Page - 369 - in Musiktheater im höfischen Raum des frühneuzeitlichen Europa - Hof – Oper – Architektur

Farinelli’s Dream: Theatrical Space, Audience and Political Function of Italian Court Opera 369 three large tribunes: the cazuela (literally the casserole or stewpot) reserved for women on the first floor; the Media luna de sus Magestades (media luna meaning half-moon, alluding to its form) reserved for the king and queen, on the second floor; and finally, at the top, the media luneta alta para la familia de mujeres de palacio a orden de mi Señora la Camarera mayor (the high little half-moon for the community of the palace’s women at order of the Head Lady-in-waiting). Another group of women of higher rank under the command of the powerful Head Lady-in-waiting, Marie Anne de la Trémoille, prin- cesse des Ursins, was located in box number three on the second floor. On the ground floor, just under the cazuela, are the three compartments reserved to the alojeros, ven- dors selling aloja, a popular beverage made of fresh water, honey and spices, a typical space and function also found in the public municipal theatres. As can be seen on the drawing, half the boxes of this 1708 performance are reserved for courtiers, high offi- cials of the administration or diplomats. The French ambassador, for instance, the key dynastic diplomat of the War of Succession, then at its height, is placed in box number eight on the first floor. Box number six of the same rank was reserved, as it was usual, for the city of Madrid (Villa de Madrid), and so on. As the rubric for the plan states, the rest of the boxes and the three alojero-compartments without any written reservation were at the disposal of the Italian actors, who were free to sell them. Nothing is said about the ground floor, which was possibly empty for this performance. But this was not always the case. In the 1720s, for instance, the different prices of tickets sold for public performances at the Buen Retiro included various sorts of seated places in the stalls. In 1679, the French traveller Madame d’Aulnoy described the use of benches on the parterre and the presence of lattices in the boxes, which were used when the monarchs were sitting in the stalls, to avoid observation from above by the rest of the audience. On these special occasions, the floor was occupied by the king on a platform, which was placed precisely in the central axis of the stage, and the grandees and higher nobility were placed on tiered-seating (gradas) on the right-hand side of the king. Farinelli’s court opera audience The 1747 reform of the Coliseo del Buen Retiro profoundly changed this structure. If the 1738 reform took about four months and affected mainly the reinforcement of the foundations of the old building, the 1747 reform greatly expanded the size of the the- atre, adding two floors and forty new boxes, raising the total to 64. A document regu- lating the distribution of beverages and food to the spectators established that the boxes were occupied by an average of six people, making a maximum of 384 persons placed in boxes32. The central part opposite the stage had three larger spaces: a double-sized 32 Verdú 1989, Torrione 2000b, p.  359.