Orpheus and Jupiter in the limelight: Farinelli and Caffarelli share the stage

The two male sopranos Carlo Broschi Farinelli (17051782) and Gaetano Majorano Caffarelli (17101783) shared many similarities: the two most prominent exponents of the new, virtuosic Neapolitan style of singing were close in age, had a very similar educational background having studied with Nicolo Porpora in Naples, and quickly climbed the career ladder to take only primo uomo roles. However, the singers were at very different points in their respective careers at the time of the productions in which they appeared together on stage, namely Siroe (Metastasio-Hasse) at the Teatro Malvezzi in Bologna in 1733 and Merope (Zeno-Giacomelli), Artaserse (Metastasio, pasticcio) and Berenice (Salvi-Araja) at the Teatro San Grisostomo in Venice in 1734. Farinelli had already achieved international fame and was generally held to be the greatest singer in Italy, whereas the slightly younger Caffarelli was still in the process of establishing himself at the very top, but loath to take secondary roles any more. As a result, their relationship was strained, according to Farinelli's correspondance with Count Sicinio Pepoli. The measures Caffarelli took in Venice to challenge Farinelli's superiority apparently backfired, and contributed to the disastrous premiere of the first opera of the carnival Merope, which consequently was replaced at short notice with an Artaserse pasticcio with music by Hasse and Vinci. An analysis of the two singers' roles in the operas in which they collaborated gives insights into mid-eighteenth-century opera production, and reveals both the dramatic and musical reasons for Farinelli's impact and popularity with the audience and Caffarelli's failure to outshine his older colleague.