Farinelli was by all accounts one of the great opera singers – not simply a great castrato – and as such, had an international career. He studied with Porpora. Broschi, his brother, wrote much of the music for his London debut. He collaborated with Scarlatti in Spain, where he went for a few months but stayed 25 years, gaining great political power. Metastasio, with whom he’d worked in Rome as a teenager, provided words for much of the music Farinelli directed in Spain. He spent his final few months with Metastasio in Bologna.