Associated with the life and times of Faustina Bordoni, and the most brilliant exponent of the music of her husband, Hasse, Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, stands out as one of the most remarkable musical figures of his age.  This great artist, born in Naples in 1705, was the nephew of the composer Farinelli, whose name he adopted.  He was instructed by the celebrated singing-master Porpora, who trained nearly all the great voices of Europe for over half a century; and at his first appearance in Rome, in 1722, common report had already made him famous.  So wonderful was his execution, even at this early age, that he was able to vie with a trumpet-player, then the admiration of Rome for his remarkable powers.  Porpora had written an obligato part to a song, in which his pupil rivaled the instrument in holding and swelling a note of extraordinary purity and volume.  The virtuoso’s execution was masterly, but the young singer so surpassed him as to carry the enthusiasm of the audience to the wildest pitch by the brilliance of his singing and the difficult variations which he introduced.  Farinelli left the guidance of Porpora in 1724, and appeared in different European cities with a success which made him in three years a European celebrity.  In 1727, while singing in Bologna, he met Bernacchi, at that time known as the “king of singers.”  The rivals were matched against each other one night in a grand duo, and Farinelli, freely admitting that the veteran artist had vanquished him, begged some lessons from him.  Bernacchi generously accorded these, and took great pains with his young rival.  Thus was perfected the talent of Farinelli, who, to use the words of a modern critic, was as “superior to the great singers of his own period as they were to those of more recent times.”

After brilliant triumphs at Vienna, Rome, Naples, and Parma, where he surpassed the most formidable rivals and was heaped with riches and honors, he appeared before the Emperor Charles VI. of Germany, a momentous occasion in his art-career.  “You have hitherto excited only astonishment and admiration,” said the imperial connoisseur, “but you have never touched the heart.  It would be easy for you to create emotion, if you would but be more simple and natural.”  The singer adopted this counsel, and became the most pathetic as he continued to be the most brilliant of singers.

The interest of Farinelli’s London career will be augmented for the lovers of music by its connection with the contests carried on between Handel and his rivals, with which we have seen Faustina and Cuzzoni also to have been intimately associated.  When Handel went on the Continent to secure artists for the year 1734, some prejudice operated against his negotiation with Farinelli, and the latter took service with Porpora, who had been secured by the Pembroke faction to lead the rival opera.  Farinelli’s singing turned the scale in favor of Handel’s enemies, who had previously hardly been able to keep