Btw, I'm not surprised Knobelsdorff didn't get any. A) budget, and b) if you were an Italian singer in 1737, would you dare to travel to FW's Prussia?
Pretty much! While he thought the opera in Florence was "the worst I've heard in Italy", he really liked the one in Venice, tried to engage one of the singers and: I didn't spare any effort to engage him, but [...] there's nothing more difficult than bringing a good castrato into a Protestant country if they aren't forced through money like in England.
Oh, and regarding music in general, opera is one thing, but for the rest of it, well: The local instrumental music has not astonished me and I wish I could let the Romans hear a Ruppin concert.
Did he make it to Naples?
No idea. There's no mention of anything south of Rome.
Given his affinity for nature, he does talk about the weather as well, though, not just the culture, and more favourably: The current season is incomparable: the day lasts eleven hours, the sky is clear and bright most of the time, and when I go hunting with the ambassador from Malta, I have to seek shadow from the sun in forests of bay and myrtle. I drew the two enclosed sketches on such an occasion, which I dare to send, and which show one the flat horizon of the region towards the sea at Ostia, and the other pines and trees in the foreground of the Apennines.
BTW, when did Mrs. Keyserlingk die? Because the Fredersdorf letters mention her, but Lehndorff's diary does not. Did she die? I hope Fritz didn't take her daughter from her?
Fritz apparently got her a position as EC's court lady after Keyserlingk's death, which explains how Countess Camas was supposed to keep an eye on the kid. She did die young, though, in 1755, when Adelaide was only eleven. (And Knobelsdorff was already dead as well. Unlike Countess Camas.)
"Puppen" phrase: no, this South German has not heard it.
Interesting! Did not expect that answer to be honest, because it's such a common phrase in my family/region, which isn't anywhere near Berlin either. I guess the fact that it did belong to Prussia way back when did make a difference!
there's nothing more difficult than bringing a good castrato into a Protestant country if they aren't forced through money like in England.
August the Strong had them in Saxony, though. :) (Yes, Poland is Catholic, but Saxony was then as mainly Protestant as it is now.) Let's face it, if you're willing to pay like House Wettin... anyway, as I recall, the following depressing RL event happened around this time in Dresden and Leipzig: a couple of Leipzig judges heard from a lawyer who wanted their judgment for a hypothetical case. Supposedly a Swedish count named Titius had been wounded in the war with the result that he could not possibly sire children anymore, though he wasn't completely incapable of sexual acts and could "give satisfaction to a woman". Was he therefore entitled to a legal marriage towards hypothetical lady Lucretia, provided all this had been explained to her? The judges said he was, whereupon the lawyer revealed his client wasn't a Swedish judge but the Castrato singer Sorlisi, performing at the Dresden opera, who wanted to marry a local Saxon girl named Dorothea. At which point the judges said NO WAY THIS IS SO PERVERSE THE ONLY REASON FOR MARRIAGE IS PROCREATION, and the whole affair ended badly for Sorlisi and Dorothea (I don't recall how bad, just that it wasn't good.)
BTW, does the WvK biography anything about whether or not Knobelsdorff despised Versailles and saw the French Revolution coming? (I.e. did the novelist(s) base this on canon or made it up.)
Oh, I hadn't heard about that story before. ... I see that they did actually get married but had to live with the threat of annulment for the rest of their lives, as well as theological and judicial faculties of several states debating their status and sex life as a precedent, pragmatism vs. dogma and all that. Oh, man. :(
BTW, does the WvK biography anything about whether or not Knobelsdorff despised Versailles and saw the French Revolution coming?
No, he has very little about the France trip in general and only refers to Fritz' eulogy as a source for it.
Aw man, that is a terrible story :( Even without felis's addendum, though I guess at least they actually did get married. Poor castratos, seems like their life was tough enough (although I guess they got to be superstar singers) :( But I guess it's sort of vaguely interesting from a sociological viewpoint that "Marriage is for procreation only!! except when it's not, and when it is or isn't totally depends on our squicks" has been a thing for that long.
(Is your icon the guy playing for Pesne in the painting? ETA: I went back and looked and I see that it is! :D )
Re: Castrati, well, some of them got to be superstar singers. In some years up to 400 boys in Italy were castrated in the hope they'd end us singers. Some were filtered out early on because the training was very tough. Others kept trying well into adulthood, and were lucky if they ended up as someone's music teacher or playing the organ in their hometown. The next level were making it into a choir or musical ensemble of some prince (either secular or clerical). Those who actually made it to the top and became international superstars whom operas and princes fought for weren't more than those who manage it today. It has to be said in order to make understandable the parents' risking this for their children (and it's not like that operation could be reversed if things didn't work out!) that this was one of the very few ways you could pre French Revolution Europe be born a peasant and still make it to the top.
Ha, okay, that makes total sense (and your note about how it wasn't more than those who manage it today is well taken -- I suppose that kind of distribution of leave/teach/ensemble/superstar is in a way similar to musicians' lots everywhere, though most don't have to lose body parts for it!) Ugh, all those poor kids!
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timeasmymeasure
Re: A bit more Knobelsdorff (and Friends)
Date: 2021-04-01 12:55 pm (UTC)Pretty much! While he thought the opera in Florence was "the worst I've heard in Italy", he really liked the one in Venice, tried to engage one of the singers and: I didn't spare any effort to engage him, but [...] there's nothing more difficult than bringing a good castrato into a Protestant country if they aren't forced through money like in England.
Oh, and regarding music in general, opera is one thing, but for the rest of it, well: The local instrumental music has not astonished me and I wish I could let the Romans hear a Ruppin concert.
Did he make it to Naples?
No idea. There's no mention of anything south of Rome.
Given his affinity for nature, he does talk about the weather as well, though, not just the culture, and more favourably: The current season is incomparable: the day lasts eleven hours, the sky is clear and bright most of the time, and when I go hunting with the ambassador from Malta, I have to seek shadow from the sun in forests of bay and myrtle. I drew the two enclosed sketches on such an occasion, which I dare to send, and which show one the flat horizon of the region towards the sea at Ostia, and the other pines and trees in the foreground of the Apennines.
BTW, when did Mrs. Keyserlingk die? Because the Fredersdorf letters mention her, but Lehndorff's diary does not. Did she die? I hope Fritz didn't take her daughter from her?
Fritz apparently got her a position as EC's court lady after Keyserlingk's death, which explains how Countess Camas was supposed to keep an eye on the kid. She did die young, though, in 1755, when Adelaide was only eleven. (And Knobelsdorff was already dead as well. Unlike Countess Camas.)
"Puppen" phrase: no, this South German has not heard it.
Interesting! Did not expect that answer to be honest, because it's such a common phrase in my family/region, which isn't anywhere near Berlin either. I guess the fact that it did belong to Prussia way back when did make a difference!
Re: A bit more Knobelsdorff (and Friends)
Date: 2021-04-02 10:03 am (UTC)August the Strong had them in Saxony, though. :) (Yes, Poland is Catholic, but Saxony was then as mainly Protestant as it is now.) Let's face it, if you're willing to pay like House Wettin... anyway, as I recall, the following depressing RL event happened around this time in Dresden and Leipzig: a couple of Leipzig judges heard from a lawyer who wanted their judgment for a hypothetical case. Supposedly a Swedish count named Titius had been wounded in the war with the result that he could not possibly sire children anymore, though he wasn't completely incapable of sexual acts and could "give satisfaction to a woman". Was he therefore entitled to a legal marriage towards hypothetical lady Lucretia, provided all this had been explained to her? The judges said he was, whereupon the lawyer revealed his client wasn't a Swedish judge but the Castrato singer Sorlisi, performing at the Dresden opera, who wanted to marry a local Saxon girl named Dorothea. At which point the judges said NO WAY THIS IS SO PERVERSE THE ONLY REASON FOR MARRIAGE IS PROCREATION, and the whole affair ended badly for Sorlisi and Dorothea (I don't recall how bad, just that it wasn't good.)
BTW, does the WvK biography anything about whether or not Knobelsdorff despised Versailles and saw the French Revolution coming? (I.e. did the novelist(s) base this on canon or made it up.)
Re: A bit more Knobelsdorff (and Friends)
Date: 2021-04-02 06:41 pm (UTC)BTW, does the WvK biography anything about whether or not Knobelsdorff despised Versailles and saw the French Revolution coming?
No, he has very little about the France trip in general and only refers to Fritz' eulogy as a source for it.
Re: A bit more Knobelsdorff (and Friends)
Date: 2021-04-07 05:11 am (UTC)(Is your icon the guy playing for Pesne in the painting? ETA: I went back and looked and I see that it is! :D )
Re: A bit more Knobelsdorff (and Friends)
Date: 2021-04-07 04:48 pm (UTC)Icon: yes, see also here for more.
Re: A bit more Knobelsdorff (and Friends)
Date: 2021-04-10 05:28 am (UTC)