he enthusiasm of the
audience to the wildest pitch by the brilliance of his singing and the
difficult variations which he introduced. Farinelli left the guidance
of Porpora in 1724, and appeared in different European cities with a
success which made him in three years a European celebrity. In 1727,
while singing in Bologna, he met Bernacchi, at that time known as the
"king of singers." The rivals were matched against each other one night
in a grand duo, and Farinelli, freely admitting that the veteran artist
had vanquished him, begged some lessons from him. Bernacchi generously
accorded these, and took great pains with his young rival. Thus was
perfected the talent of Farinelli, who, to use the words of a modern
critic, was as "superior to the great singers of his own period as they
were to those of more recent times."

After brilliant triumphs at Vienna, Rome, Naples, and Parma, where he
surpassed the most formidable rivals and was heaped with riches and
honors, he appeared before the Emperor Charles VI. of Germany, a
momentous occasion in his art-career. "You have hitherto excited only
astonishment and admiration," said the imperial connoisseur, "but
you have never touched the heart. It would be easy for you to create
emotion, if you would but be more simple and natural." The singer
adopted this counsel, and became the most pathetic as he continued to be
the most brilliant of singers.

The interest of Farinelli's London career will be augmented for the
lovers of music by its connection with the contests carried on between
Handel and his rivals, with which we have seen Faustina and Cuzzoni also
to have been intimately associated. When Handel went on the Continent
to secure artists for the year 1734, some prejudice operated against his
negotiation with Farinelli, and the latter took service with Porpora,
who had been secured by the Pembroke faction to lead the rival opera.
Farinelli's singing turned the scale in favor of Handel's enemies, who
had previously hardly been able to keep the enterprise on its feet, and
had run in debt nineteen thousand pounds. He made his first appearance
at the Lincoln's Inn Opera in "Artaserse," one of Hasse's operas.
Several of the songs, however, were composed by Riccardo Broschi,
the singer's brother, especially for him, and these interpolations
illustrated the powers of Farinelli in the most effective manner. In one
of these the first note was taken with such delicacy, swelled by minut