Cristina Fernandes, full researcher at INET-md and coordinator of its research group on Historical and Cultural Studies in Music, is the author of the chapter entitled “The Power of Music and the Performance of Portuguese Diplomacy: Roman Festivities in Honor of Infante Alexandre’s Birth (1724) under the Patronage of André de Melo e Castro,” included in the book Performing Diplomacy in the Early Modern World, edited by Roberta Anderson, Reinhard Eisendle, and Suna Suner (Vienna: Hollitzer, 2025). This multidisciplinary volume seeks to demonstrate, through several case studies, that diplomacy as “spectacle” was not merely a metaphor for political interaction, but also an important means of cultural mediation and fertile ground for artistic invention.
Abstract:
Music and the performing arts played a key role in the performance of diplomacy and in cultural mediation during the early modern period. Bearing in mind both the specificities of the Roman context and Portuguese diplomacy during the reign of John V (1689, r. 1707–1750), this chapter presents a case study around a series of festive events promoted at the beginning of 1724 by the ambassador André de Melo e Castro (1668-1753) to celebrate the birth of the Infante, Alexandre de Bragança (1723-1728). These festivities counted on the most prestigious musicians working in Rome, as well as the participation of João Rodrigues Esteves (ca. 1701-1752), one of the Portuguese young composers who were studying in the Papal City under the royal patronage. The programme included a Solemn Mass and a Te Deum for four choirs at the church of Sant’Antonio dei Portoghesi, accompanied by fireworks; a Sinfonia for wind instruments for the reception of the ambassador; the premiere of the “favola pastorale” La Tigrena, by Francesco Gasparini, performed by an outstanding cast (which included the famous castrato Farinelli) in a theatre built inside the rooms of the embassy palace; comic “intermezzi”; “divertimento di Ballo”; refreshments and supper. The reconstruction of the memory of these feasts through historical sources from the Ajuda Library (Lisbon), among others, allows us not only to analyse the relation between diplomacy and musical patronage, but also the close links between artistic performance and the performance of diplomacy. As a tool for the aspirations of the Portuguese crown on the international scene, these celebrations illustrate the adoption of the Roman festive model and the role of the ambassador as “musical agent” and empresario on the diplomatic stage.