Carlo Broschi

Paris -P- About the Daughters in Paris -P- Ligeia X

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Character: '	Nature: Perfectionist	Clan: Daughters of Cacophony
Player: NPC	Demeanor: Praise-Seeker	Generation 9th
Chronicle: Paris	Concept: Prima Donna	Sire: Lucia
Allegiance: []	Reservation: []	Coterie: []
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Bruised (0) - { }	○○○○○○○○○○ ()	Conscience ●○○○○
Hurt (-1) ---- { }	---	Self-Control ●○○○○
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Sobriquet: Farinelli (Italian pronunciation: [fariˈnɛlli]; 24 January 1705 – 16 September 1782) was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (pronounced [ˈkarlo ˈbrɔski]), a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli has been described as having had soprano vocal range and as having sung the highest note customary at the time, C6.

Appearance

Carlo is a man of medium height. He has a delicate silhouette. Carlo has shoulder-long dark brown hair, and dark eyes that are a mixed green/brown color. His aquiline nose, as well as his slender build and somewhat feminine features, gives him a curious fragile appearance.

Carlo is androgynous in appearance. He wears tight fitting black trousers and large white shirts with poofy sleeves giving him, with the addition of his silk scarf, the style of the century that he was born in.

Behavior

Carlo has always seen himself as a monster, not a complete man (the Catholic Church created the Castrati, and forbade them the access to marriage.).

Carlo is distant and fascinating. He is somewhat narcissistic and cares for nothing more than his voice. Carlo hates anything or anyone that would destroy or corrupt beauty and art. Carlo is often very impulsive. This flaw is such that he does not fear to insult the powerful in the moment of wrath.

Carlo secretly desires to be considered as human. He dreams to discover someone who will love him, and to have progeny, and to search for those with singing talent to Embrace.

History

A word about the Castrati: The Catholic Church had banned the women from theatrical performances. It resulted in the 17th Century in the creation of the Castrati, or Prima Donnas. The Choirs needed Sopranos, and only women and children could fill the need. Women were banned from choirs, and male children lost their soprano voices at puberty, thus obligating the Choirs to make constant research of young singers. Thus the creation of Castrati, that kept their voices all their life. By removing their testicals, a boys voice would never change, even as he grew into a man.

In the following centuries some singers became veritable stars. They obtained large fees, largely justified by the audience's demonstrations of enthusiasm. These fees put a dangerous strain on theater budgets.

Castrati weren't simply singers, they were complete musicians. A castrati studyied composition, counterpoint, harpsichord and organ. This is why they were able to improvise the ornamentation of da capo arias.

Carlo was born in Andria (in what is now Apulia, Italy) into a family of musicians. As recorded in the baptismal register of the church of S. Nicola in Andria, his father Salvatore was a composer and maestro di cappella of the city's cathedral, and his mother, Caterina Barrese, a citizen of Naples. The Duke of Andría, Fabrizio Carafa, a member of the House of Carafa, one of the most prestigious families of the Neapolitan nobility, honored Maestro Broschi by taking a leading part in the baptism of his second son, who was baptised Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola. [In later life, Farinelli wrote: "Il Duca d'Andria mi tenne al fonte" ("The Duke of Andria held me at the font")]. In 1706 Salvatore also took up the non-musical post of governor of the town of Maratea (on the western coast of what is now Basilicata), and in 1709 that of Terlizzi (some twenty miles south-east of Andria). Unlike many castrati, who came from poor families, Farinelli was well-to-do, and was related to minor nobility on both sides of the family.

From 1707, the Broschi family lived in the coastal city of Barletta, a few miles from Andria, but at the end of 1711, they made the much longer move to the capital city of Naples, where, in 1712 Carlo's elder brother Riccardo was enrolled at the Conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto, specialising in composition. Carlo had already shown talent as a boy singer, and was now introduced to the most famous singing-teacher in Naples, Nicola Porpora. Already a successful opera composer, in 1715 Porpora was appointed maestro at the Conservatory of S. Onofrio, where his pupils included such well-known castrati as Giuseppe Appiani, Felice Salimbeni, and Gaetano Majorano (known as Caffarelli), as well as distinguished female singers such as Regina Mingotti and Vittoria Tesi; Farinelli may well have studied with him privately.

Salvatore Broschi died unexpectedly on 4 November 1717, aged only 36, and it seems likely that the consequent loss of economic security for the whole family provoked the decision, presumably taken by Riccardo, for Carlo to be castrated. As was often the case, an excuse had to be found for this operation, and in Carlo's case it was said to have been necessitated by a fall from a horse. While Carlo was wracked with fever, Riccardo had him castrated to protect that beautiful voice. It is, however, also possible that he was castrated earlier, since, at the time of his father's death, he was already twelve years old, quite an advanced age for castration.

Under Porpora's tutelage, his singing progressed rapidly, and at the age of fifteen, he made his debut a serenata by his master entitled Angelica e Medoro. The text of this work was the first by the soon-to-be-famous Pietro Trapassi (known as Metastasio), who became a lifelong friend of the singer. Farinelli remarked that the two of them had made their debuts on the same day, and each frequently referred to the other as his caro gemello ("dear twin").

In this Serenata "Angelica e Medoro", the two leading roles were entrusted to two highly acclaimed singers: Marianna Benti Bulgarelli (aka "la Romanina") and Domenico Gizzi, Musico Soprano in the Royal Chapel of Naples.

The derivation of Broschi's stage name (Farinelli) is not certain, but it was possibly from two rich Neapolitan lawyers, the brothers Farina, who may have sponsored his studies.

Farinelli quickly became famous throughout Italy as il ragazzo ("the boy"). In 1722, he first sang in Rome in Porpora's Flavio Anicio Olibrio, as well as taking the female lead in Sofonisba by Luca Antonio Predieri. (It was common practice for young castrati to appear en travesti). All these appearances were greeted with huge public enthusiasm, and an almost legendary story arose that he had to perform an aria with trumpet obbligato, which evolved into a contest between singer and trumpeter. Farinelli surpassed the trumpet player so much in technique and ornamentation that he "was at last silenced only by the acclamations of the audience" (to quote the music historian Charles Burney). This account, however, cannot be verified, since no surviving work which Farinelli is known to have performed contains an aria for soprano with trumpet obbligato.

Career in Europe

In 1724, Farinelli made his first appearance in Vienna, at the invitation of Prince Pio di Savoia, director of the Imperial Theatre. He spent the following season in Naples. In 1726, he also visited Parma and Milan, where Johann Joachim Quantz heard him and commented: "Farinelli had a penetrating, full, rich, bright and well-modulated soprano voice, with a range at that time from the A below middle C to the D two octaves above middle C. ... His intonation was pure, his trill beautiful, his breath control extraordinary and his throat very agile, so that he performed the widest intervals quickly and with the greatest ease and certainty. Passagework and all kinds of melismas were of no difficulty to him. In the invention of free ornamentation in adagio he was very fertile." Quantz is certainly accurate in describing Farinelli as a soprano, since arias in his repertoire contained the highest notes customarily employed by that voice during his lifetime: "Fremano l'onde" in Pietro Torri's opera Nicomede (1728) and "Troverai se a me ti fidi" in Niccolò Conforto's La Pesca (1737) both have sustained C6.[ His low range apparently extended to F3, as in "Al dolor che vo sfogando", an aria written by himself and incorporated in a pasticcio called Sabrina, and as in two of his own cadenzas for "Quell' usignolo innamorato" from Geminiano Giacomelli's Merope.

Farinelli sang at Bologna in 1727, where he met the famous castrato Antonio Bernacchi, twenty years his senior. In a duet in Orlandini's Antigona, Farinelli showed off all the beauties of his voice and refinements of his style, executing a number of passages of great virtuosity, which were rewarded with tumultuous applause. Undaunted, Bernacchi repeated every trill, roulade, and cadenza of his young rival, but performing all of them even more exquisitely, and adding variations of his own. Farinelli, admitting defeat, entreated Bernacchi to give him instruction in grazie sopraffine ("ultra-refined graces"); Bernacchi agreed.

In 1728, as well as performing in Torri's Nicomede at the Munich court, Farinelli performed another concert before the Emperor in Vienna. In 1729, during the Carnival season in Venice, he sang in two works by Metastasio: as Arbace in Metastasio's Catone in Utica (music by Leonardo Leo) and Mirteo in Semiramide Riconosciuta (music by Porpora). In these important drammi per musica, performed at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo of Venice, at his side sang some great singers: Nicola Grimaldi, detto Nicolino, Lucia Facchinelli, Domenico Gizzi (aka Virtuoso della Cappella Reale di Napoli), and Giuseppe Maria Boschi.

During this period he could really do no wrong. Loaded with riches and honors, he was so famous and so formidable as a performer that his rival and friend, the castrato Gioacchino Conti ("Gizziello") is said to have fainted away from sheer despondency on hearing him sing. George Frideric Handel was also keen to engage Farinelli for his company in London, and while in Venice in January 1730, tried unsuccessfully to meet him.

In 1731, Farinelli visited Vienna for a third time. There he was received by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, on whose advice, according to the singer's first biographer, Giovenale Sacchi, he modified his style, singing more simply and emotionally. After further seasons in Italy, and another visit to Vienna, during which he sang in oratorios in the Imperial chapel. It was now that rumors say too that Farinelli met Maestro Haendel, who wanted Farinelli to sing for his own theater in London. Maestro Haendel wanted nothing to do with Ricardo, whose compositions were ridiculous and lacked any talent in his point of view. In the same way, he considered Farinelli as an abomination whose only justification in this world was to sing, and nothing more. Haendel's arrogance infuriated Carlo, who refused in a most violent way.

Farinelli in London

Farinelli went to London in 1734. In London the previous year, Senesino, a singer who had been a part of Handel's "Second Academy" which performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, quarrelled with Handel and established a rival company, the Opera of the Nobility, operating from a theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This company had Porpora as composer and Senesino as principal singer, but had not been a success during its first season of 1733–34. Farinelli, Porpora's most famous pupil, joined the company and made it financially solvent.

Farinelli's problem was way others treated him. He was an attraction. Entertainment, something to poke and prod, to march out like a monkey with a grinder. Few ever treated him like a human. Farinelli also knew his brother's talent had reached its limits. Farinelli dreamed of Haendel marvelous music for his voice. While he had insulted and driven away Haendel, he longed to sing the wonderful music the Maestro had created. Farinelli had acquired, most illegally, the original copy of Haendel's work and charmed by it, proposed to make peace with the Maestro. But Haendel's arrogance played against the two: he refused Farinelli's proposal and once again treated Farinelli as a monster who had changed the destiny of the music inspiration because of his unnatural voice. Farinelli, deeply hurt, answered Haendel that some believed his voice had power over the people, and he threatened Haendel, asking the Maestro not to provoke him, not to make his voice an instrument of Death. The Maestro dismissed him.

Maestro Haendel befriended his enemy's brother, Ricardo. In a fit of rage, Farinelli fought with Ricardo and told him his music was only complex ornamentation put around a music without any true creativity. In despair and pain, Ricardo told Haendel about Farinelli's true conditions of castration. The Maestro revealed it to Farinelli before the Castrati sang Haendel's stolen music. Haendel mocked Farinelli, pulling down his pants and waving the Maestro's own sexual organs that had been so treacherously removed from Farinelli.

Farinelli's passion combined with the outrage and pain he felt, had unseen effects. Haendel fell unconscious when hearing Farinelli's voice on his own music. Carlo's reaction was supernatural indeed. Haendel had suspected rightly Carlo knew about the truth unconsciously, but refused to admit it to himself.

While Haendel's indisposition had been visible to all, some people who fainted were not natural mortals. They were Toreador, who had felt this unique combination of outrage, pain and thirst for vengeance. Lucia, a Daughter of Cacophony, who had heard of Farinelli, had not suspected the true range of his talent: Haendel's indisposition, as well as the Toreador reaction, all coming from this castrato simple mortal voice!

He first appeared in Artaserse, a pasticcio with music by his brother Riccardo and Johann Adolph Hasse. He sang the memorable arias "Per questo dolce amplesso" (music by Hasse) and "Son qual nave" (music by Broschi), while Senesino sang "Pallido il sole" (music by Hasse). Of "Per questo dolce amplesso", Charles Burney reports: "Senesino had the part of a furious tyrant, and Farinelli that of an unfortunate hero in chains; but in the course of the first air, the captive so softened the heart of the tyrant, that Senesino, forgetting his stage-character, ran to Farinelli and embraced him in his own". "Son qual nave", on the other hand, was composed by Riccardo Broschi as a special showpiece for his brother's virtuosic skills. Burney described it thus: "The first note he sung was taken with such delicacy, swelled by minute degrees to such an amazing volume, and afterwards diminished in the same manner to a mere point, that it was applauded for full five minutes. After this he set off with such brilliancy and rapidity of execution, that it was difficult for the violins of those days to keep pace with him." In 1735 Farinelli and Senesino also appeared in Nicola Porpora's Polifemo.

Both the cognoscenti and the public adored him. The librettist Paolo Rolli, a close friend and supporter of Senesino, commented: "Farinelli has surprised me so much that I feel as though I had hitherto heard only a small part of the human voice, and now have heard it all. He has besides, the most amiable and polite manners ....". Some fans were more unrestrained: one titled lady was so carried away that, from a theatre box, she famously exclaimed: "One God, one Farinelli!", and was immortalised in a detail of Plate II of William Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress" (she may also appear in Plate IV of his series "Marriage à la mode" of 1745).

Though Farinelli's success was enormous, neither the Nobility Opera nor Handel's company was able to sustain the public's interest, which waned rapidly. Though his official salary was £1500 for a season, gifts from admirers probably increased this to something more like £5000, an enormous sum at the time. Farinelli was by no means the only singer to receive such large amounts, which were unsustainable in the long term. As one contemporary observer remarked: "within these two years we have seen even Farinelli sing to an audience of five-and-thirty pounds". Nonetheless, he was still under contract in London in the summer of 1737 when he received a summons, via Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, Secretary of the Spanish Embassy there, to visit the Spanish court.

At the court of Spain

Apparently intending to make only a brief visit to the Continent, Farinelli called at Paris on his way to Madrid, singing on 9 July at Versailles to King Louis XV, who gave him his portrait set in diamonds, and 500 louis d'or. On 15 July he left for Spain, arriving about a month later. Elisabetta Farnese, the Queen, had come to believe that Farinelli's voice might be able to cure the severe depression of her husband, King Philip V (some contemporary physicians, such as the Queen's doctor Giuseppe Cervi, believed in the efficacy of music therapy). On 25 August 1737, Farinelli was named chamber musician to the king, and criado familiar, or servant to the royal family. He never sang again in public.

The same night, Lucia met with Carlo. Farinelli's first thought it was one more woman whose admiration had turned into lust for the Castrato, and who would, in normal time, end in bed with his brother to finish what Carlo could only start. Farinelli avoided his brother after the night he learned the secret of his castration, and would avoid him forever.

Lucia's presence and voice seduced him. She would make him enter in a world where his castration would not be a social factor, where he wouldn't be a monster. He only needed to join her in the court of King Philip the 5th of Spain. He accepted and he fled to Madrid in 1737.

Farinelli soon became Lucia's Ghoul, and when his Brother found him three years later, his passion for her made him neglect Ricardo, who remained alone for the remaining years and died alone in 1756. Lucia went to Paris in 1786, leaving Farinelli in Madrid. Farinelli, discovering how he had loved his now dead brother even if he could never pardon him for his act, was now alone.

Farinelli became a royal favorite and very influential at court. For the remaining nine years of Philip's life, Farinelli gave nightly private concerts to the royal couple. He also sang for other members of the royal family and organized private performances by them, and by professional musicians in the royal palaces. In 1738 he arranged for an entire Italian opera company to visit Madrid, beginning a fashion for opera seria in the Spanish capital. The Coliseo of the royal palace of Buen Retiro was remodelled, and became Madrid's only opera house.

On the accession of Philip's son, Ferdinand VI, Farinelli's influence became even greater. Ferdinand was a keen musician, and his wife, Barbara of Portugal, more or less a musical fanatic (in 1728 she had appointed Domenico Scarlatti as her harpsichord teacher; the musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick acknowledges Farinelli's correspondence as having provided "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day"). The relationship between singer and monarchs was personally close: he and the queen sang duets together, and the king accompanied them on the harpsichord. Farinelli took charge of all spectacles and court entertainments. He was himself also officially received into the ranks of the nobility, being made a Knight of the Order of Calatrava in 1750, an honour of which he was enormously proud. Although much courted by diplomats, Farinelli seems to have kept out of politics of the mortal variety.

Entering Torpor

Without his loved Sire, and his beloved brother Farinelli brooded. He discovered a young woman who heard him sing (he only sung alone, of for the Royal couple) and who was charmed by his talent and passion. Lucia's gift would enable him to take his newfound love with him into immortality, for he could not bear the pain of letting her growing old and die, has he had for his brother: He would have, now, what he had wanted all his mortal life: A true lover, and a child. The Embrace went wrong, and the young woman, Alexandra, died in ecstasy, never to waken to unlife. In depression he fled from Madrid's court in 1759 and entered Torpor, only awakening to discover the pain was still unbearable, and to enter once more the death-like state.

He awakened in 1900. He rose and spent time in Spain. In an effort to assure himself he wasn't "broken", he embraced a young woman of Asian descent. Her original name is lost to time, but she came to be known as Ligiea X. While the initial joining was passionate, within a short amount of time they tired of one another. Farinelli being too Narcissistic to stay interested in another voice for long.

Farinelli came to Paris and still depressed, he went into torpor once more in the catacombs. Farinelli awakened in 1995 and he learned some of his Bloodline had reached recognition. Farinelli being in Paris surprised everyone, and the new Duchesse, Constance, was glad and worried by this 250 years-old Kindred who threatened her position without even knowing it. But Carlo never showed the ambition that would have weakened Constance's title. He met with a Toreador called Yorgues, and together, they founded the Vieux Rousselet theater.

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Credit to the Author:https://augias.org/pbn/farineli.htm