Page:Queens of Song.djvu/70

58 (in 1734) at Lincoln's Inn Fields under peculiar circumstances. Senesino's squabbles with Handel had grown to such a height that the maestro refused any longer to compose for him, and it became impossible that they could remain in the same theatre. The public, however, sided with Senesino, and they subscribed for a new operatic establishment. On the 13th of June, 1733, the following advertisement appeared in the Daily News: "The subscribers to the opera in which Signer Senesino and Signora Cuzzoni are to perform, are desired to meet at Mr. Hickford's great room, in Panton Street, on Friday next, at eleven o'clock, in order to settle proper methods for carrying on the subscription. Such persons as can not be present are desired to send their proxies." Porpora and Arrigoni were engaged to direct the music, under the control of Lord Cooper.

Handel, on his side, entered into an agreement with Heidegger for conducting an opera in partnership for three years, and started for Italy to engage singers. At the opera abroad he heard both the great Farinelli and Carestini, but he made the mistake of engaging the latter. The opposition immediately engaged Farinelli, whose advent they announced with as much parade as if he had come as an envoy on an important mission, and he was engaged to perform fifty nights during the season of 1734–5 for a salary of 1500 guineas and a benefit. From the moment he reached London he created a furore. At the first private rehearsal after his arrival in the metropolis, in Cuzzoni's apartments, Lord Cooper, observing that the band did not accompany the singer, but were all gaping with wonder, desired them to be attentive, when they confessed that they had been so overpowered with admiration and astonishment as to be unable to follow him—an incident vouched for to Dr. Bumey by one of the band.

Farinelli sang with Cuzzoni, Senesino, and the others, at the Duke's Theatre, and became ridiculously popular: from the highest nobles to the meanest citizens and their wives, all seemed to go mad about him. He was looked on as a prodigy, introduced to the king, accompanied on the harpsichord by the Princess of Orange, and invited to companies the most exclusive; those who tried to bungle over compliments to him in bad Italian, esteemed themselves happy if they received from him the condescension of a supercilious answer. At his first