ABSTRACT
No opera singer left such an impression on the eighteenth-century British public as the castrato Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli. The public’s rapturous response to his singing, no less than the fabulous sums and extravagant gifts bestowed upon him by his admirers, guaranteed his fame and justified Owen Swiney’s calling him the “blazing star.” The extensive mentions of Farinelli that turn up almost immediately after his appearance in London—in poems, prefaces, plays, ballad operas, songs, and pamphlets—suggest how far his fame had spread across Britain and throughout all levels of society. Farinelli can rightly be called the first operatic superstar. 1 But after only three seasons, in the fall of 1737, London’s fashionable society was shaken when it was gradually learned that Farinelli would remain in Madrid and not return to Britain.
