Gaetano Majorano (12 April 1710 â€" 31 January 1783) was an Italian
castrato and opera singer, who performed under the stage name
Caffarelli. Like Farinelli, Caffarelli was a student of Nicola
Porpora.Caffarelli was born Gaetano Carmine Francesco Paolo Majorano
to Vito Majorano and Anna Fornella in Bitonto. His early life is
uncertain. His stage name, Caffarelli, is said to be taken from an
early teacher Caffaro who taught him music in childhood, others say it
was taken from a patron, Domenico Caffaro. There is evidence that he
personally desired to be castrated. When aged ten, he was given the
income from two vineyards owned by his grandmother, according to the
legal document, so that he could study grammar and, especially, music:
"to which he is said to have a great inclination, desiring to have
himself castrated and become an eunuch". He became the pupil of Nicola
Porpora. According to legend, Porpora kept the young Caffarelli
working from one sheet of exercises for six years, and then eventually
declared: "Go, my son: I have no more to teach you. You are the
greatest singer in Europe".In Carnival 1726, aged 15, he made his
debut at Rome in Domenico Sarro's Valdemaro, singing the third female
role, and listed with the stage name “Caffarellino.†His fame
spread rapidly throughout Italy during the 1730s, with performances at
Venice, Turin, Milan, Florence, before returning to Rome for a great
success in Johann Adolf Hasse's Cajo Fabricio. His time in London was
not particularly successful, public memory of Farinelli being too
strong, but at the King's Theatre during the 1737â€"38 season he
created roles in Giovanni Battista Pescetti's pasticcio Arsace and
Handel's Faramondo, in addition to the title role in Handel's Serse,
singing the famous aria "Ombra mai fù".In later years he worked at
Madrid (1739), Vienna (1749), Versailles (1753), and Lisbon (1755).
His career in France, to which he had been invited by Louis XV, was
suddenly cut short after he badly wounded a poet during a duel, and
left in disgrace after only one year . In 1734 the singer had taken up
a post at the royal chapel of Naples, and over the next twenty years
he often performed at the Teatro di San Carlo. At Naples he sang for
Pergolesi, Porpora, Hasse, and Leonardo Vinci, not to mention starring
in Gluck's La Clemenza di Tito. After 1756 he sang little, though in
1770 Charles Burney heard him and praised his "expression and grace."
Always a favourite of royal families and a first-rate castrato who
could command vast fees, Caffarelli made a large fortune, and was able
to buy himself a dukedom and impressive estates in Naples and
Calabria. On a palazzo he built he added the superscription
"Amphion[a] Thebas, ego domum" ("Amphion built Thebes, I this house").
However, he fell foul of local wit when some wag mockingly added to
this "ille cum, tu sine" ("he with, you without").
castrato and opera singer, who performed under the stage name
Caffarelli. Like Farinelli, Caffarelli was a student of Nicola
Porpora.Caffarelli was born Gaetano Carmine Francesco Paolo Majorano
to Vito Majorano and Anna Fornella in Bitonto. His early life is
uncertain. His stage name, Caffarelli, is said to be taken from an
early teacher Caffaro who taught him music in childhood, others say it
was taken from a patron, Domenico Caffaro. There is evidence that he
personally desired to be castrated. When aged ten, he was given the
income from two vineyards owned by his grandmother, according to the
legal document, so that he could study grammar and, especially, music:
"to which he is said to have a great inclination, desiring to have
himself castrated and become an eunuch". He became the pupil of Nicola
Porpora. According to legend, Porpora kept the young Caffarelli
working from one sheet of exercises for six years, and then eventually
declared: "Go, my son: I have no more to teach you. You are the
greatest singer in Europe".In Carnival 1726, aged 15, he made his
debut at Rome in Domenico Sarro's Valdemaro, singing the third female
role, and listed with the stage name “Caffarellino.†His fame
spread rapidly throughout Italy during the 1730s, with performances at
Venice, Turin, Milan, Florence, before returning to Rome for a great
success in Johann Adolf Hasse's Cajo Fabricio. His time in London was
not particularly successful, public memory of Farinelli being too
strong, but at the King's Theatre during the 1737â€"38 season he
created roles in Giovanni Battista Pescetti's pasticcio Arsace and
Handel's Faramondo, in addition to the title role in Handel's Serse,
singing the famous aria "Ombra mai fù".In later years he worked at
Madrid (1739), Vienna (1749), Versailles (1753), and Lisbon (1755).
His career in France, to which he had been invited by Louis XV, was
suddenly cut short after he badly wounded a poet during a duel, and
left in disgrace after only one year . In 1734 the singer had taken up
a post at the royal chapel of Naples, and over the next twenty years
he often performed at the Teatro di San Carlo. At Naples he sang for
Pergolesi, Porpora, Hasse, and Leonardo Vinci, not to mention starring
in Gluck's La Clemenza di Tito. After 1756 he sang little, though in
1770 Charles Burney heard him and praised his "expression and grace."
Always a favourite of royal families and a first-rate castrato who
could command vast fees, Caffarelli made a large fortune, and was able
to buy himself a dukedom and impressive estates in Naples and
Calabria. On a palazzo he built he added the superscription
"Amphion[a] Thebas, ego domum" ("Amphion built Thebes, I this house").
However, he fell foul of local wit when some wag mockingly added to
this "ille cum, tu sine" ("he with, you without").
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