Registrado: 05 Oct 2005 20:42 Mensajes: 2906
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Riccardo Broschi (1698-1756) According to Prota-Giurleo, his approximate date of birth can be ascertained from a declaration signed on 6 November 1725 while he was witnessing the marriage banns of his younger sister Dorotea: ‘I, Riccardo Broschi, Neapolitan, son of Salvatore (deceased), testify that I am a maestro di cappella of about 27 years of age’. The same document discloses that the Broschi family moved to Barletta (probably from Andria) about 1707 and returned to Naples some four years later. If, as Prota-Giurleo believed, Riccardo Broschi became a student at the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, then the likely time of his enrolment would have been after his family’s return to Naples about 1711–1712. The earliest news of his activities as a professional musician comes from the Gazzetta di Napoli for 6 February 1725 which states that on 3 February he provided sacred music for the festival of S Biagio in S Maria del Popolo degl’Incurabili. In the autumn of the same year he presented his one and only comic opera La vecchia sorda at the Teatro dei Fiorentini.
Broschi was in Rome by 1727, when his only known oratorio, Il Martirio di Santa Susanna Vergine, was performed at the Chiesa Nuova. In 1728 his first opera seria, L’Isola di Alcina, was produced at the Teatro Tordinona. An active and successful period of composition followed in northern Italy: Alcina, revised as Bradamante nell’isola d’Alcina, appeared in Parma in 1729; Idapse, Broschi’s only Venetian opera, was performed during Carnival 1730; and Ezio opened the carnival season at Turin in 1731. The cast for Ezio included Broschi’s brother Farinelli, Faustina Bordoni and Antonio Montagnano; a contract of 3 June 1729 from the Teatro Regio shows that Broschi was paid a salary of 50 luigi d’oro for the work. Earlier in 1730 both Broschi and his brother had been elected to the Accademia Filarmonica, Bologna (the libretto of Ezio confirms this honour). Broschi’s most popular opera, Merope, was first performed at Turin in 1732, where the composer had been given the additional title of virtuoso del principe di Carignano. There is no documentary evidence placing Broschi in London in 1734 for Farinelli’s English stage début in the pasticcio Artaserse (King’s Theatre, 29 October), even though the work included the apparently newly composed bravura aria ‘Son qual nave ch’agitata’ by him. He was certainly not in London for the revival of his opera Merope in 1736: the recently discovered Pepoli correspondence (see Vitali, 1998) includes a letter from Farinelli of 2 July 1735 describing his brother as penniless and in Milan. At the end of 1735 Broschi was probably still in Milan for the production of his new opera Adriano in Siria.
In November 1736 Duke Carl Alexander of Württemberg appointed Broschi his compositore di musica. The Italian opera company then in the duke’s employ at Stuttgart performed Broschi’s Adriano in Siria at the beginning of 1737. The composer had no further chance to show his abilities at the court of Stuttgart, however, for on 12 March 1737 the duke died. His opera company was disbanded and Broschi lost his post on 1 April. In the autumn of that year, his Merope saw its last performance at the command of Count Johann Adam of Questenberg at Jaromeritz in Moravia, but Broschi was apparently not offered a permanent position there. He then made his way to Naples, where he was made a musician without pay on 8 October 1737. According to Strohm, Broschi composed act 3 of Demetrio, a new opera performed at the Teatro S Carlo on 30 June 1738, for which Leonardo Leo composed act 1, and various others act 2. Broschi failed, however, to gain other significant commissions for music from the Neapolitans. Nonetheless, he was not totally overlooked, for in October 1739 he was given the salaried post of administrator of wine within the city of Naples. These favours were bestowed because of intercessions made on his behalf by the Spanish court (whose viceroy ruled Naples), of which Farinelli had in 1737 become an influential member. However, all attempts to procure an official musical position failed, and during the 1740s Broschi joined his brother in Madrid, where he was named ‘familiar’ to the King. Letters in the state archives of Naples (see DBI) reveal that later attempts were made to acquire the position of maestro di cappella there for Broschi, after the deaths of Sarro and Leo in 1744, but these also failed. Broschi died in Madrid in 1756.
Grove
Merope, ópera en tres actos (1732). Aria: Si, traditor tu sei.
Artaserse, ópera en tres actos (1734). Aria: Son qual nave ch'agitata.
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