Editing Farinelli (section)

==At the court of Spain==
[[File:Jacopo Amigoni - Retrato de Carlo María Broschi, Farinelli - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|Carlo Broschi Farinelli in Spanish court dress wearing the [[Order of Calatrava]], by [[Jacopo Amigoni]] c. 1752]]
Apparently intending to make only a brief visit to the Continent, Farinelli stopped at [[Paris]] on his way to [[Madrid]], singing on 9 July at [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]] to King [[Louis XV]], who gave him his portrait set in diamonds, and 500 ''[[louis d'or]]''. On 15 July he left for Spain, arriving about a month later. [[Elisabeth Farnese]], the Queen, had come to believe that Farinelli's voice might be able to cure the severe [[depression (mood)|depression]] of her husband, King [[Philip V of Spain|Philip V]] (some contemporary physicians, such as the Queen's doctor Giuseppe Cervi, believed in the efficacy of [[music therapy]]). By royal decree Farinelli was named [[chamber music]]ian to the king and queen on 28 August 1737; two days later the title {{lang|es|criado familiar}}, meaning something like family servant to the king, was added. The decree provided Farinelli with an enormous salary, a coach with the necessary mules and residence wherever the king happened to be.

For the remaining nine years of Philip's life, Farinelli was obliged to give nightly recitals, accompanied by other musicians, for King Philip, the queen and some select company in the king's chamber. In 1738 he may have assisted in arranging for the visit of an entire [[Italian opera]] company to Madrid, beginning a fashion for ''[[opera seria]]'' in Madrid. The Coliseo of the royal palace of [[Buen Retiro]] was remodelled. The operas given there were not public but attended by the king, the queen, the court and various important persons such as officers and ambassadors.
[[File:Amigoni, Jacopo - Bildnis des Sopranisten Carlo Broschi, genannt Il Farinelli.jpg|left|thumb|301x301px|c.1752 portrait by [[Jacopo Amigoni]]]]
On the accession of Philip's son, [[Ferdinand VI]], Farinelli's influence increased. Ferdinand was a keen musician, and his queen consort, [[Maria Bárbara of Portugal]], was a highly accomplished harpsichordist for whom [[Domenico Scarlatti]] wrote most of his sonatas. Scarlatti had been her music master when she was a princess in Lisbon and followed her to Spain after her marriage in 1729. Scarlatti became the music master to both Maria Bárbara and Ferdinand and died in their service in 1757; the musicologist [[Ralph Kirkpatrick]] acknowledges Farinelli's correspondence as having provided "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day"). Under Phillip V Farinelli had gradually assumed a role in the production of operas, encouraged by Queen Isabel Farnesio (Elisabeth Farnese), although having little or nothing to do with the musical side of the performances. When Ferdinand came to the throne in 1746, Farinelli was made Director of the Court Opera. His production of a magnificent opera in 1750 caused the king to make him a Knight of the Order of Calatrava. In the same year the Felipe ordained that the house Farinelli shared at Aranjuez should be much enlarged and made more beautiful and that it should become a residence just for Farinelli himself together with his staff. As producer and director of the court operatic events at the [[Buen Retiro]] palace in [[Madrid]] and at the royal seat at [[Aranjuez]], Farinelli gradually extended his work to the creation of extraordinary illuminations and firework displays, once involving 60 thousand candles, both as part of the operas and as independent events, for instance on the king's name day. He also became involved in the small fleet of royal vessels on which the king, the queen and most of the court made excursions on the Tagus at Aranjuez. These excursions were probably instigated in 1752 without Farinelli's participation, but it may have been he who added two gilded barges to the fleet in 1753. On the excusions from 1754 to 1757 Farinelli, who directed these royal excusions from 1755 onwards (if not earlier) sang arias on board one of the gilded barges, 'La Real', accompanied by the king or the queen on the harpsichord. Sometimes the king played solo sonatas and Farinelli and the queen once sang a duet. By nightfall, the vessels would have returned to find the riverbanks and the point of disembarkation all lit up by tens of thousands of candles, organized beforehand by Farinelli. On these evenings, Farinelli sang again in public, the star in an informal concert given on a gilded barge on the river, his accompanists the king and queen. The last excursion took place in July 1757. Farinelli's last illuminations and his last operatic production were for the king's nameday in May 1758. Queen Maria Bárbara, who attended these final festivities, died at the end of August the same year; King Ferdinand died in August 1759.