This work raises some questions about the relationship of Italian opera singers with the Spanish nobility at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, based on the example provided by the conserved correspondence from the Osuna Duchess. This documentation highlights the importance of employer and protective relationships in the environment of the circulation of Italian music and musicians on the Iberian Peninsula, and in the context of the consolidation of Italian opera representations in Spain. Despite the free movement of foreign musicians, they still needed the protection of the most prominent figures in Spanish society of the time, of which Osuna’s duquesa could be regarded as an emblematic model. A model also comparable to that of other relationships of sponsorship and protection in the rest of Europe.