Caffarelli (castrato)

Caffarelli ( whose real name is Gaetano Majorano; born April 12, 1710 in Bitonto at Bari, † January 31, 1783 in Naples) was a famous Italian opera singer (soprano castrato ).

Life

The first music study was Gaetano Majorano at an unspecified Maestro Caffaro ( not identical with Pasquale Cafaro ), who led the church choir his hometown and stood by his stage name Pate. At the age of about nine years, Caffarelli was allegedly castrated at his own request and was in the Conservatorio San Onofrio of Naples student of Nicola Porpora, who was considered the best singing teacher in Italy. According to legend, formed a single page with scale practice ( Solfeggien ) is the only educational materials, and Caffarelli said to have done nothing more than five years, day in, day out to repeat these exercises. Then Porpora dismissed him with the words: towards " Go, my son. I can teach you nothing more. Now that you're the greatest singer in Italy and around the world! " Such a sheet of Porpora's hand actually exists, his students however, there will have rather used for daily Einsingen before class. In addition, Porpora said to have always responded quite angrily to it when he was on his teaching method he had used in Caffarelli, addressed.

His first engagement was Caffarelli in Rome, where he made his debut in the opera by Domenico Sarro Valdemaro in the carnival in 1726. In the following years Caffarelli conquered the stages of the Iberian Peninsula in the storm, in which he appeared several times with his great rival Farinelli. After his farewell to the opera stage Caffarelli was undisputedly the most famous singers of Italy - like his teacher Porpora had predicted.

In 1738 he accepted an invitation to the run by George Frideric Handel Haymarket Theatre in London, where he participated in the first performances of Handel's operas Faramondo and Serse. For Caffarelli Handel wrote the famous aria " Ombra mai fu " from Serse (commonly known as " Largo by Handel " known ), but this was to Handel's music little taste ( and Handel in turn no pleasure in Caffarelli interpretation). Since he also did not like England itself, he returned to the end of the season back in his homeland. For this purpose, however, it should be noted that even Farinelli, just before Caffarelli came to England, already could not achieve a great success more, which was largely due to poor operas he had to sing, but also that the interest of Englishmen Italian opera seria in general began to subside and she reinforced turned to the " domestic" musical theater. Caffarelli said to have also only agreed to go to London, after it was clear that his biggest rival Farinelli would remain in Spain and not return to England. It is also interesting that it had managed Handel, Caffarelli to persuade his entrance aria " Ombra mai fu " to sing at the very beginning of the opera, as the most important singer otherwise not appear on the stage in the first few minutes. Contrary to what is common in opera houses today, prevailed especially in the first few minutes in the auditorium is always a great concern, which is why the major arias of the "superstars" then of course not in this period were laid. In addition, Caffarelli reacted very strongly to any type disturbance from the audience as he sang.

Caffarelli unstoppable career was always accompanied by scandal, but not seriously harmed his reputation. A telling incident from 1739 makes this clear: Caffarelli beat in a church with a colleague, of which he thought himself insulted. He was accused of blasphemy, but by the Bourbon King Charles III. pardoned. The king could wish that that Caffarelli should beautify the wedding ceremony of his younger brother with his singing in Madrid. With the contralto Vittoria Tesi Caffarelli traveled for a year in Spain. After his return, he concentrated his performances primarily to Naples, interrupted by a stint in Vienna in 1749., Where he suffered the only significant failure of his career, when the young tenor Anton Raaff managed to outdo the arrivierten star in the favor of the public. The librettist Metastasio reported Farinelli not without gloating about the failure Caffarelli in Vienna. Caffarelli apologized, according to Metastasio for his not successful appearance so that the presence of high royalty would have him so confused that he was not able to concentrate on his singing. Unsettled by this unusual for him fiasco of the otherwise successful Caffarelli put a very modest behavior on the day. Metastasio wrote Farinelli that he would not recognize Caffarelli at the time.

1753 guested Caffarelli in Paris. A gold snuffbox to him as a gift of Louis XV. was presented, he dismissed as unworthy of him. Result, he was signed by the king in person, valid for three days residence - a discreet invitation to leave the country within this period. Whether this story is true, however, is not without controversy.

After a stint in Lisbon, which came to an abrupt end by the great earthquake of 1755, to Caffarelli was finally settled in his homeland. From his considerable fortune, he acquired a large estate near Otranto (which earned him the title of Duke of San Donato earned ) and a baroque palace in Naples. The attached there latin inscription " Amphion Thebas, ego domum " ( " Amphion built Thebes, I this house " ) is an allusion to the legend of the Greek singer Amphion, who built the walls of Thebes by moving the stones alone with his singing. ( An anonymous prankster she added later: " Ille cum tu sine" - "He's with you without .") In 1768 he was in Alceste in Ebuda by Giovanni Paisiello his farewell performance. After that, he has sung many more years at charity events and otherwise the needy of the city generously supported. He was buried in the Capuchin monastery of San Efremo Vecchio.

Importance

Caffarelli is considered one of the greatest singers who ever entered the opera stage - in an era often influenced as great singers of the style of the works written for her with much. Among the arias that were written to him by the most renowned composers of his time on the body, you will find some of the most spectacular vocal pieces of the entire musical literature. In the aria "Per trionfar pugnando " which concludes the second act of the opera Arianna e Teseo by Giuseppe di Majo (Naples 1747 ), the coloratura bolts for example to d '' ' up, with the voice even the glitz of four must outshine trumpets in the orchestra. ( A copy of the score of this opera is in the library of the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples, signature - I Nc 28.3.3, . A digitized version can be viewed at www.internetculturale.it ). On the other hand, a so simple and solemn melody as " Se mai senti spirarti sul volto " from La Clemenza di Tito by Gluck (recently recorded by Cecilia Bartoli on CD) that his art can not have exhausted larynx in pure acrobatics.

Role folder (selection)

Below is a list of operas, participated in the premiere of Caffarelli, with indication of the role that he played in it ( if known):

• Alvida in Valdemaro by Domenico Sarro (Rome 1726)
• Arianna Arianna e Teseo in by Francesco Feo (Turin 1728)
• Alcasto in Nerina Antonio Pollarolo (Venice 1728)
• Tigrane in Mitridate by Nicola Porpora (Rome 1730)
• Siface, Re di Numidia by Nicola Porpora (Rome 1730)
• Pirro in Caio Fabrizio by Johann Adolf Hasse (Rome 1732)
• Arminio in Germanico in Germania by Nicola Porpora (Rome 1732)
• La Candace by Giovanni Battista Lampugnani ( Milan 1732)
• Medarse in Siroe, Re di Persia by Johann Adolf Hasse (Bologna 1733)
• Ruggiero in Il castello d' Atlante by Leonardo Leo (Naples 1734)
• Farnaspe Adriano in Siria in by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Naples 1734)
• Faramondo in Faramondo by George Frideric Handel (London 1738)
• Serse in Serse by George Frideric Handel (London 1738)
• Scitalce in Semiramide riconosciuta Porpora Nicola (Naples 1739 )
• Teseo Teseo e Arianna in Giuseppe de Majo (Naples 1747 )
• Cesare in Catone in Utica by Niccolò Jommelli (Vienna 1749)
• Imeneo in La vittoria d' Imeneo Galuppi Baldassare (Turin 1750)
• Farnace by Tommaso Traetta (Naples 1751 )
• Poro in Alessandro nell'Indie of Davide Perez ( Lisbon 1755)
• Il trionfo di Clelia by Johann Adolf Hasse (Naples 1762)
• Alceste in Ebuda by Giovanni Paisiello (Naples 1768)