# Opera and Numismatics



## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

These are two of the great passions of my life:
*-Opera*, and more generally classical music and vocal music, which I discovered in my late teens (high school);
-and *numismatics* (coin collecting, researching, dealing in rare coins, and all the attendant disciplines). The latter is not merely coin weenies sticking pennies in little holes, although there is some of that (and not that there's anything wrong with that!).

*But numismatics mirrors history in many ways.* To take two examples, both California in the United States, and the former Spanish colonies including Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and others, have much of their history tied up with the vast discoveries of gold and/or silver that occurred in those countries (starting in the 16th century in Spanish America and 1848-1849 in California).

I find it interesting that one can purchase, particularly, Spanish colonial coins that depict many of the famous kings and queens of history. For example, here is a lovely Spanish colonial 8 reales, struck at the Mexico City mint, depicting Charles IV.






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This started me thinking about the opera *Don Carlo* and its heroes, Rodrigo (Posa), the baritone (and what a wonderful part that is--thank you Giuseppe!) and Don Carlo, the tenor. In the opera, of course, the tenor is a dashing hunk of burning love, who of course falls the wrong woman. ("Sua madre!" Rodrigo sings shortly before "Dio, che nell'alma infondere" starts, when Carlo reveals his love for Elisabetta, who unfortunately has married Carlo's father, Filippo (King Phillip II of Spain, 1527-1598). The Verdi is based on a Schiller play, _Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien_ (Don Carlos, Infante of Spain).

Phillip II's son, however, was apparently far from a dashing figure. The son was known as Carlos, Prince of Asturias (1545-1568). Phillip II was married four times, and Carlos, the first son, was the product of Phillip's first marriage, to his first cousin Maria Manuela, Princess of Portugal (remember, we are talking about the vast House of Hapsburg and its many intermarriages--stay with me). His second wife was Queen Mary I of England. Elisabeth de Valois, she who "Ella giammai m'amó," was the third wife, and his fourth and last wife was his niece, Anna of Austria. This last marriage produced five children, four of whom died young (the survivor was Philip III of Spain).

Back to Carlos. Carlos' mother died from a hemorrhage four days after he was born, and he was delicate, deformed, and apparently showed signs of mental degeneration that eventually led his father to imprison him in solitary confinement. He died after six months of such treatment. It did not help his constitution one bit that he only had four great-grandparents instead of the usual eight, so inbred was the House of Hapsburg. Quoting further from Wikipedia, "... his parents had the same coefficient of coancestry (1/4) as if they were half siblings. He had only six great-great-grandparents, instead of the maximum 16; his maternal grandmother and his paternal grandfather were siblings, his maternal grandfather and his paternal grandmother were also siblings, and his two great-grandmothers were sisters."

It makes my head hurt trying to figure out what distant relation this Carlos was to the gentleman pictured on the handsome coin above, but I thought it was interesting how romanticized our notions of Don Carlo are, compared to the real and somewhat tragic figure.

I'm not sure where I am going with this thread, but I found it interesting to be able to connect, even if distantly, two of my great loves, music and numismatics (and the history depicted in numismatics).

We very much have an international readership here. I was wondering how many other people on this forum might collect coins for similar reasons. *Are there any famous kings of queens depicted on the coinage of your country that are the subjects of an opera? Got pics?*

(And of course I know there are many more obvious examples. I have a 1572-dated sixpence of Elisabeth I in my collection, and I cannot fathom how many operas she might figure in besides those of Donizetti.)

Now I'm going to have to try to figure out if Charles IV was the subject of any operas ...

Kind regards, :tiphat:

George


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Gustav III from Verdi´s A masked ball:


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