Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:14:58.148Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A NEST OF NIGHTINGALES: CUZZONI AND SENESINO AT HANDEL'S ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2010

Claudia Rene Wier
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Italian prima donna Francesca Cuzzoni (ca. 1698–1770) was the first internationally recognized virtuosa to sing high soprano women's roles. Although her work served as a model to the female performers who followed, no in-depth critical study has been written about her groundbreaking career on the opera stage of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she was the celebrated prima donna from 1723 to 1728. During her tenure, the Royal Academy became one of the most important opera companies in Europe, rivaling those of the Viennese court, the Paris Opera, and the Italian opera houses of Naples and Venice. Her arrival on the London stage signaled a shift in the ways composers set roles in relationship to vocal categories and gender. In particular, Cuzzoni's superior virtuosic vocal abilities influenced and inspired German George Friedrich Handel's (1685–1759) compositional style and his musical treatment of dramatic elements.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 51 , Special Issue 2: Operatic Intersections , November 2010 , pp. 247 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Endnotes

1. Highfill, Philip Jr., “Francesca Cuzzoni,” in Highfill, Philip H. Jr., Burnim, Kalman A., and Langhans, Edward A., A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, vol. 4., Corye to Dynion (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975)Google Scholar, 113.

2. Ibid.

3. Dent, Edward, Handel (New York: A. A. Wyn, 1934)Google Scholar, 69.

4. Burney, Charles, A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1789), vol. 2 (New York: Dover, 1957)Google Scholar, 743.

5. Ibid., quotes at 745 and 736.

6. Quoted in Sally Sanford, “Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Vocal Style and Technique” (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1979), 14.

7. Highfill, 113.

8. Celletti, Rodolfo, The History of Bel Canto, trans. Fuller, Frederick (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000)Google Scholar, 8.

9. Rosselli, John, “The Castrati as a Professional Group and a Social Phenomenon, 1550–1850,” Acta Musicologica 60.2 (May–August 1988), 143–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 148.

10. Ibid., 149.

11. Gibson, Elizabeth, The Royal Academy of Music (1719–1728): The Institution and Its Directors (New York and London: Garland, 1989)Google Scholar, 7.

12. Dean, Winton and Knapp, John Merrill, Handel's Operas, 1704–1726, 2d rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)Google Scholar, 150.

13. Ibid. Emphasis is mine.

14. Senesino's tenure as the Royal Academy's lead male singer spanned the entire period of its activity until 1732 (with a break from 1728 to 1730).

15. Hicks, Anthony, “Handel,” in The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Macy, L., online edition (accessed 8 January 2003)Google Scholar.

16. Hicks.

17. Edward Vaught Foreman, “A Comparison of Selected Italian Vocal Tutors of the Period Circa 1550 to 1800” (D.M.A. diss., University of Illinois [Ann Arbor: UMI], 1969), 7.

18. Senelick, Laurence, The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre (London: Routledge, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 177.

19. Foreman, 7.

20. Alfani, Guido, “Wealth Inequalities and Population Dynamics in Early Modern Northern Italy,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 40.4 (2009): 513–49Google Scholar, at 531.

21. See Rosselli, “Castrati,” 151.

22. See Foreman, 7.

23. The symbol [′] represents the octave, deemed always to begin on a C, in which the note is sung or played; i.e., C′ is middle C and C′′ is an octave above that. A′′ is thus above (i.e., in the octave determined by) C′′.

24. Rosselli, John, Singers of Italian Opera: The History of a Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)Google Scholar, 124, 144, and 171.

25. Ibid., 147.

26. Ibid., 98.

27. Dean, Winton and Vitali, Carlo, “Cuzzoni, Francesca,” in Grove Music Online, para. 1 (accessed 14 March 2010)Google Scholar.

28. See Rosselli, Singers, 56.

29. Ibid., quotes at 52, 57, and 59, respectively.

30. Rosselli, “Castrati,” 164.

31. Ibid., 164–5.

32. Heller, Wendy, “Reforming Achilles: Gender, Opera Seria and the Rhetoric of the Enlightened Hero,” Early Music 26.4 (1998): 562–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 571. In 1709 Gravina would meet and adopt the ten-year-old Pietro Trapassi, later known as poet and librettist Metastasio.

33. Ibid., 572, quotes at 575.

34. Ibid., 574.

35. Ibid., 568.

36. Mist's Weekly Journal, 16 July 1726, front page, in 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale–Cengage Learning). This collection is part of the British Library Archive and is a searchable online resource. Unless otherwise indicated, subsequent newspaper citations are from this archive.

37. Raguenet, François, A Comparison between the French and Italian Musick and Opera's Translated from the French; With Some Remarks. To Which Is Added a Critical Discourse upon Opera's in England, and a Means Proposed for Their Improvement (London: Printed for W. Lewis, 1709)Google Scholar; trans. attrib. to Galliard, J. E. from Raguenet, Paralele [sic] des Italiens et des François [sic] en ce qui regarde la Musique et les Opéra [sic] (Paris, 1702)Google Scholar. Reprinted as “A Comparison between the French and Italian Music” in Musical Quarterly 32.3 (1946): 411–36, in which see 426.

38. Ibid., 430.

39. Ibid., 426–7.

40. Ibid., 430.

41. Quoted in Theron R. McClure, “Reconstruction of Theatrical and Musical Practice in the Production of Italian Opera in the Eighteenth Century” (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University [Ann Arbor: UMI], 1956), 131.

42. Keyser, Dorothy, “Cross-Sexual Casting in Baroque Opera: Musical and Theatrical Conventions,” Opera Quarterly 5.4 (Winter 1987–8): 46–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 52.

43. Weekly Journal; or, Saturday's Post (London), 23 February 1723.

44. Blackmer, Corinne E. and Smith, Patricia Juliana, “Introduction,” in En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera, ed. Blackmer, and Smith, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)Google Scholar, 8.

45. Merrill, Lisa, “Cross Dressing,” article in Lesbian histories and cultures: an encyclopedia / Zimmerman, Bonnie, editor. New York: Garland Pub., 2000)Google Scholar: 211

46. Davis, Tracy C., “Actresses as Working Women,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, ed. Kennedy, Dennis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)Google Scholar, 1457.

47. Burney, 691.

48. Burney, 721.

49. Gibson, 156–7, quote at 156.

50. Ibid., 171.

51. Burney, 721.

52. LaRue, C. Steven, Handel and His Singers: The Creation of the Royal Academy of Operas, 1720–1728 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)Google Scholar, 137.

53. Addison, Joseph, Selections from the Writings of Joseph Addison, ed. Wendell, Barrett, Chester Noyes Greenough, Boston, New York [etc.] Ginn & company [c1905]Google Scholar, 68.

54. Freeman, Daniel E., “‘La guerriera amante’: Representations of Amazons and Warrior Queens in Venetian Baroque Opera,” Musical Quarterly 80.3 (Autumn 1996): 431–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 442.

55. Mist's Weekly Journal, 12 February 1726, front page.

56. Dean and Knapp, 470 and 500, quote at 489.

57. Ibid., 490.

58. Ibid. According to Dean and Knapp, 490, “Da tempeste” is the only intact aria from the original; the rest are either replacements or revisions of earlier versions.

59. Dean and Knapp, 578.

60. Quantz, as translated in Nettl, Paul, Forgotten Musicians (New York: Philosophical Library, 1951; repr. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969)Google Scholar, 292, quoted in LaRue, 107.

61. LaRue, 116, where he quotes Dean and Knapp, 390.

62. Celletti, 85, 88.

63. See, for example, Austern, Linda Phyllis, “‘Alluring the Auditorie to Effeminacie’: Music and the Idea of the Feminine in Early Modern England,” Music and Letters 74.3 (August 1993): 343–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 346.

64. Prynne, William, Histriomastix (London, 1633 [1632])Google Scholar, 275, quoted in ibid., 353.

65. Austern, 348.

66. For more on the doctrine of affections, see Buelow, George J., “Theory of the Affects,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, Stanley (London: Macmillan, 2001)Google Scholar, 1:181.

67. See ibid.

68. See Dean and Knapp, 26.

69. Steblin, Rita, A History of Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, 2d ed. (New York: University of Rochester Press, 2002)Google Scholar, 97.

70. Ibid., 90.

71. Ibid., 90–1.

72. Ibid., quotes at 107, 227, and 285, respectively.

73. Harris, Ellen, “Harmonic Patterns in Handel's Operas,” in Eighteenth-Century Music in Theory and Practice: Essays in Honor of Alfred Mann, ed. Parker, Mary Ann (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1994), 77–118Google Scholar, at 114.

74. Elizabeth Otten, “London Theatres,” in San Diego Opera's Operapaedia, at www.sdopera.org/pages/education/edusourcebook (accessed 17 October 2003).

75. Galeazzi, Francesco, Ellementi teorico-practici de musica (1796)Google Scholar, quoted in Steblin, 288.

76. Leichtentritt, Hugo, “Handel's Harmonic Art,” Musical Quarterly 21 (1935): 208–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar, quote at 212.

77. LaRue, 154.

78. Meynell, 115.

79. Dean and Knapp, 612.

80. Ibid.

81. Bartel, Dietrich, Musica Poetica: Musical-Rhetorical Figures in German Baroque Music (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997)Google Scholar, 11 and 49, quote at 49.

82. Leichtentritt, 212.

83. Dean and Knapp, 614.

84. Clément, Catherine, “Through Voices, History,” in Siren Songs: Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Opera, ed. Smart, Mary Ann (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 17–28Google Scholar, at 22–5.

85. See LaRue, 150, 138.

86. James E. Wierzbicki, “Burlesque Opera in London: 1729–1737” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cincinnati [Ann Arbor: UMI], 1979), 91.

87. LaRue, 150, 154–5; for Tosi, 138.

88. Clément, 22–3, both quotes on 22.

89. Quoted in Wierzbicki, 113; my emphasis.

90. Mist's Weekly Journal, 28 May 1726.

91. London Journal, 30 March 1723.

92. Weekly Journal; or, Saturday's Post (London), 9 March 1723.

93. Pirrotta, Nino, “Commedia Dell'arte and Opera,” Musical Quarterly 41.3 (July 1955): 305–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 320.

94. See for instance: Nalbach, David, The King's Theatre, 1704–1867: London's First Italian Opera House (London: Society for Theatre Research, 1972)Google Scholar, 60; Landon, H. C. Robbins, Handel and His World (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1984)Google Scholar, 106; and Somerset-Ward, Richard, Angels and Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004)Google Scholar, 37.

95. Landon, 110.

96. Burney, 731.

97. Mulvey, Laura, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen 16.3 (Autumn 1975): 6–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

98. Jones, Robert W., Gender and the Formation of Taste in Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Analysis of Beauty (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998)Google Scholar, 163.

99. Ibid., 171.

100. Mist's Weekly Journal, 16 July 1726, front page.

101. The Spectator, no. 17, 20 March 1711, quoted in Grundy, Isobel, “Against Beauty: Eighteenth-Century Fiction Writers Confront the Problem of Woman-as-Sign,” in ReImagining Women: Representations of Women in Culture, ed. Neuman, Shirley and Stephenson, Glennis (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), 74–86Google Scholar, at 75.

102. Jones, 166, 201; the latter quotes Frances Reynolds, “An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Taste, and of the Origin of our Ideas of Beauty, etc.” (1785; Los Angeles: Augustan Reprint Society, no. 27, 1951), chap. 2. Available online via Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13485 (accessed 12 August 2010).

103. Jones, 154.

104. Compare, for example, Somerset-Ward's descriptions of Cuzzoni (in chap. 2) and Senesino (in chap. 4).

105. Celletti, 71.

106. Woyke, Saskia, “Faustina Bordoni-Hasse—eine Sängerinnenkarriere im 18. Jahrhundert,” Göttinger Handel-Beiträge 7 (1998): 218–57Google Scholar, at 242.

107. Celletti, 71.

108. Ibid., 88–9.

109. Ibid.