I have send a friend (or should I say an infiltrated hitman) on a mission to take a picture of one of the less known portraits of Abel - the painter is unknown, but Abel and his overbite are still very recognisable. At least, so far as I can judge from the tiny reproduction I have scrutinised... The picture will be online soon.

I have finally managed to get a copy of Chelys #31.

Ritratto di Pietro Metastasio, Pompeo Batoni

My last posts did focus a little too much on Abel's drinking problems, so just to set the records right, he was also an entrepreneur with wise views on how a musician should conduct his carrier. Burney (I know, again) testifies of that in his Memoirs of the life and writings of the Abate Metastasio (London 1796, 3 vols.):

"It was an intelligent observation of the late accomplished musician Abel, that the genius of Emanuel (sic) Bach would have been more expanded and of more general use, if, instead of being confined to the Hans town of Hambro' (=Hamburg) without a rival, he had resided in a great capital, such as Paris, Naples, or London, where he would have been stimulated to diligence and exertion by competitors, and obliged to study and respect to public taste." (p.309, 3rd volume)

Several points : once more, in the Bach family, CPE and JC were better known than their father (bless him, still clinging to his counterpoint), especially JC, the "London Bach", the only one to achieve European fame, to the extent where the French even commission him to compose an opera for them (Amadis des Gaules).
Naples mentionned as a great capital alongside London and Paris is not surprising at all, considering most of the operatic tradition springs from there : both Burney and JC Bach have travelled there and breathed in the Italianate composing style.

Vedi Napoli e poi muori, as they say

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