the work of cultural historians studying eighteenth-century society, and the specific studies of castrati by musicologists. The former body of literature follows various themes. Most notably, the notions of ‘taste,’ and ‘politeness,’ central to any exploration of the role of Italian opera in London, have been the subject of study in several works of Langford and Klein, and are prominent concerns of Black and Brewer in their studies of eighteenth-century culture.7 ‘Fashion’ is also a central concept in the literature on the emergence of ‘celebrity.’8 I will argue that the chronology set out in this literature should be amended to include the castrati, an earlier phenomenon than those usually explored. Finally, the issue of gender in the eighteenth century has a large and varied historiography. Aside from the work of Stephanson