Atto Melani

Atto Melani

Atto Melani (born March 31, 1626 in Pistoia , † January 1714 in Paris ) was an Italian castrato singer , diplomat , spy and writer .

Life

Melani was born the third of seven surviving children to a poor bell ringer family in the Tuscan city of Pistoia. As a child he was castrated to get his soprano voice. His three younger brothers Francesco Maria, Bartolomeo and Vincenzo Paolo, and his two cousins Domenico and Nicola Melani were castrati (!). His brothers Alessandro Melani and Jacopo Melani were important composers.

Atto first sang between 1636 and 1643 in the choir of the Cathedral of Pistoia. At the opening of the Teatro Novo in Venice, the fifteen-year-old took part in Francesco Sacrati's La finta pazza in 1641 , and in the Carnival of 1642 in Sacratis Bellerofonte . In 1644 appearances in Florence are documented, and in the same year he went to Rome .

Melani had quickly become a celebrity as a singer, among other things, it was rumored that his singing was a cure for snakebites.

In 1644 he was invited for the first time, together with his older brother Jacopo, and at the same time with the famous singer Leonora Baroni , to the French court of the child Louis XIV , where the Italian Cardinal Jules Mazarin had a great interest in Italian opera . At this time Melani was already sending politically valuable information to the Medici in Florence. He was in Paris again from 1647 to 1649. There the French poet Jean de La Fontaine praised his singing in a poem after he witnessed a performance of the opera "Orfeo" by Luigi Rossi with Melani in the lead role; The castrato Marc'Antonio Pasqualini sang in the same performance .

When the Fronde broke out in 1649 , Melani had to flee Paris and went back to Italy, where he stayed in Florence, Mantua and Modena , and later also in Innsbruck and Regensburg .

In 1656 Cardinal Jules Mazarin called him back to Paris to perform the opera Amor malato by Buti and Lully .

Mazarin introduced Atto Melani to the art of espionage, which he soon mastered as well as singing. As part of his concerts he came to the European royal courts, passed on encrypted messages and collected secrets. In 1657 Melani was sent by Mazarin to Bavaria, where he was supposed to persuade the France-friendly Elector Ferdinand to stand for the election of the Roman-German emperor . However, the project failed. Nevertheless, Cardinal Mazarin praised him for his great negotiating skills, and his position was also strengthened.

Melani went back to Paris and sang in 1660 in the opera Serse by Cavalli , the role of Arsamene and Lully's Ballet de l'impatience the role of Cupid capriccioso.

After Mazarin's sudden death in 1661, Melani's luck turned to France. A few months later, the Chief Financial Officer, Nicolas Fouquet, was arrested and imprisoned at the behest of Louis XIV. It became public that Melani was friends with Fouquet. Louis XIV, who had known Melani since childhood and had a very confidential relationship with him, learned that his letters had been copied by Atto. The result was a fifteen year exile. Melani fled to Rome .

In Rome Atto was received by Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi , who like him came from Pistoia. Melani also enjoyed the support of Maria Mancini , Mazarin's niece , in Rome . The castrato exchanged letters with her for over forty years.

In 1667 Pope Alexander VII died. In the following conclave, from which Attos patron Rospigliosi as Pope Clemens IX. should emerge, he was its assistant. This was arguably a unique opportunity to learn from within the secrets of papal election. About the extent to which Melani chose Clemens IX. influenced, can only be speculated. The fact is that Louis XIV was more than happy with the outcome of the papal election. Thanks to his services to France, exile was lifted after the papal election, and he worked as a spy for the Sun King at the papal court and a specialist in conclaves. In addition, Atto received the title of Abbé and an annual allowance of three thousand livres.

Melani performed as a singer for the last time in 1668 in the Palazzo Colonna . From now on he devoted himself exclusively to politics and diplomacy. He wrote numerous reports and memoranda about Rome and the German principalities, mediated between the French court and high-ranking cardinals and was an arbitrator in disputes between Italian city-states.

Atto Melani lived in Paris from 1672 to 1675 and from 1679 until the end of his life, where he died in 1714 at the age of 88.

plant

Atto Melani left 14 solo cantatas and a duet as a composer.

His other legacy was impressive: in addition to bank deposits, palazzi and lands, both in Italy and France, there was also a comprehensive library. His correspondence with important contemporaries, originally comprising 108 volumes, is considered lost, with the exception of a table of contents.

During their research for their novel Imprimatur, the Italian authors Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti found a text Melanis to Louis XIV, which was published under the title The Secrets of the Conclaves and the Vices of the Cardinals ( ISBN 3-608-93737-4 ). Melani is one of the central figures in Imprimatur as well as in the follow-up novels Secretum and Veritas .

literature

• Joachim Steinheuer:  Melani. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 11 (Lesage - Menuhin). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1121-7 , Sp. 1496–1502 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
• Roger Freitas: Portrait of a Castrato: Politics, Patronage and Music in the Life of Atto Melani (= New perspectives in music history and criticism; New perspectives in music history and criticism. ). 1st paperback edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge NY 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-69610-5 .
• Melani, Atto . In: Großes Sängerlexikon , 2000, pp. 16181–16183
• Liliana Pannella:  BARONI, Eleonora, detta anche l'Adrianella o l'Adrianetta. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 6:  Baratteri – Bartolozzi. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1964.

Web links

• Literature by and about Atto Melani in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joachim Steinheuer:  Melani. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 11 (Lesage - Menuhin). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1121-7 , Sp. 1496–1502, here: Sp. 1496 and Sp. 1499–1500 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Joachim Steinheuer:  Melani. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 11 (Lesage - Menuhin). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1121-7 , Sp. 1496–1502, here: Sp. 1498 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
3. ↑ Liliana Pannella:  BARONI, Eleonora, detta anche l'Adrianella o l'Adrianetta. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 6:  Baratteri – Bartolozzi. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1964.
4. ↑ According to MGG "in the Palace Giulio Rospigliosis", which at that time was definitely not the Palazzo Colonna, but apparently also not today's Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi , which only later came into the possession of the family. See: Joachim Steinheuer:  Melani. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 11 (Lesage - Menuhin). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1121-7 , Sp. 1496–1502, here: Sp. 1499 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
5. ↑ Joachim Steinheuer:  Melani. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 11 (Lesage - Menuhin). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1121-7 , Sp. 1496–1502, here: Sp. 1499 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)