[8] The brothers played in royal circles; they performed before Frederick the Great in 1765 in the palace at Sanssouci.
[2] They were in London in 1766, where it was advertised that they had performed before the British royalty, as well as other the royal families of Europe.
[8] The brothers were also noted for being survivors of slavery in Algiers, rescued from it by the King of Poland.
[7] The cocolascione was a long-necked lute (strings 100 –130 cm), possibly related to the dutar or tanbur.
[8] Domenico composed music, and his six sonatas for the colascioncino may be the only works that have survived for that instrument.
Domenico Colla (front) playing a two string colascioncino, with his brother playing a guitar, c. 1752.
[
1
]
Domenico played in Rome during Carnival in 1749 at the
Teatro Valle
and at a salon or academy hosted by
Pier Leone Ghezzi
.
[
2
]
[
3
]
Ghezzi drew a head and shoulders caricature of him during that trip, and an image of the two brothers playing, which
Matthias Oesterreich
used to create the published engraving.
[
1
]
[
2
]
Domenico Colla and his brother performed at
Hickford's Long Room
in London, shown in a February 1766 advertisement. The brothers' own benefits concert was on February 18, and they also performed in other musicians' benefits concerts, including: March 17, 1766 for
Gabriele Leone
[
4
]
and April 11, 1766 for
Polly Young
.
[
5
]
