Farinelli

Farinelli (January 24, 1705 – September 16, 1782), was the stage name of Carlo Maria Broschi, one of the most famous Italian soprano castrato singers of the 18th century. Broschi was born in Andria (in what is now the Italian region of Apulia) into a family of musicians. As recorded in the baptismal register of the church of S. Nicola in Andria, his father Salvatore was a composer and maestro di cappella of the city's cathedral, and his mother, Caterina Barrese, a citizen of Naples. The Duke of Andria, Fabrizio Carafa, a member of one of the most prestigious families of the Neapolitan nobility, honoured Maestro Broschi by taking a leading part in the baptism of his second son, who was christened Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola (in later life, Farinelli wrote: "Il Duca d'Andria mi tenne al fonte" - "the Duke of Andria held me at the font"). In 1706 Salvatore also took up the non-musical post of governor of the town of Maratea (on the western coast of what is now Basilicata), and in 1709 that of Terlizzi (some twenty miles south-east of Andria).

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