Editing Farinelli (section)

==Career in Europe==
[[File:Farinelli Engraving V&A.jpg|thumb|Farinelli, by Wagner after Amigoni 1735]]
[[File:Jacopo Amigoni – Ritratto di Farinelli.jpg|left|thumb|426x426px|Allegorical portrait of Farinelli by [[Jacopo Amigoni]], showing him being crowned by the Muse of Music.]]
In 1724, Farinelli made his first appearance in [[Vienna]], at the invitation of Prince Luigi [[Pio di Savoia]], director of the Imperial Theatre. He spent the following season in [[Naples]]. 

In 1726, Farinelli performed in [[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 [[melisma]]s were of no difficulty to him. In the invention of free ornamentation in [[Tempo#Basic tempo markings|adagio]] he was very fertile." Quantz is certainly accurate in describing Farinelli as a soprano - since several arias in his repertoire require a sustained C6 - these include "Fremano l'onde" in [[Pietro Torri]]'s opera ''Nicomede'' (1728) and "Troverai se a me ti fidi" in Niccolò Conforto's ''La Pesca'' (1737) <ref>see F Haböck: ''Die Gesangkunst der Kastraten'' (Vienna, 1923), pp 209, 227.</ref> 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 [[cadenza]]s for "Quell' usignolo innamorato" from [[Geminiano Giacomelli]]'s ''Merope''.<ref>this opera was premiered in 1734; Farinelli's ornaments and cadenzas may date from 1737 (according to Haböck), or from as late as 1753, when these ornamented versions were sent by him to the Empress Maria Theresa, in a manuscript now preserved in the National Library of Austria in Vienna [A-Wn 19111], and printed by Haböck on pp 140 ff of ''Die Gesangkunst der Kastraten''; his edition of "Navigante che non spera", from Leonardo Vinci's ''Il Medo'' (1728), on pp 12 ff of the same publication, takes the vocal line down to C3, but this has recently been shown to have been an error on his part, with the voice placed an octave too low: see Desler, Anne (2014) ''Il novello Orfeo' Farinelli: vocal profile, aesthetics, rhetoric.'' PhD thesis, Glasgow University, p 24</ref>

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 aspects of the beauty 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 {{lang|it|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 other singers of the first rank: Nicola Grimaldi, detto Nicolino (a mezzo-soprano castrato, who had earlier performed for Handel), the female soprano Lucia Facchinelli, another castrato [[Domenico Gizzi]] ("Virtuoso della Cappella Reale di Napoli"), and the renowmed bass Giuseppe Maria Boschi.

During this period it seemed Farinelli, loaded with riches and honors, was so famous and so formidable as a performer that his rival and friend, the castrato [[Gioacchino Conti]] ("Gizziello") is said to have fainted 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 Emperor [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI]], on whose advice, according to the singer's first biographer, [[Giovenale Sacchi]], Farinelli  modified his style, singing more simply and emotionally. Sacchi's source for this must have been [[Charles Burney]]'s notes on his visit to Farinelli in 1770, published in London in 1773 in ''The present state of music in France and Italy...'', here pp. 215-216. After further seasons in Italy, and another visit to Vienna, during which he sang in oratorios in the Imperial chapel, Farinelli came to London in 1734.