Taking place under the aegis of Divino Sospiro and the Centro de Estudos Musicais Setecentiscas de Portugal, this was the sixth symposium on eighteenth-century music and theatre to be held since 2014 at Queluz, the magnificent summer palace of the Portuguese royal family that began to be built in 1747. Although the main architect of the interiors was the Portuguese Mateus Vicente de Oliveira, it was French architect Jean-Baptiste Robillon who designed the palace's most famous feature, the garden façade, as well as a number of follies and sculptural fantasies and some interiors such as the mirrored throne room. Located not too far from Lisbon, along the way to Sintra, the palace has from the time of King Pedro III of Braganza boasted a rich musical history, which reached its peak under the reign of his niece Queen Maria I (1777–1792). The large gardens, which today include numerous lakes, waterfalls and ornamental fountains, hosted games, fireworks, entertainments and corridas, and were the ideal stage for performances of operas and in particular for encomiastic serenatas and lavish celebratory events.

The topic at the centre of the symposium stood out for its rich and comprehensive implications: letters and epistolary contacts relating to the lives, works and artistic beliefs of various stage and musical personalities, which led the speakers to many nuanced reflections on the importance of correspondence to the understanding of the artistic and human dimensions of these figures. The thirty single or co-authored papers were arranged in ten sessions, and good organization allowed ample time for amusing coffee breaks and some exquisite shared lunches; it also made possible a remarkably high level of public attendance at the symposium.

After a welcome by Inês Ferro (director of the Palácio National de Queluz) and Massimo Mazzeo (director of Divino Sospiro), the conference began with keynote addresses from Raffaele Mellace (Università di Genova) and Alberto Beniscelli (Università di Genova). In a comprehensive talk, Mellace described letters as ‘testimoni poco attendibili e tuttavia insostituibili’ (unreliable and yet unique witnesses), while Beniscelli introduced the prestigious project being led by the Dipartimento di Italianistica of the Università di Genova, a critical edition of Pietro Metastasio's letters, in which both scholars are involved alongside William Spaggiarli and Corrado Viola. He explained how a complete and philologically reliable collection of these letters will constitute an essential instrument for studies of eighteenth-century opera, theatre and literature.

The next nine sessions covered a wide panorama in which chronicles of the stage and opinions on the same interacted with music history, organology, orchestration, aesthetics and pedagogy, theatre design and theatre praxis. A number of papers focused on key personalities of the time. Daniel Martín Sáez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) discussed Farinelli's letters sent from Spain, while Elisabetta Pasquini (Università di Bologna) dealt with Padre Martini's epistolary exchanges with singers in connection with his Storia della musica (three volumes, Bologna: Lelio della Volpe, 1757–1781). Francesco Cotticelli (Università di Napoli) and Paologiovanni Maione (Conservatorio di Napoli) covered Metastasio's letters, examining in depth those written by the young poet when he was living in Naples. Leonardo Spinelli (Università di Chieti-Pescara) examined the figure and the correspondence of Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, Grand Princess of Tuscany, and Silvia Urbani (Università di Padova) spoke about Apostolo Zeno's Caio Mario in Minturno, introducing new information about its drafts and failed stage set. The importance of artistic friendships was the concern of Elisa Cazzato (University of Sydney), who focused on the close relations between two Piedmontese artists: stage designer Ignazio Degotti and violinist-composer Gian Battista Viotti.

Stage practice received much attention. The paper of Elena Zilotti (Università di Venezia) analysed the stage practices of the Bolognese marquis Francesco Albergati Capacelli, while Armando Fabio Ivaldi (independent researcher) talked about Parisian scenographers active in Vienna for the wedding festivities of 1760. Alessandra Mignatti (Università Cattolica di Milano) investigated the complex world behind the scenes at the Teatro Regio of Milan. While focusing on contracts and subcontracts, she also disclosed a number of singular details as revealed by various letters of entreaty and the promulgation of bans affecting the behaviour of both singers and the public.

A wealth of contemporary judgments and opinions concerning everyday stage and musical life in the eighteenth century echoed during the symposium. Cesare Fertonani (Università di Milano) analysed the correspondence between Pietro and Alessandro Verri. Sergio Monferrini (Associazione ‘Scrinium’ – Novara) amused delegates with his humorous accounts of letters sent by the Bolognese count Francesco Maria Zambeccari to his brother, and Valentina Anzani (Università di Bologna) did the same in her account of letters sent by female singers to their patrons.

The contribution of Portugal to eighteenth-century music and theatre formed for focus of many papers. Rodrigo Teodoro (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) offered new information and opinions about dramatic music from the Portuguese Royal family's letters of the years 1785–1787. Cristina Fernandes (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) considered Portuguese artistic patronage in Rome at the time of Pope Innocent XIII, while Giuseppina Raggi (Universidade de Coimbra) analysed both operatic music and wider sociocultural developments as revealed in the correspondence of the Apostolic Nuncios of Lisbon (1742–1755). Jose Camões (Universidade de Lisboa) investigated puppet theatres and opera performances at the Rua dos Condes and Graça theatres of Lisbon as seen through the eyes of William Julius Mickle, ‘the first Anglo-Portuguese scholar’ (S. George West, ‘The Work of W. J. Mickle, the First Anglo-Portuguese Scholar’, The Review of English Studies 10/40 (October 1934), 385). The paper of Marta Brites Rosa (Universidade de Lisboa) dealt with António José de Paula, writer and director of many plays on Portuguese and Brazilian stages in the second half of the century.

Opening the debate to a wider field, Inês Thomas Almeida (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) presented her research on music in Berlin salons between 1780 and 1800, showing how the image of Portugal was assimilated within this environment. The lecture of Ivana Tomic Feric (Hrvatska zaklada za znanost – Croatian Science Foundation) introduced us to the Croatian composer Julije Bajamonti, describing him as ‘one of the most learned, many-sided and progressive figures’ in Croatian history. Kurt Sven Markstrom (University of Manitoba) studied the letters of Joseph Quesnel concerning the creation of the first Canadian opera, his Colas et Colinette, premiered in Montreal in February of 1790. Sonia Bellavia (Università di Roma La Sapienza) examined the correspondence between two German theatre personalities who embodied different aesthetic views: the actor Friedrich Ludwig Schröder and the dramatic poet Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter.

Papers by Francesco Nocerino (CIDM NaturalMenteMusica) and Paolo Cavallo (Istituto per i Beni Musicali in Piemonte) moved the discussion onto organological considerations. My own contribution (Federico Lanzellotti, Università di Bologna) focused on Giovanni Bononcini's musical activity in Rome under the patronage of Johann Wenzel, Count Gallas (1714–1719), recalling some aspects of the debate on Bononcini's orchestras. In a joint presentation, Giovanni Polin (Conservatorio di Potenza) and Lorenzo Mattei (Università di Bari) broached the topic of eighteenth-century newspapers’ low reliability when it comes to giving information about performances, finding an exception in the Gazzetta Urbana Veneta (1787–1798), directed by the novelist Antonio Piazza, which published a number of particularly reliable letter-reviews. Maria Rosa De Luca (Università di Catania) and Carlida Steffan (ISSM di Modena) investigated the correspondence of the amateur musician Giovanni Battista Perucchini and discussed the importance of noble and cultivated dilettanti in the transition between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Marta Columbro (Conservatorio di Napoli) and Chiara Macor (Università Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli) talked about the rich heritage of letters, pleas, dispatches and memorials relating to the Naples Conservatories of Santa Maria di Loreto, Santa Maria della Pietà de’ Turchini and Sant'Onofrio a Capuana, today all held at the Historical Archive of the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella. Paola Besutti (Università di Teramo) focused on musical arts as part of ‘modern education’ in the Mantuan Accademia Reale di Scienze e Belle Lettere, rebuilt in 1768 by Queen Maria Theresia of Absburg.

On the Saturday evening, the book Serenata and Festa Teatrale in 18th Century Europe was presented by renowned Portuguese writer António Mega Ferreira in the presence of the editors, Iskrena Jordanova and Paologiovanni Maione, Michael Hüttler, director of publishers Hollitzer Verlag (Vienna), and Matthias Perenstorfer, director of Vienna's Don Juan Archiv. The volume launches the new series Cadernos de Queluz, containing a selection of papers from the first symposium held by Divino Sospiro in 2014.

An exquisite concert in the Music Room of the residence preceded the book presentation. The programme of late baroque, Portugal-related music was performed by the Divino Sospiro ensemble and soprano Bárbara Barradas and consisted of arias from the oratorio Gioas, re di Giuda by Pedro António Avondano, followed by serenatas Il natal di Giove by João Cordeiro da Silva and L'Endimione by Niccolò Jommelli, first performed in Queluz in 1778 and 1780 respectively.

The conference was attended by a substantial number of young students, scholars and musicians, as well as by members of the public, with the good advertising of the event having no doubt played a part in this. A cultivated but at the same time relaxing and welcoming atmosphere was to be felt from the beginning of the conference, and a positive mood made it easy for students and scholars to meet and get to know each other.