Frederick the Great, discussion post 6

[cahn]

...I think we need another one (seriously, you guys, this is THE BEST) and I'd better make it now before I disappear into the wilds of music performance.

(also, as of this week there are two Frederician fics in the yuletide archive and eeeeeeeeeee)
(huh, only one of them is actually tagged with Frederick the Great even though two with Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, eeeeeee this is awesome I CAN'T WAIT)

Frederick the Great masterpost

Comments

Re: Barbarina

[mildred_of_midgard]

(Which Italian poet, Mildred?)

Current evidence points toward Giampetro Tagliazucchi. I found Voltaire's quote in full, and it included a little extra identifying information, namely "His Italian poet, who was obliged to put the operas into verse, of which the King himself gave the plan had little more than a thirtieth part of this sum." So I went and asked Wikipedia who wrote the Italian libretto for Montezuma, and it was Tagliazucchi. I wasn't able to find much more on him; even Italian Wiki doesn't have an entry.

Re: Barbarina

[mildred_of_midgard]

No sooner do I say that than I continue reading, and Voltaire never fails to deliver the gossip aka shade-throwing.

"As for the Italian poet, he one day took care to pay himself with his own hands, for he stript off the gold from the ornaments in an old chapel of the first King of Prussia's; on which occasion Frederick remarked, that as he never went to the chapel he had lost nothing. Besides, he had lately written a dissertation in favour of thieves, which is printed in the collections of his academy; and he did not think proper this time to contradict his writings by his actions."

"This time" aka unlike with the Anti-Machiavel, obviously.

Ouch.

(I'm currently reading Voltaire's memoirs and taking notes. Sensationalist gossip coming soon.)

Re: Barbarina

[selenak]

You win at detecting. Well, if Tagliazucchi didn't even make it into Italian wiki, I assume he wasn't much of a poet. Whereas Barbarina was much of a dancer, so the difference in salary seems amply justified. :)

(I also admit I find it not a little satisfying that she and Schmeling-Mara were able to negotiate such top salaries out of frugal Fritz the misogynist. Go girls!)

Looking forward to your take on the memoirs, listed, of course, by 1926 Editor among the "few hints on the King's path of suffering" that was the Fritz/Voltaire relationship in Editor's eyes. "Leidensweg" will never fail to crack me up as a description, I must admit.

(Ziebura in her description of Mirabeau coming to Prussia, hitting it off with Heinrich (so Heinrich thinks) and returning to France to write a trashy bestseller declaring the entire Hohenzollern clan, including Heinrich, rubbish, was no less partisan, but she put it as "cheap homophobic slander", being a 21st century writer. As Heinrich had liked Mirabeau but hadn't been into him on a Fritz/Voltaire level, we didn't get a tempestous aftermath out of it, either, not even a letter-long rant, just a fatalistic "c'est la vie" shrugging. Heinrich: reserving all the obsessiveness for Big Bro.)

Re: Barbarina

[mildred_of_midgard]

(I also admit I find it not a little satisfying that she and Schmeling-Mara were able to negotiate such top salaries out of frugal Fritz the misogynist. Go girls!)

Indeed! And both ended up trying to flee to London with their lovers/husbands, said husband being arrested, and eventually the Maras make it to Prague. I have this quote re the successful Mara escape:

"In 1780 she fell ill, but Frederick refused to allow her to go to a Bohemian spa for a cure. 'But now I began to feel the weight of slavery,' she wrote in her autobiography. 'Not only was I having to bury my fame and fortune with him [Frederick] but also now my health,' so this time she and her husband planned their flight carefully. Describing her emotions on waking up for the first time in the safety of Bohemia, she wrote: 'A magnificent morning awaited my awakening, there was a lawn in front of the house, so I had my tea served there and felt completely happy— O Liberté!'"

"Leidensweg" will never fail to crack me up as a description, I must admit.

Indeed! The Passion of Fritz.

You know, for not having an army at your disposal, Editor, you're doing quite well in the life-or-death fanboying competition with Peter III.

Heinrich: reserving all the obsessiveness for Big Bro.

Yeah, Heinrich/Fritz and Fritz/Voltaire have a lot in common.

Italian poets

[mildred_of_midgard]

Or it could be Leopoldo di Villati, who did the libretti for some of Fritz's and Graun's other operas. All I can find on him is that he died in Berlin in 1752, which is just right for Voltaire to have an anecdote or two about him.

Voltaire, you and Lehndorff need to give us *names* if you're going to give us gossip!