[ 218 ]
![next](graphics/next.gif)
TOC
|
music; but the first day he performed before the king and queen of Spain, it was determined that he should be taken into the service of the court, to which he was ever after wholly appropriated, not being once suffered to sing again in public. A pension was then settled on him of upwards of 2000 £. sterling a year.
He told me, that for the first ten years of his residence at the court of Spain, during the life of Philip the Vth, he sung every night to that monarch the same four airs, of which two were composed by Hasse, Pallido il sole, and Per questo dolce amplesso. I forget the others, but one was a minuet which he used to vary at his pleasure.
After the death of Philip the Vth, his favour continued under his successor Fer- dinand the VIth, by whom he was dig- nified with the order of Calatrava in 1750; but then his duty became less constant and fatiguing, as he persuaded
|