Thursday, August 23.[1770] It will give pleasure to every lover of music, especially to those who have been so happy as to have heard him, to learn that Signor Farinelli still lives, and is in good health and spirits. I found him much younger in appearance than I expected. He is tall and thin, but seems by no means infirm. Hearing that I had a letter for him, he was so obliging as to come to me this morning at Padre Martini's, in whose library I spent a great part of my time here. Upon my observing, in the course of our conversation, that I had long been ambitious of seeing two persons, become so eminent by different abilities in the same art, and that chief business at Bologna was to gratify that ambition, Signor Farinelli, pointing to P. Martini, said, " What he is doing will last, but the little that I have done is already gone and forgotten." I told him, that in England there were still many who remembered his performance so well, that they could bear to hear no other singer; that the
whole kingdom continued to resound his fame, and I was sure tradition would hand it down to the latest posterity.
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He told me, that for the first ten years of his residence at the court of Spain, during the life of Philip the Vth, he sung every night to that monarch the same four airs, of which two were composed by Hasse, Pallido il sole, and Per questo dolce amplesso. I forget the others, but one was a minuet which he used to vary at his pleasure.
He likewise confirmed to me the truth of the following extraordinary story, which I had often heard and never before credited. Senesino and Farinelli, when in England together, being engaged at different theatres on the same night, had not an opportunity of hearing each other, till, by one of those sudden stage-revolutions which frequently happen, yet are always unexpected, they were both employed to sing on the same stage. Senesino had the part of a furious tyrant to represent, and Farinelli that of an unfortunate hero in chains: but, in the course of the first song, he so softened the obdurate heart of the enraged tyrant, that Senesino, forgetting his stage-character, ran to Farinelli and embraced him in his own.
- CHARLES BURNEY, THE PRESENT STATE OF MUSIC IN FRANCE AND ITALY
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He likewise confirmed to me the truth of the following extraordinary story, which I had often heard and never before credited. Senesino and Farinelli, when in England together, being engaged at different theatres on the same night, had not an opportunity of hearing each other, till, by one of those sudden stage-revolutions which frequently happen, yet are always unexpected, they were both employed to sing on the same stage. Senesino had the part of a furious tyrant to represent, and Farinelli that of an unfortunate hero in chains: but, in the course of the first song, he so softened the obdurate heart of the enraged tyrant, that Senesino, forgetting his stage-character, ran to Farinelli and embraced him in his own.
- CHARLES BURNEY, THE PRESENT STATE OF MUSIC IN FRANCE AND ITALY
