#caffarelli

Talk to me if you are interested in:

Mai fui in codesta maniera baciato o trattato, e tanti baci in viso l'ebbi raramente, moltissimi anni fa, tanti da non poterli contare.

Diedi al giovane la partitura d'un'aria di Porpora. La voce non più giovane, ma non mi si può rimproverare d'averla perduta. Ciò che è è molto ancora, e quanto è stato si intuisce chiaramente, e solo da benessere mio e mio lavoro, castrense, m'è rimasta.

Ooh. Ok, get ready, this will be wild. Gaetano Carmine Francesco Paolo Majorano, better known as castrato Caffarelli.

Why I like them: The dude was just so messy and wild in the best (read: worst) ways. One of the most famous of the 18c Italian castrati (often - to his dismay - known as the "second best" after Farinelli). The dude requested to be castrated at 12 to preserve his wonderful voice; his grandmother's vineyard was sold to pay for his education. In the following decades, he became famous for his amazing voice, but also his diva behaviour, his womanizing and his bad temper (the dude started duels left and right, and was also chased out of France for it, see below).

Why I don’t: Well, all of the above. He was not the most pleasant person to be around. Demanding, self-centered, uncooperative (did not like to go to rehearsals, and during performances often ridiculed other singers). Also, the whole thing about seducing wives and starting duels over petty shit was not really great. (Who am I kidding he is super interesting for this stuff but I understand he wasn't the best person to be around.)

Favorite anecdote: Bljasfdbsafds So many to choose from. Once he was with a woman when her husband unexpectedly came back home, so Caffarelli had to jump out of the window and hide in the garden. He hid in a well (cistern?) for hours, and caught a cold, so he whined about ruining his voice. Or how about when Louis XV invited him to sing for his pregnant daughter in law, but Caffarelli started a petty fight over Italian vs French opera, which ended in Caffarelli (of course) challenging the dude to a duel. Duels were illegal in France so he had to run tf away from the country as soon as possible.

This person is an expert on Caffarrelli, and here are some of the other anecdotes listed: In which Caffarelli gets in a duel because the composer called him out for not bothering to show up for rehersals; In which Caffarelli pretends to poop in his living room to tease a friend; In which Caffarelli and another castrato beat each other with sticks at a nun's consecration; In which Caffarelli ruins Carlo Goldoni's opera before it's even been read.

Favorite quote (from them or about them): With his fortune, he bought large estates and in a palazzo he built, he wrote: "Amphion built Thebes, I this house". But then someone wrote under it: "he with, you without".

BrOTP: Caffarelli/Caffarelli

OTP: Caffarelli/other men's wives

an-oh-god-what-did-that-have-to-happen: Just take a pick; the dude's whole life is this

Unpopular opinion: He is often presented as a stereotype of a diva compared to a more dignified Farinelli but they both had their nasty sides.

A wish: For people to know of him. It's such an interesting life, and it tells us a lot about 18th century, opera, gender and so many other things.

5 words to best describe them: Castrato diva womanizer wild mess

My nickname for them: Hmm not sure. Resident Enfant Terrible?

if you could say one thing to them: Bold of you to assume I'd dare

Favourite portrayal of them/LEAST favourite portrayal of them: I am not sure if he was ever a character in anything, so a portrait:

Napoleon reviewing the Consular Guard (« La Revue du Quintidi », 1802). Lannes is with his back to the viewer on the right, Duroc looking over Napoleon’s shoulder and Berthier between them facing left. Caffarelli is on the far left with his sword drawn and Eugène in the bicorne next to Roustam.

In the background is the no-longer-there Palais des Tuileries (Consular Palace) inscribed with the date 10 August, 1792 (massacre of the Swiss Guards) and still showing damage to the exterior and windows from the explosion of the infernal machine (24 December, 1800).

Mezzotint print by Charles Turner after John James Masquerier, based on a drawing by Isabey. British Museum.

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Some trickery was apparently involved in its London promotion (from the curator’s notes) :

« Masquerier states that he was in Paris In December/January 1800/01 and obtained permission to paint Napoleon, making the painting the 'Only Likeness, in London, painted from the Life'. Turner responds to this with the annotation, 'False!!!!' noting as follows: 'Masquerier obtain'd the composition of this Picture by giving the Valet of Isabey the Painter a premium to let him trace His drawing of the same subject from which tracing a small picture was made here, & the large one painted from that. The head of Napoleon was from a small china bust; all the officers were copied from Prints he brought over. He never saw Buonaparte or any of his Generals. The large Picture was painted in my Room in Warren Street, & I painted all the Bridles, Saddles; & Mr H.B. Chalon the horses »