Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/734

722 the sum. At the same time he gave them full instructions for the safe accomplishment of the murder. They made for Naples, where they learned that Stradel was in Rome with his mistress, who passed for his wife. They informed the Venetian nobleman of this, … and begged him to send them letters of introduction to the Venetian ambassador at Rome, that they might be sure of finding an asylum. On their arrival in Rome they discovered that on the next day, at five in the afternoon, Stradel was to have a spiritual opera, or oratorio, performed at St. John Lateran, where the murderers did not fail to go in the hope of carrying out their design as Stradel went home with his mistress. But the enthusiasm of the public for the music, and its effect on the murderers themselves, was such as to change by magic their anger into piety, and they agreed that it would be a pity to kill a man whose musical genius formed the admiration of all Italy; in fact, moved by one and the same feeling, they resolved upon saving his life instead of taking it. Accordingly, on his leaving the church, they complimented him on the oratorio, told him their intention of assassinating him and his mistress, to revenge the Venetian nobleman …; but that the charm of his music had changed their minds; and advised him to leave on the morrow for a place of safety. Meanwhile, lest they should be suspected of neglecting their duty, they would inform the nobleman that he had left Rome on the eve of their arrival there. Stradel did not wait for further advice, but with his mistress made straight for Turin, where the present 'Madame Royale' was then Regent. The murderers returned to Venice, and informed the nobleman, as they had already written, that Stradel had left Rome for Turin, where it was certainly much more difficult to commit an important murder than in any other Italian town, owing to the garrison, and to the fact that no places of asylum were respected, save only houses of ambassadors. But Stradel was no safer for that: for the Venetian nobleman began to consider how best to carry out his revenge in Turin, and with that view interested his mistress's father in it, who betook himself to Venice with two assassins, with the express purpose of slaying his own daughter and Stradel in Turin, after having obtained letters of introduction from the Abbé d'Estrade, French ambassador at Venice, to the Marquis de Villars, French ambassador at Turin. M. d'Estrade requested protection for three merchants staying in Turin. These merchants were the assassins, who regularly paid their homage to the ambassador, while waiting for an opportunity to accomplish their design. But the Regent having been apprised of the true cause of Stradel's flight, and being fully aware of the character of the Venetians, placed Stradel's mistress in a convent, and engaged him for her own band. One evening, as he was walking on the ramparts of Turin, he was suddenly attacked by the three murderers, who each stabbed him in the chest, and then took refuge in the house of the French ambassador. The deed being witnessed by many people, who were promenading on the ramparts, instantly caused an immense excitement. The gates of the town were closed, and the Regent gave orders that the utmost diligence should be employed to find out the assassins. On learning that they were in the house of the French ambassador she demanded that they should be delivered up, but the ambassador refused to do so without an order from his king.… The occurrence made much noise throughout all Italy. On the request of M. de Villars the assassins gave him the reasons for their proceeding; he wrote to d'Estrade, who answered that he had been deceived by Pig …, who was one of the most powerful noblemen in Venice. As however Stradel did not die from his wounds, M. de Villars allowed the assassins to escape, the chief being, as we have said, the father of the nobleman's mistress, whom he would have killed had he found the opportunity.

But as the Venetians never forgive treachery in love affairs, Stradel could not escape his enemy, who left spies in Turin charged to follow his movements; and a year after his recovery, while in Genoa with his mistress, Ortensia, whom the Regent had given him in marriage during his convalescence, they were murdered in their bedroom. The murderers escaped on a boat that was waiting for them in the harbour, and nothing more was said about them. In this manner died the most excellent musician of all Italy, about the year 1670.

Contrary to M. Fétis's opinion, we believe, for the reasons now to be submitted, that this narrative has been too readily accepted by all writers on Stradella, with the exception of M. Richard and M. Catelani, whose researches, however, have not led to any positive result. Being thus thrown back again upon the statement of Bonnet-Bourdelot, we shall point out the main objections to its veracity, as well as the mistakes that occur in it either from carelessness or want of exact information.

The materials for the 'Histoire de la musique et de ses effets' were collected by Pierre Bourdelot, who at his death in 1685 entrusted the compilation of the work to his nephew Pierre Bonnet; who in his turn dying in 1708, before the history was completed, it fell to the lot of his brother Jacques Bonnet—an erudite person but of unsound mind and much given to the cabala—to wind up and publish the book. None of the three appear to have been musicians, and this fact, added to the mental condition of the final editor, is much against the accuracy of the statement. Moreover the story is told à propos to Poliziano's death, merely to strengthen the opinion advanced by Bourdelot that 'no young teacher of singing ought to be given to a young lady.' If we were to take his narrative of Poliziano's death as a test of the accuracy and truth of Stradella's history, we should be very cautious in accepting it. The particulars of Poliziano's death are well known to us, as they might have been even to Bourdelot himself, had he not preferred to adopt Varila's legend. If he has so grossly mis-stated a matter regarding which he had documents at hand, how can we believe a statement which, with the exception of the occurrence in Turin—apparently taken from the correspondence of the ambassadors—was made simply on the faith of court gossip?

The mistakes in the narrative are three: (1) Stradella could not have been engaged by the Government of Venice to write operas, because neither in the official lists, nor in Allacci, is there any mention of such; in addition to which the operatic performances in Venice have always been left to private enterprise; (2) the name of the nobleman in question was not Pignaver, as implied by the abbreviation Pig., but Contarini; (3) the date of Stradella's death is to be assigned to a much later period than 1670, as will be seen farther on. The account of the effect of the music on the assassins savours too much of the marvellous; and even the murder at Genoa must be very doubtful, seeing that the most accurate historians do not mention it.

The place of Stradella's birth is unknown. Wanley thinks he was a Venetian, while