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North of Germany was later to become his principal pastoral
activity. Founded in Rome in 1524, the main object of the
Theatin order was to recall the clergy to an edifying life, which
would serve as an example for the laity, and thus a way to
balance the Reformation. Supported by Pope Innocent XI, the
Theatins founded oratories and hospitals, and devoted
themselves to preach the Gospel and reform lax morals. In
Bavaria, the Theatine Church St. Kajetan was founded by
Elector Ferdinand Maria and his wife, Henriette Adélaïde of
Savoy, as a gift of thanks for the birth of the long-awaited heir
to the Bavarian crown, Maximilian Emanuel, in 1662. The
dynastic continuity was essential for the monarchy, and
Orlandi makes this obsession an important part of Niobe’s
character.
VI
Six children
The children of Niobe were so numerous they were called the
Niobids, and the exact number differs in the many ancient
sources available to us. In Homer’s Iliad, like in Orlandi’s
libretto, they are twelve (six boys and six girls): “For even the
fair-haired Niobe bethought her of meat, albeit twelve children
perished in her halls, six daughters and six lusty sons.The sons
Apollo slew with shafts from his silver bow, being wroth
against Niobe, and the daughters the archer Artemis [Diana],
for that Niobe had matched herself with fair-cheeked Leto
[Latona], saying that the goddess had borne but twain, while
herself was mother to many; wherefore they, for all they were
but twain, destroyed them all.” According to Sophocles’s
Antigone,Apollodorus’s Library, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
they are fourteen children, seven boys and seven girls. In
Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women, they are eighteen. In all
variations, an even number results in an equal quantity of boys
and girls, as the number of Niobe’s children needs to speak to
the imagination. Seneca, in his tragedy about Oedipus, gives
another beautiful poetic twist to the number by saying that
Niobe flattered her vanity over her children by also counting
their shadows.
This emphasis on a large number of offspring is not only the
stuff of myth, but it was also the measure in the 1680s. France
was a prime example: Louis XIV had a numerous family and
was very proud of it. By tradition a large quantity of children
was a clear expression of virility and fertility, which was
appealing to the imagination of the people. But from a dynastic
perspective, after producing an heir, a large number of
offspring allowed for the opportunity to create a large network
of alliances through unions between the children of royal
families. Indeed, in 1680, the French crown prince,The Grand
Dauphin, married Maria Anna Victoria, Max Emanuel’s
sister—the link between France and Bavaria was strong. Louis
was hoping Max Emanuel would return the gesture and marry
a French princess, but the Prince Elector was keen to keep a
kind of independence and decided to balance the French union
f e s t i va l o p e ra
The death of the Niobids
Dutch etching by Bernard Picart (1673–1733), Amsterdam, 1731, from the Temple
of the Muses (Neu-Erofneer Musen-Tempel), Chatelain, Amsterdam and Leipzig,
1733. Collection of Gilbert Blin.
of his sister by marrying himself to an Austrian Princess. As
Maria Antonia was also a niece of the Spanish king, the
offspring of this union could give the Bavarian house a claim
to the throne of Spain.
When Steffani and his brother, poet Ventura Terzago, created
the ballets for Servio Tullio for the Carnival of 1686, the first
one to be celebrated in Munich by the newlywed couple, they
showed their sense of allegory: in the first Ballet a number of
gods, each more flattering to the couple than the one before,
appear on a cloud machine. The gods announce a wondrous
horoscope for the royal couple including the prediction of
twelve children, which then, as in a vision of the future, appear
as twelve dancers—six men and six women—on the stage.The
horoscope was not at all farfetched, as Max Emanuel went on
to have fourteen children with his two wives and his mistress.
Of the fourteen children, seven died at an early age. In 1688,
infant mortality was still common, even in the highest class of
society.The killing of the Niobids by Apollo the sun and Diana
the moon may also been a cruel allegory of the death of
children in one day and in one night. Seventeenth-century
commentators remind us that Cicero, reflecting on the final
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NIOBE, REGINA DI TEBE