Seite - 360 - in Musiktheater im höfischen Raum des frühneuzeitlichen Europa - Hof – Oper – Architektur

Juan José Carreras 360 of Italian opera in the 1730s. Contrary to an enduring biographical narrative, the ar- rival of Farinelli at the Bourbon Spanish court in the summer of 1737 did not especially promote Italian opera projects in the city of Madrid. In fact, it was rather the other way around: the famous singer arrived precisely in the context of an increasing Italian cultural and political influence at the Spanish court—and opera, as we shall see, was naturally one of its main and most prestigious emblems.11 At last, court opera reveals itself as a complex cultural object, whose economical and symbolical dimensions are inextricably related to its political function as representation. Villa y corte: the Madrilenean theatrical system If we consider the opera management of Carlo Broschi Farinelli in Madrid and the the- atrical spaces involved, we quickly reach the surprising conclusion that one of the most spectacular episodes of the theatre and music history in Madrid is still one of the least well known. The reasons for this situation are several: first, and most obvious, we can consider the perspective offered by the established music and theatrical historiography. Italian opera seria, considered as a typical expression of Ancien Régime court culture, has been widely understood from the point of view of Spanish historiography as an alien tradition of the national past and therefore excluded for a long time as a main subject of research.12 Second, we can refer to the importance of memory associated with urban topography to foster interest in historical research. The circumstance that most of the spaces involved in court opera in Madrid, and specially the Coliseo del Buen Retiro, were destroyed long ago may explain its enduring neglect in historical research: in fact, the Coliseo and most of the palace disappeared with the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. Third, we can consider the type of sources at our disposal for studies that attempt to reconstruct the performance of court opera in Madrid. Living in an age where visual presence produced by drawings and engravings largely displaces historical imagination triggered by interpretation of complex written sources, the con- spicuous absence of spectacular engravings of the Coliseo del Buen Retiro is clearly a handicap, which may explain its absence in many overviews of theatrical architecture in spite of existence as the main theatre building at the Spanish court for over one and half centuries.13 If iconographic sources are scarce, the written administrative archives 11 There has been important research in recent years on the Italian artistic emigration to the Spanish court: beside other references which will be cited later, see, for instance, Sugranyes Foletti 2011. 12 For the general historiographical persistence of the 19th-century image of the court as a frivolous place not worthy of serious historical research, see Vázquez Gestal 2005. On the political and cultural back- ground of opera historiography in Spain, see Carreras 2000a, 2004 and 2010. 13 As an example, the Madrid Coliseo is not even named in the otherwise comprehensive overview of European theatrical architecture by Carlson 1989. For an excellent study of the political and cultural