See Naples

Barbier P. Festival in Naples. Theater, music and castrates in the XVIII century (naples en fet. Theatre, Musique et Castrats au XVIIIE SIECLE). Per. S. Raysky and I. Morozova. Ivna Limbakha, 2018

By coincidence and with the active participation of the authorities in the person of Charles VII in the Napolitan kingdom, an unprecedented heyday of science and art occurred in the XVIII century. They brought a decent university, taught political economy, dug pompans and Herculanum, and the found neatly brought them to the museum. Leaving Naples for the sake of the Spanish throne, King Charles VII took off and left the ring found in excavations ...

But the main thing was still music. In that era, the population (due to the specifics of the Neapolitan national character) adored secular and church music. In four city conservatory, exclusively boys were taught. At the exit, they received not just well -learned instrumentalists, composers and singers, but a creative environment. Everyone played and sang everywhere - in the opera, in the palace, in the salon, in the church, because they paid little and it was necessary to dodge. And they composed the opera today, and tomorrow - the mass - for the same reasons. The king, the court, high society was considered their duty to patronize and philanthropic. In private houses, impressive concerts were arranged. For the Neapolitan aristocracy, it was equally normal to build palaces and order music from Handel (was in Naples passing) or breakdowns. So the creative environment lived a stormy and rich life.

“ However, the best qualities of this people are its cheerfulness, friendliness, ingenuity, ease of rise and active support of any musical undertaking. Let's not forget that on the subsequent pages to these people, the balconies and gallery of the San Carlo theater will be scored, it is he who will be a member of the most beautiful church festivities to the music of immigrants from this city, it is he who will fill the theatrical halls of the buff, opening this musical genre for all of Europe. A resident of Naples, contrary to the lack of education, is endowed with special susceptibility to art, especially for music, which accompanies it around the clock: in a luxurious palace where it works, in the church, where he is present in services, on the street during mass processions, in an opera theater, if you manage to buy a ticket, a pocket. ”

The humanity and rights of the child were then not in fashion. Castrates were in fashion. Poor and large parents often performed this operation over a boy for 7-8 years, calculating a musical career and high fees. The Castrate was then the main voice in the opera, he was paid more than the primadonna. Now the previous consumer parties are performed by conteenors, they have a different singing technique and physical condition. And those sweet sounds that adult men have extracted from their children's laryons disappeared forever.

Barbier describes this life with pleasure, everything is valuable and interesting to him: long aristocratic names of the philanthropists, Latin in the names of the parts of the Catholic mass, juicy Neapolitan jargon, illiterate letters of the young king with a report on the first wedding night, details of theatrical scandals, terrible whims of primadones, customs of non -appropriate conservatives, nois Festive processions to VIA Toledo, details of the construction of San Carlo, theft of entrepreneurs and the disappearance of 500 silver spoons in the palace after the ball. And, of course, a view of the Gulf of Neapolitan, who penetrated even the gloomy English writer Adyson, who in European literature fashion for suicide.

“ The age of Karl Bourbon and his Minister Tanucci is also the time of Pergolets and Porpores, the castrates of Farinelli and Kaffarelli, the highest take-off of the art of the opera Seria and Buffa, the appearance of the San Carlo Theater, the Royal Shelter for the poor and palace complexes in Portici, Kazyrt or Capodimont. He highlights the connection of music with public life, the royal court, the clan nobility, the church and the state as a whole. ”

For a Russian reader, this is even more unusual reading than for other Europeans, because it does not look at all in the same period in the history of the Fatherland. There was a heyday in Naples, and in Russia everything was just beginning. For Russian culture, the beginning of the 18th century is a student, the time of transplantation of European norms and values ​​to native soil. Then the export of European culture began to Russia. The opera, and even more so the music of Catholic worship, did not enter the number of essentials. Especially at the beginning of the century, when Russia invested all forces in the Northern War. And castrates in Russia did not produce especially sweet singing. The tradition is not the same. Therefore, the baroque opera has exotic. Of course, they put it, but at the court.

The first opera performance in Russia took place in 1736-1737 under Empress Anna Ioannovna. She invited the composer Francesca Araya (of course, the Neapolitan) and his troupe to work in Russia. In 1755, Arai wrote the opera “Cephal and Shortes” on the Libretto of Sumarokov. This was the first national opera. Then it went more fun. But it was already another era. And in 2017, “Cephal and Crisis” was again placed at the Bolshoi Theater on the new stage.

Neapolitan culture flourished against the background of a depressive economy, corruption, bad roads, confusing legislation and the origin of the Italian mafia. At the same time, it was not that everyone wanted change ... Nobody thought about the revolution at the beginning of the 18th century. Everyone wanted a holiday. And King Charles VII understood this. He entrusted the Minister of Tanucci's heavy reforms, and he himself built the largest Opera House Opera House in the then Europe in the record time. There, the season is still opening on November 4, on the day of the August Denmark. The construction of the theater provided the king for life -long popularity. Even a colossal shelter for the poor turned out to be a much less winning venture.

There were cheap places in San Carlo. And the sight reconciled everyone. This is despite the fact that the king spoke Italian, of course, he did not know the local dialect. His son, King Ferdinand, will be the first monarch in this dynasty who spoke to the people in the same language. And just like a father, he will dutifully hatch the performances in San Carlo, although neither one nor the other was loved. This was an exceptionally conscious state necessity (which is known from the royal family correspondence).

In Russia, only literature had a comparable place in the influence of minds and the state system in the XIX-XX centuries, which at times replaced the rest. Such comparisons of Russia and the Neapolitan kingdom give an incomparable pleasure in reading. Another bonus is an opportunity to listen to any of the barbier of musical works on the Internet. You immediately understand what he meant when he wrote about the game of light and shadow in “Stabat Mater” pergoles ...

Ekaterina Buz