Great Singers, First Series | Page 6

enemies, though several of his
operas met with brilliant success in the English capital.
Dresden life at last flowed more easily with Hasse and Faustina on the
advent of Augustus III., who possessed his father's connoisseurship
without his crotchets and favoritism. Here he remained, with the
exception of a short Venetian sojourn, till late in life. On the evening of
Frederick the Great's entrance into Dresden in 1745, after the battle of
Kesselsdorf, Hasse's opera of "Arminio" was performed by command
of the conqueror, who was so charmed with the work and Faustina's
singing that he invited the composer and wife to Berlin. During the
Prussian King's occupation he made Faustina many magnificent gifts,
an exceptional generosity in one who was one of the most penurious of
monarchs as well as one of the greatest of soldiers. Faustina continued
to sing for eight years longer, when, at the age of fifty-two, she retired
from the long art reign which she had enjoyed, having held her position
with unchanged success against all comers for nearly forty years.
III.
In notable contrast to the career of Faustina was that of her old-time
rival, Cuzzoni. After the Venetian singer retired from London, Cuzzoni
again returned to fill an engagement with the opposition company
formed by Handel's opponents. With her sang Farinelli and Senesino,
the former of whom was the great tenor singer of the age--perhaps the

greatest who ever lived, if we take the judgment of the majority of the
musical historians. Cuzzoni was again overshadowed by the splendid
singing of Farinelli, who produced an enthusiasm in London almost
without parallel. Her haughty and arrogant temper could not brook such
inferiority, and she took the first opportunity to desert what she
considered to be an ungrateful public. We hear of her again as singing
in different parts of Europe, but always with declining prestige. In the
London "Daily Post" of September 7, 1741, appeared a paragraph
which startled her old admirers: "We hear from Italy that the famous
singer, Mrs. C-z-ni, is under sentence of death, to be beheaded for
poisoning her husband." If this was so, the sentence was never carried
into execution, for she sang seven years afterward in London at a
benefit concert. She issued a preliminary advertisement, avouching her
"pressing debts" and her "desire to pay them" as the reason for her
asking the benefit, which, she declared, should be the last she would
ever trouble the public with. Old, poor, and almost deprived of her
voice by her infirmities, her attempt to revive the interest of the public
in her favor was a miserable failure; her star was set for ever, and she
was obliged to return to Holland more wretched than she came. She had
scarcely reappeared there when she was again thrown into prison for
debt; but, by entering into an agreement to sing at the theatre every
night, under surveillance, she was enabled to obtain her release. Her
recklessness and improvidence had brought her to a pitiable condition;
and in her latter days, after a career of splendor, caprice, and
extravagance, she was obliged to subsist, it is said, by button-making.
She died in frightful indigence, the recipient of charity, at a hospital in
Bologna, in 1770.
IV.
Associated with the life and times of Faustina Bordoni, and the most
brilliant exponent of the music of her husband, Hasse, Carlo Broschi,
better known as Farinelli, stands out as one of the most remarkable
musical figures of his age. This great artist, born in Naples in 1705, was
the nephew of the composer Farinelli, whose name he adopted. He was
instructed by the celebrated singing-master Porpora, who trained nearly
all the great voices of Europe for over half a century; and at his first

appearance in Rome, in 1722, common report had already made him
famous. So wonderful was his execution, even at this early age, that he
was able to vie with a trumpet-player, then the admiration of Rome for
his remarkable powers. Porpora had written an obligato part to a song,
in which his pupil rivaled the instrument in holding and swelling a note
of extraordinary purity and volume. The virtuoso's execution was
masterly, but the young singer so surpassed him as to carry the
enthusiasm of the audience to the wildest pitch by the brilliance of his
singing and the difficult variations which he introduced. Farinelli left
the guidance of Porpora in 1724, and appeared in different European
cities with a success which made him in three years a European
celebrity. In 1727, while singing in Bologna, he met Bernacchi, at that
time known as the "king of singers." The rivals were matched against
each other one night in a grand duo, and Farinelli, freely admitting that
the veteran artist had vanquished him, begged some