Timms Lindgren Steff..

52 LOWELL LINDGREN AND COLIN TIMMS
sung by the two heroes Senesino and Berselli. You cannot imagine the pleasure the king
derived from this offering, nor the love with which Bononcini prepared it.
Handel has restaged an opera [I1 Radamisto] that made a great splash last year (in the
land of the blind, blessed are the one-eyed), hoping thereby to crush Bononcini's into the
ground, but on the third evening the theatre was empty and the performance had to be
cancelled.
A friend, who has just this minute arrived at my abode, assures me that another nine
directors of the company have been arrested and that at least six million will be recovered
from them all. That's all I have time for.
I remain with the usual deference,
Your most humble and most faithful servant,
Riva
Convey to Bossis a checkmate of compliments.
Please turn over
P. S. Little can be done to find any suitable [musicians] in Italy for [Count Schonborn]
the prince of Wiirzburg. The good ones do not want to know about it, and the bad ones
would not please his most reverend highness. The friend that I have employed in this quest
has not, however, entirely let me down, and in two or three weeks I shall have some news
worth communicating to your most illustrious lordship . . ..
[f. 141 Mi trovo in questa settirnana onorato di due riveritissimi di Lei fogli, uno delli 17 e i'altro delli 24
gennaro passato, amendue arrivati nello stesso tempo, perch6 il medesimo vento li ha portati d'olanda. Vi
rispondo subito ed in que' termini ch'Ella vuole. Scrivero a Monsieur le Bkgue per l'affare consaputo . . ..
Qui gli affari della Compagnia del Sud, che sino i maggiori che possa mai avere questo regno,
trattandosi di rimettere il credito e I'interesse pubblico intieramente rovinato, occupano i ministri . . ..
[f. 14v] Del resto, si L! cominciata una rigorosa inquisizione contro i 32 direttori della Compagnia del Sud,
7 de' quali sono gia in gabbia, e sono i piu ricchi, e bench6 il tesoriere di essa compagnia si sia salvato
fuori del regno, cib nonostante si fa conto che si cavera da costoro cinque millioni in circa di sterline che
hanno guadagnato nella cattiva amministrazione de' fondi pubblici, che serviranno a medicare la gran
piaga. Grazie a Dio non perdo un soldo.
Ho portato le grazie a1 Signor Bononcino, che si degna di fargli. Egli vi corrisponde con infinita
venerazione, e dice che si far& gloria di senire alle produzioni musicali del Piva, che stima tanto. Ed il
caso ha portato che si metta in possesso di questa prerogativa, perch'essendo egli una sera da [f. 151
Mademoiselle Scheulembourg, nipote della duchessa di Kandall, il re gli mando a far vedere un principio
d'una pastorale, e ne riconobbe la mano; e siccome Madama di Kilmansegg diede una musica a1 re nel
suo quarto privatissima regolata dal suo servidor Brighella, che son' io, cosi pensammo di sorprendere
agreablement Sua Maestti con detta pastorale, onde Bononcino ne fece cavar gl'instrumenti; e fu cantata
da i due bravi, Senesino e Berselli. Non pub Ella credere che gusto ebbe il re di questa finezza, e con che
amore Bononcino I'assiste.
Hendel ha rimessa sul teatro un'opera che I'anno passato fece gran fracasso (in terra di ciechi, beati
monoculi), credendo di butare in terra quella di Bononcino, ma la terza sera fu scena vuota, onde bisogno
disdirsi.
Un amico arriva in questo punto da me, e mi assicura che altri 9 direttori della compagnia sono stati
arrestati, e che da costoro tutti almeno 6 millioni ne tireranno. Non ho tempo per piu. Sono col solito
ossequio,
I1 Suo umilissimo e fedelissimo servitore,
Riva
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF AGOSTINO STEFFANI AND GIUSEPPE RIVA, 172C1728 53
A1 Signor Bosis uno scacco matto di complimenti.
Ella volti
[f. 15v: P. S.] Poco da fare vi L! per trovar cosa a proposito in Italia per il principe di Wirtzburg. I
buoni non ne vogliono saper niente, ed i cativi non piacerebbero a Sua Altezza Reverendissima. L'amico
che ho impiegato in quest'affare non mi dispera perb totalmente, e fra due o tre settimane avrd qualche
notizia che comunichero a Vostra Signoria Illustrissima . . ..
The Italian text of paragraphs 3-5 was printed in Timms 'Music and Musicians', 32. In the first
omitted passage Riva states that his letter may not have reached le B6gue, since the latter may already
have left for Paris, then for the Congress of Cambrai (1722-5), where he was to act as a plenipotentiary.
In the second omission, Riva conjectures that England will make a poor showing at the opening of the
congress, then reports that Pozobueno, the Spanish minister, has presented secret proposals for the
restitution of Gibraltar, but that Parliament is in no mood to consider them at present. Jacinto de
Pozobueno represented Spain in Great Britain from December 1720 until January 1727 (Hausmann,
Repertorium, 388). Knight (1675-1744) absconded on January 1/12 (John Carswell, The South Sea
Bubble (London, 1960), 281 and 309). The so-called niece of the duchess of Kendal may have been
Petronilla Melusine; she and her two sisters were daughters (rather than nieces) of the duchess and the
king (Hatton, George 1, 51-2). The private performance of a pastoral that featured two castrati was
presented by the king's half-sister, Sophie Charlotte, Baroness Kielmansegg (1675-1725). In a
letter of 31 January 1721 to the duke of Modena (cited in Gibson, Royal Academy, 142 note 104), Riva
named Wednesday 29 January as the date of performance and described the occasion as 'un'accademia
di musica privatissima' attended by 'il re solo' ('the king alone'), who was 'contentissima' with the
'divertimento' that Riva had 'regolato' ('organized'). Steffani could not identify this work (see no. 6,
below), and neither can we. It is unlikely to have been his one-act opera Baccanali (Hanover, 1695),
which calls for a large cast. Another unlikely possibility is Luigi Mancia's La costanza nelle selve
(Hanover, 1697), of which the scores are designated 'pastoralle' (GB-Lbl RM 23. g. 23, p. 178) and
'favola pastorale' (GB-Lbl RM 23. h. 1); this is also the only work designated 'favola pastorale' in a
handwritten inventory of musico-dramatic events in Hanover, 1679-97 (Philip Keppler, 'Agostino
Steffani's Hannover Operas and a Rediscovered Catalogue', in Studies in Music History: Essays for
Oliver Strunk, ed. Harold Powers (Princeton, 1968), 341-54). Only the titles of two other possibilities-
which may have been texts set to music-are known: 'Teleso in Tussia, favola pastorale. 4O' and 'La
pastorale mascherata. 4"' (see Peggy Daub, 'Queen Caroline of England's Music Library', in Music
Publishing & Collecting: Essays in Honor of Donald W. Krummel, ed. David Hunter (Urbana-
Champaign, IL, 1994), 153 (no. 56) and 155 (no. 74)). Bononcini's respect for Steffani's works had
been conveyed to him two decades earlier by Sophie Charlotte, queen of Prussia. In a letter of 25 July
1702 she implied that she served as accompanist whenever she 'asked Bononcini and Attilio [Ariosti] to
sing them, because no one else performs them in the correct taste, and they are always full of admira-
tion for him who composed them' ('Je les fais chanter a Bononcini et Atilio, car les autres ne les dissent
pas dans le vrai gout et ils sont dans l'admiration toutes les fois pour celui qui les a composes':
D-HVsa Cal. Br. 23c, Nr. 85, f. 38; cf. Richard Doebner, ed., Briefe der Konigin Sophie Charlotte von
Preussen und der Kurfiirstin Sophie von Hannover an hannoversche Diplomaten, Publicationen aus den K.
preussischen Staatsarchiven, 79 (Leipzig, 1905), 79, and Timms, Polymath, 75-80). Between 28
December 1720 and 28 January 1721, Handel's revised I1 Radamisto and Bononcini's L'Astarto were
each scheduled for five performances (Avery, London Stage, 605-12). I1 Radamisto was scheduled for 28
and 31 December, then for 4,21 and 25 January. No other source known to us tells of its dismal recep-
tion or of the cancellation of its performance on 4 January 1721, after which L'Astarto was revived.
The amusing references to chess, and especially to checkmate, in this and later letters hark back to the
many games that Riva must have played with Bossis during his stays in Hanover in 1719 and 1720.