Читать книгу Anna Maria Strada, Prima Donna of G. F. Handel - Judit Zsovár - Страница 18

For the upcoming birthday celebration of the Empress, Vivaldi’s pasticcio La Silvia (a dramma pastorale), was performed on 26 August 1721 at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan. The mythological plot focuses on Numitore, King of Alba’s bloodline. His daughter Silvia, despite being forced to become a Vestal virgin, conceives the twins Romulus and Remus (founders of Rome) by Mars, who disguised himself as the shepherd Tirsi. Strada embodied another nymph, named Nerina, a follower of Silvia, who fell in love with Niso. Later, upon seeing him embracing Silvia, she becomes furiously jealous (III/4, ‘Furie terribili’). Unfortunately the score of this aria is lost, but it would have been very informative to see what kinds of coloraturas were given to Strada by Vivaldi after a year of collaboration. In the end it turns out that Niso is none else but Silvia’s brother believed dead, Egisto.

The surviving part of Strada’s role has some very intriguing aspects. In her second aria, ‘Mio ben, s’io ti credessi’ (I/14, C minor, 2/4), Nerina is suspicious ←45 | 46→towards her beloved, because earlier that day Echo told her that Niso will betray her before sundown. This was the first time Vivaldi used Lombardic rhythm in his oeuvre.¹⁰⁸ The pattern of two demisemiquavers (or one semiquaver) followed by a dotted quaver, connected to accented chromatic high notes (such as a↑ʺ, gʺ, fʺ), together with the text, serves as a tool for ironic expression. This was one of the two arias written entirely by Vivaldi’s own hand in the manuscript. La Silvia primarily contains arias from his earlier operas, which was the task of the copyist to prepare into a score. According to Strohm, these arias might have been part of an early draft for La Silvia.¹⁰⁹ It is remarkable however, that Strada did not sing any of her earlier Vivaldian arias in a work where many numbers were taken from La verità. Nevertheless, when given the choice, Strada hardly ever repeated her earlier arias. Indeed, throughout her whole career, she regularly showed a preference for learning new movements over recycling older repertoire.

Strohm has also suggested that ‘Pronto servir’ (II/11; B↑ major, 2/4), suited to the text in its declamatory nature, gives ample space for acting, especially the use of gestures. Its unusual four-part non-da-capo form also strengthens this assumption.¹¹⁰ Nerina does not settle for less than true love: after she learns that Silvia’s beloved, Tirsi is still alive, she is not completely happy, because a true lover would not hurt his loved one as Tirsi torments Silvia. On stage, it seems that Strada might have been convincing not only as a singer but also as an actress. By this time Vivaldi must have known her performance abilities well. The thought, that the composer who later chose an artist like Anna Girò as his supreme prima donna, entrusted an aria to Strada in which she had limited vocal opportunities (but maximal visual ones), is revealing. Girò was namely a singer who inspired Vivaldi primarily through her sincere and touching way of acting. Furthermore, she was small in stature like Strada.

In Act II scene 4, Nerina feels compassion for Silvia and comforts her by singing ‘Nel suo carcere ristretto’ (Ex. 1.11), an aria in D major from Teuzzone (RV 736, Mantua 1718), originally performed by the soprano castrato Gasparo Geri(/Gieri) who embodyed Cino, a male character. It also occurrs as a tenor aria with the same text in Eurilla e Alcindo (Serenata a tre RV 690, 1719) and directly inspired the 3rd movement of the Autumn concerto (RV 283, F major) of 1720. It ←46 | 47→also resembles the D major flute concerto, Il Gardellino (RV 428, before 1724).¹¹¹ This simile aria uses the picture of an imprisoned nightingale, who is not willing to sing about affections but rather producing lamenting songs of a freedom lost, as a metaphor.¹¹²

Example 1.11 Vivaldi: La Silvia – Section A of ‘Nel suo carcere ristretto’, bars 10‒35, vocal part

Both its text and musical character are marked by the theme of caccia d’amore (chase of love), the result of which is a mixture of agony and lively motives of birdsong. The rhythm is based on dotted notes while the melody is coloured a few times with chromatics. The most remarkable element of it, from the vocal technical point of view, is when the voice imitates the nightingale’s motive (bars 15‒16 and 30‒31) by snapping from a dotted quaver up a fifth ‒ a move well prepared for the singer compositionally through repeated notes. Firstly these jumps occur on a′‒eʺ, then on dʺ‒eʺ in Teuzzone, supposedly in Strada’s case on dʺ‒aʺ, keeping her in unison with the violins. This would be a clear and significant hint of Strada’s technique of high notes, as there is not much time to place the semiquaver fifth above each preceding note, and because the aʺ notes must be exact, clear, and ringing, sung with strength and with ease. The insertion of this aria into La Silvia indicates that Strada might have sung aʺ notes in b. 30 and b. 31 (at least in the da capo), showing her free, agile, and energetic head register.

Strada was engaged at the S. Sebastiano theatre in Livorno between 1722 and 1723 (see Table 1.1). How she got there from Milan is uncertain, but the libretti from those years show that she still enjoyed the protection of Count Colloredo, ←47 | 48→though she was not his virtuosa di camera any more.¹¹³ There is no other noble patron known from her early Italian years, or any impresario until late spring 1724 when she became engaged to the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples. Nevertheless, there must have been some impresario(s) working in the background who arranged Strada’s Tuscan contracts as well as her appointment to Naples, even if she bore the recommendation and blessing of Count Colloredo or some other influential person of noble rank.¹¹⁴

In the spring of 1722, she appeared as Dalinda in Sarro’s Ginevra, principessa di Scozia, and as Costanza in an anonymous Griselda. Hardly a new work, Sarro’s Ginevra was first performed at S. Bartolomeo Naples in 1720. The role Strada sang two years later, that of Dalinda, was created originally by Anna Vicenza Dotti, a Bolognese contralto, who joined Handel’s Royal Academy in London in 1724. One can assume, therefore, that the arias were transposed and adjusted for the soprano.¹¹⁵ She also had an insertion, since she repeated Vivaldi’s ‘Addio caro’ (II/3) from La verità in cimento (1720).¹¹⁶ The other Livorno opera of 1722, the Griselda (librettist unknown), in which her character, Costanza, must marry her father while she is being separated from the man she loves, and her mother is forced into slavery, was presumably a pasticcio in which Strada may have sung some of her earlier arias. In both productions and in 1724 she sung together with Pietro Baratti, which might indicate that she was recommended by him in Lucca, or that there was an established practice to exchange singers between the two theatres. At the carnival season of 1723 she still sang in Livorno, in the revivals of Francesco Gasparini’s L’amor vince l’odio, overo Il Timocrate as well as Michelangelo Gasparini’s Il Lamano.¹¹⁷ In both cases she played the prima donna ←48 | 49→for the first time in her life. Il Lamano was originally performed in Venice in 1719 with Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni in the main female roles. Strada might have heard that performance and in Livorno she sang Faustina’s role which foreshadowed her future in London as successor of the two divas. She had some fine colleagues, among them the tenor Francesco Guicciardi (likewise engaged to Naples in 1724), and the soprano Teresa Zanardi Gavazzi from Bologna.¹¹⁸

The next year Strada performed in Lucca: she sang Sabina in the pasticcio Lucio Papirio, as well as Eduige in the Rodelinda by the local composer Giovanni Antonio Canuti di Lucca.¹¹⁹ In Lucio Papirio dittatore, the fundamental conflict of love and duty reflects itself in Strada’s role, that of Sabina, the sister of Quinto Fabio but also betrothed to Lucio’s son, Claudio Papirio. Cuzzoni played the same role under the name of Rutilia, in Venice from 26 December 1720 onwards. Strada might have witnessed one of the performances, as she herself was present in Venice at that time: Filippo, re di Macedonia by Boniventi and Vivaldi, premiered on 27 December 1720. However, Strada’s Sabina role gained much more importance in the drama than that of Rutilia, who in her arias always reflects the emotions of others or gives counsel to someone else. Arguably, the ethos of this character had been changed.¹²⁰ Sabina’s arias are always in first person: she sings of her own personal feelings and the effects of the situation she is in. Though the music is lost, the poetry of these closed numbers is of high artistic value. The role of Eduige in Rodelinda, however, through its bitter passion, jealousy and manipulative nature represents another category of dramatic expression.

Concerning the characters Strada embodied in her early years and the energetic factor of most of the arias written for her ‒ showing an agile and strong coloratura soprano voice executing accented high notes regularly ‒ one can extrapolate to some extent the way in which it reflected her personality. Naturally, an artist specialised for the stage is able to represent qualities and manners which ←49 | 50→are not his or her own, but certainly not all the time. The fierce passion Strada showed from her debut onwards, gaining more and more ground during her career, might have been her private character too. On the other hand, most of the figures she played have deeper and more complex moral aspects. They have to make serious decisions, showing compassion and respect, and yet follow the truth; they have to meet the requirements of position and still not lose the integrity of the heart, nor its prospects for happiness; they need to hope against hope that their beloved ones survive. After these first couple of years, Strada’s developing vocal as well as dramatic skills called for challenges of a higher level. Fortunately, she did not have to wait long. Political and musical changes simultaneously made a place for her: the great success of a production at San Bartolomeo in Naples gave cause for exchanges in its cast in the spring of 1724.

←50 | 51→

Table 1.1 Roles of Strada’s early years, 1720–24

←51 | 52→

12 Parr. di S. Anna di Palazzo Napoli, Lib. 19° Def. f. 71: ‘A dì 20 Luglio 1775 — La Signora Donna Anna Strada, d’anni 72. Vedova, ricevuti li SS.mi Sacram: morì a dì detto in Com.ne di S. Chiesa, fu sepellita alla Congr.ne di S. Maria della Salvaz.ne accosto S. Anna, abitava alla strada del Carminiello’.

13 Francesco Saverio Quadrio, Della storia e della ragione d’ogni poesia, vol. iii (Milan: Francesco Agnelli, 1744), 537.

14 I am very grateful to Anita Sikora, who drew my attention to Giuseppe and Andriana Strada and suggested the possibility of them being Anna Maria’s parents. See also K. J. Kutsch/Leo Riemens/Hansjörg Rost (eds), Grosses Sängerlexikon, vol. vi (K. G. Saur: Munich, 2003), 4562; libretti in I-MC J.85 and L.76.

15 In a Muzio Scevola and Giovanni Pagliardi’s Numa Pompilio 1690, Furo Camillo by Giacomo Perti 1697, Il gran Pompeo 1704, Francesco Pollarolo’s Venceslao 1708, Partenope by Antonio Caldara 1709, Tomaso Albinoni’s I rivali generosi 1715.

16 Paola Besutti, La Corte Musicale di Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga Ultimo Duca di Mantova (Mantova: 1989), 82.

17 In Giacomo Antonio Perti’s Il Furio Camillo and Benedetto Vinaccesi’s L’innocenza giustificata in 1701.

18 John Rosselli, Singers of Italian Opera: The History of a Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 42.

19 William Dale, Tschudi the Harpsichord Maker (London: Constable and Company, 1913), 32‒34.

20 Anne Schnoebelen, ‘Pistocchi, Francesco Antonio Mamiliano [‘Il Pistocchino’]’, in GMO, accessed 11 November 2014; John H. Roberts, ‘Handel and the Shepherds of Ansbach’, in Words on Music: Essays in Honor of Andrew Porter on the Occasion of His 75th Birthday, ed. David Rosen/Claire Brook (Hillsdale: Pendragon Press, 2003), 232.

21 Daniela Tarabra, European Art of the Eighteenth Century, trans. Rosanna M. Giammanco Frongia (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2008), 302.

22 Naomi Adele André, Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti and the Second Woman in Early-Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 37.

23 Reinhard Strohm, ‘Vivaldi’s career as an opera producer’, in id., Essays on Handel and Italian Opera (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 122‒63: 138; Anne Desler, ‘Il novello Orfeo’. Farinelli: Vocal Profile, Aesthetics, Rhetoric. PhD dissertation (University of Glasgow, 2014), 103‒11, http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5743/1/2014deslerphd.pdf, accessed 3 January 2015. See Appendix B2, the vocal lines of three arias sung by Bernacchi: ‘Quel fiume che in mente’ (Frugoni/Vinci, Medo I/1, Parma 1728); ‘Taci, o di morte’ (Frugoni/Vinci, Medo I/8, Parma 1728) and ‘Nella foresta Leon invitto’ (Frugoni/Vinci, Medo III/6, Parma 1728), 339‒41.

24 Bernacchi was an alto and pupil of the Bologna schoolʼs famous master, Antonio Pistocchi who introduced him ornamentations of the instrumental kind. Bernacchi adopted them to such a degree that in the end Pistocchi complained about him: ‘Tristo a me, io tʼho insegnato a cantare, e tu vuoi suonare!’ / ‘Poor me! I taught you to sing and you want to play (i.e. like one plays an instrument)!’ Winton Dean, ‘Bernacchi, Antonio Mariaʼ, in GMO, accessed 19 August 2014; see Vincenzo Manfredini, Regole armoniche, o sieno precetti regionati (Venice: 1775), 7; also Julianne Baird, ‘An Eighteenth-Century Controversy About the Trill: Mancini v. Manfredini’, Early Music 15/1 (February 1987), 36‒45: 39.

25 Eleanor Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660‒1760, (Stanford/CA: Stanford UP, 2007), 67.

26 Ibid., 350.

27 Luigi Riccoboni, An Historical and Critical Account of the Theatres in Europe, (London: Waller/Dodsley, 1741), 74.

28 Ibid., 74.

29 ‘A chaque théatre on exécute deux opéras par hiver, quelquefois trois; si bien que nous comptons en avoir environ huit pendant notre séjour. Ce sont chaque année des opéras nouveaux et de nouveaux chanteurs. On ne veut revoir, ni une pièce, ni une ballet, ni une décorations, ni un acteur, que l’on a déja vu une autre année, à moins que se ne soit quelque excellent opéra de Vinci, ou quelque voix bien fameuse’. Romain Colomb (ed.), Le President de Brosses en Italie, vol. ii (Paris: 1858), 358.

30 Josse de Villeneuve, Lettre sur le mécanisme de l’opéra italien, 1756, quoted in Henri Bédarida, Melanges de Musicologie (Paris: 1933); see Kurt Sven Markstrom, The Operas of Leonardo Vinci, Napoletano (Hillsdale: Pendragon, 2007), 61.

31 Riccoboni, An Historical and Critical Account, 75. The opera referred to is Carlo Francesco Pollarolo’s Il pastore d’Anfriso (1695).

32 Alessandro Piazza, Teatro (1702), oil on canvas. Worcester, MA, Worcester Art Museum. It might refer to a rehearsal performance of Gaspariniʼs Tiberio, imperatore d’Oriente (Venice, 1702) at SantʼAngelo. See Bruno Forment, ʻAn enigmatic souvenir of Venetian operaʼ, Early Music 38/3 (August 2010), 387‒401.

33 John Rosselli, ʻSociology of Opera’, in GMO, accessed 12 December 2014.

34 Riccoboni, An Historical and Critical Account, 82.

35 Ibid., 53.

36 Francois Maximilien Misson writes, in his New Voyage to Italy (London, 1714), about gondolieri by whom the vacant places were filled up. See Reinhard Pauly, ‘Benedetto Marcello’s Satire on Early 18th‒Century Opera’, The Musical Quarterly 34/2 (April 1948), 222‒33: 225.

37 ‘Darò porta franca ogni sera al Medico, Avvocato, Speciale, Barbiere, Marangone, Compadre, ed Amici suoi con loro Famiglie per non restar mai a Teatro vuoto e per tal effetto pregherà Virtuosi e Virtuose, Maestro di Cappella, Suonatori, Orso, Comparse, etc., di voler condurre parimente ogni sera cinque o sei Maschere per uno senza Biglietti’. Benedetto Marcello, Il teatro alla moda (Venice: 1720), Agl’Impresari; id., ‘Il Teatro Alla Moda – Part II’, trans. Reinhard G. Pauly. The Musical Quarterly 35/1 (January 1949), 85‒105: 86.

38 ‘Anderanno all’Opera col Pegno, posponendo ogni sera un quarto d’ora, e così vedranno tutta l’Opera in dodici sere. Frequenteranno Comedie per manco spesa e non baderanno all’Opera ne pure la prima sera, toltone che a qualche mezz’Aria della Prima Donna, alla Scena dell’Orso, ai Lampi, alle Saette, etc. Faranno la Corte a’ Virtuosi dell’uno e dell’altro sesso, per entrar seco loro senza Biglietto, etc. etc. etc. etc.’ Marcello, Il teatro alla moda, Alle Maschere; id., ‘Il Teatro Alla Moda – Part II’, 104.

39 ‘ “Faut-il s’étonner” me disait un jour Tartini, “si la plupart du temps le récitatif de nos opéras ne vaut rien, lorsque le musicien donne tout son soin à la composition des airs, et broche à la hâte tout ce qui est de déclamation?” Pour moi, je les excuse, aujourd’hui que les spectateurs ont si bien pris l’habitude de ne pas écouter le récitatif’. Colomb (ed.), Le President de Brosses en Italie, vol. ii, 360; see Enrico Fubini, Music & Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 206.

40 Villeneuve, Lettre sur le mécanisme de l’opéra italien, 1756, cited in Bédarida, Melanges de Musicologie; see Markstrom, The Operas of Leonardo Vinci, 61.

41 ‘The Theatres at Venice commonly contain four and twenty, and sometimes thirty Boxes in a Row; but these Boxes can hold no more than six Persons, so that admitting they were all full, they would contain no more than fourteen hundred Persons in all’. Riccoboni, An Historical and Critical Account, 56.

42 Reinhard Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi (Firenze: Olschki, 2008), 29; Taddeo Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani del settecento (Venice: Visentini, 1897, repr. Leipzig: Peters, 1979), xli‒xlvii.

43 Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani, xlii; Jonathan Glixon/Beth Glixon, Inventing the Business of Opera: The Impresario and His World in Seventeenth-Century Venice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 5.

44 Michael Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, in id. (ed.), The Business of Music, (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002), 10‒61: 26‒28.

45 Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology of Venetian Opera, 350.

46 Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, 39.

47 ‘Al Sant’Angelo si va volentieri perché costa poco l’entrarvi’. Remo Giazotto, Antonio Vivaldi (Turin: 1973), 144 and 163, fn.5; Reinhard Strohm, Venice Opera Market – Venice Open Market? Situations around Antonio Vivaldi (in preparation), 1.

48 ‘In the period of the contract [i.e., late in 1714] Sant’Angelo was still charging only one lira and eleven soldi (a quarter ducat) for nightly entry to the theatre, as compared with the three lire and six soldi at San Giovanni Grisostomo’. Ibid.; Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, 26‒27.

49 Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, 26‒27.

50 Ibid., 28.

51 Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 48‒49.

52 Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology of Venetian Opera, 351.

53 ‘Il gusto de’ chiamati Antichi era un misto di gajo, e di cantabile la di cui varietà non potea far di meno di dilettare; L’odierno è tanto preoccupato del suo, che purchè s’allontani dall’altro si contenta di perdere la maggior parte della sua vaghezza; Lo studio del Patetico era la più cara occupazione de’ primi; E l’applicazione de’ Passaggi più difficili è l’unica meta de’ secondi. Quegli operavano con più fondamento; E questi eseguiscono con più bravura. Ma giacchè il mio ardire è giunto fino alla comparazione de’ Cantanti più celebri dell’uno, e dell’altro stile, gli si perdoni anche la temerità di conchiuderla dicendo, Che i Moderni sono inarrivabili per cantare all’udito, e che gli Antichi erano inimitabili per cantare al cuore’. Tosi, Opinioni, VII.§ 22; id., Observations, 109‒10.

54 Saskia Maria Woyke, Faustina Bordoni. Biographie – Vokalprofil – Rezeption (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2010), 138‒50.

55 Riccoboni, An Historical and Critical Account, 78‒79.

56 Neil Howlett, ‘Baroque Authenticity and the Modern Singer’, posted 28 September 2012, http://neilhowlett.com/articles/baroque-authenticity-and-the-modern-singer/, accessed 15 October 2015.

57 James Stark, Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999), 64‒67.

58 ‘The modern definition of falsetto is a voice production in which the vocalis muscles (for simplicity’s sake the thyro-arytenoids) are inactive and lengthened greatly by the action of the crico-thyroid muscles which are at their nearly maximum contraction. The sound is produced by the air blowing over the very thin edges of the thyro-arytenoids and the pitch is controlled mostly by a regulation of the breath flow. If, at any time, the thyro-arytenoids begin to resist this extreme lengthening of themselves and provide some resistance to the action of the cryco-thyroids, the vocal mechanism begins to move into head voice. The sound of the falsetto voice is weak in overtones and produces no singer’s formant. This is because the very thin edges of the lengthened vocal folds, which do not display any tension in opposition to the stretching action of the thyro-arytenoids, are easily blown open by the breath and offer little resistance to the breath flow. The sound of the head voice, however, is richer in overtones and has the potential to produce a substantial singer’s formant. In other words, it has a “ring”. […] It is possible to move gracefully between the falsetto and the head voice. If the male singer can gradually increase the activity of the thyro-arytenoids in resistance to the stretching action of the crico-thyroids the tone will change from the flute-like quality of the falsetto to the ringing sound of the head voice and the singer will also experience the increase in subglottal pressure’. Lloyd W. Hanson, ‘Head voice and falsetto’, http://chanteur.net/contribu/index.htm#http://chanteur.net/contribu/cLHfalse.htm, accessed 15 October 2015.

59 Richard Wistreich, ‘Reconstructing pre-Romantic singing technique’, in The Cambridge Companion to Singing, ed. John Potter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 178‒91: 180; see Giulio Caccini, Le nuove musiche (Florence: Giulio Marescotti, 1602).

60 Ludovico Zacconi, Prattica di musica (Venice: 1592), f.77; see Stark, Bel Canto, 35.

61 Stark, Bel Canto, 36.

62 Rosselli, Singers of Italian Opera, 104.

63 ‘Un diligente Istruttore sapendo, che un Soprano senza falsetto bisogna, che canti fra l’angustie di poche corde non solamente proccura d’acquistarglielo, ma non lascia modo intentato acciò lo unisca alla voce di petto in forma, che non si distingua l’uno dall’altra, che se l’unione non è perfetta, la voce sarà di più registri, e conseguentemente perderà la sua bellezza’. Tosi, Opinioni, I.§ 21; id., Observations, 23.

64 ‘Io fui scolare in Napoli per due anni di Leonardo Leo; ed ero in età allora di soli quattordici anni. Questo grand’Uomo costumava di scrivere in ogni tre giorni un nuovo solfeggio a ciascun suo scolare, ma con riflessione di adattarlo alle forze ed all’abilità di ciascuno’. Mancini, Pensieri, e riflessioni, 179; id., Practical Reflections, 186‒87.

65 ‘Gli anzidetti Maestri hanno scritto egregiamente il recitativo, nè si può proporre esercizio di maggior utile alla gioventù di questo, perchè son scritti scientificamente; se lo scolare si perfeziona con questo studio, potrà comparire la prima volta in Teatro quantunque giovane d’età, perfetto nel genere della declamazione, e se egli avrà fatto profitto, allora potrò asserire, che reciterà anche bene. Lo studio de’ Madrigali è piucchè necessario alla gioventù dell’arte nostra, perchè un tale esercizio assoda l’intonazione, avvezza il petto alla fatica, e raffine l’orecchio, acciò non vacilli nel tempo’. Mancini, Pensieri, e riflessioni, 182; id., Practical Reflections, 187.

66 Bruce Haynes, ‘Beyond temperament: non keyboard intonation in the 17th and 18th centuries’, Early Music 19/3 (August 1991), 356‒365+367‒370+372‒381: 357‒59.

67 Owen Jander, ‘Solfeggio [Solfège]’, in GMO, accessed 19 November 2014.

68 Naomi Adele André, Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti and the Second Woman in Early-Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 37.

69 Isabelle Emerson, Five Centuries of Women Singers. Music Reference Collection 88 (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005), 281.

70 André, Voicing Gender, 43.

71 Rodolfo Celletti, Storia del belcanto (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1986), 122.

72 Taylor R. Ferranti, A Historical Approach to Training the Vocal Registers: Can Ancient Practice Foster Contemporary Results?, PhD Dissertation (Louisiana State University, 2004), 27; Celletti, Storia del belcanto, 122.

73 André, Voicing Gender, 30‒31.

74 ‘Chi sa ben respirare e sillabare, saprà ben cantare’. (He who knows how to breathe and pronounce well, will know how to sing well). A quote ascribed to the castrato and teacher Gasparo Pacchierotti (1740‒1821). See Stark, Bel Canto, 91.

75 Pauly, ‘Benedetto Marcello’s Satire on Early 18th‒Century Opera’, 231; Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 286‒87.

76 Strohm, Venice Opera Market, 3; id., The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 286‒89; Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology of Venetian Opera, 351‒32.

77 Josse de Villeneuve, Lettre sur le mécanisme de l’opéra italien (Naples: 1756); see Markstrom, The Operas of Leonardo Vinci, 61.

78 Marcello’s Il teatro was not unique in its topic, though. It is interesting that Buini himself produced several opera buffa libretti about the singer, her mother, and the manager, all speaking and singing in Bolognese dialect, such as Chi non fa non falla (1732) and La Zanina maga per amore (1742). Edward J. Dent pointed out that ‘the Venetians seem to have enjoyed seeing the main plot turn on the absurdities of a prima donna and her admirers’, as opposed to the Neapolitan comic opera. Some divertimenti comici from earlier times also dealt with the figures of opera seria: Francesco Passarini’s La figlia che canta, the main topic of which is the necessity of protection for a young lady who wants to become a professional singer, was introduced during the Carnival 1719 in Venice with the music by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, ergo prior to Il Teatro. See Edward J. Dent, ‘Giuseppe Maria Buini’, in Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft XIII/2 (January‒March 1912), 329‒36: 331; Francesco Passarini, La figlia che canta. Printed libretto (Venice: 1719), I-Mb Racc.dramm.0945.

79 Dent, ‘Giuseppe Maria Buini’, 329‒36; Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani del settecento, 46‒63.

80 Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani del settecento, 46‒63.

81 Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 288‒89.

82 Ibid., 48; ‘Uomo di virtù, prudenza e giustizia. Signore di genio il più nobile, di sentimenti li più magnanimi, et del tatto più soave’. Gianvittorio Signorotto, L’Italia degli Austrias. Monarchia cattolica e domini italiani nei secoli XVI e XVII, Cheiron 9 (1992), 183‒287.

83 Strohm, Venice Opera Market, 3‒4; Michael Talbot, The Vivaldi Compendium (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2011), Dictionary, 49.

84 Giuseppe Vignati, Aquilio in Siracusa. Printed libretto (Milan: Giuseppe Richino Malatesta, 1720), I-Mb Racc.dramm.0677.

85 Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 286.

86 Ibid., 30‒31.

87 Ibid., 289.

88 ‘Nella sera detto stesso sabbato andò in scena per la prima volta nel Teatro à S. Angelo l’Opera intitolata La Verità in Cimento, che riesce d’universale sodisfazione’. Francesco Alvisi da Bologna, Avvisi di Venezia, 2 November 1720.

89 Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 58‒60; Karl Heller, Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1997), 57.

90 The ‘Chorton’ for sacred music used to be even higher in Venice, around 445‒460 Hz = a′, that is, almost a semitone higher than our modern one. Mary Cyr, Performing Baroque Music (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1992), 62‒64; Bruce Haynes, A History of Performing Pitch: The Story of “A” (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 163‒64.

91 Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 53‒54.

92 Ibid., 299.

93 ‘Une autre variété nait de la manière dont ils emploient les modulations. Ils ne composent guère dans le mode mineur; presque tous leurs airs sont écrits dans le mode majeur; mais ils y entremêlent, sans qu’on s’y attende, des phrases mineures qui surprennent et saisissent l’oreille jusqu’au point d’affecter le cœur’. (There is another variety in the way they are applying modulations. One hardly ever composes in the minor key for almost all the arias are written in the major key; they are, however, imperceptibly mixed: the minor phrases surprise and catch the ear up to the point that they affect the heart). Colomb (ed.), Le President de Brosses en Italie, vol. ii, 380.

94 Bella Brover-Lubovsky, Tonal Space in the Music of Antonio Vivaldi (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), 100; Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 297.

95 Paul Everett, Vivaldi: The Four Seasons and Other Concertos, Op. 8 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 18 and 23‒24.

96 Sixth and seventh leaps are beyond measure. Arias in Strada’s early repertoire (as far as it is available) containing octave or greater leaps are: Vivaldi, La verità ‒ ‘Solo quella guancia bella’ (6; and 2 ninth leaps), ‘Con più diletto’ (4), ‘Tu sei sol dell’alma mia’ (11), ‘Con cento e cento baci’ (2); Vivaldi, Filippio ‒ ‘Scherza di fronda’ (7); Porpora, Semiramide, regina dell’Assiria ‒ ‘Se d’Aquilon’ (10); Vinci, Eraclea ‒ ‘Il ruscelletto amante dell’erbe’ (8), ‘La filomena che piange’ (2); Leo, Turno Aricino – ‘Non so dirlo, e un non so che’ (2; and a ninth leap), ‘La speme lusinghiera’ (9); Sarro, Tito Sempronio Gracco ‒ ‘Vorrei morire’ (5), ‘Straniera donzella’ (1st setting; 5), ‘Pria di lasciarti’ (2); Leo, Zenobia in Palmira ‒ ‘Vuoi ch’io parta’ (22), ‘Al suo amato’ (1), ‘Quando irato il Ciel s’oscura’ (8); Vinci, Astianatte ‒ ‘Al patrio lido’ (2), ‘Piangi pur’ (6), ‘Quel perfido’ (7), ‘Tortorella se rimira’ (2).

97 Portamento, not in its Romantic sense as an audible glide ‒ for which there were two other words in use during the Baroque era, scivolo and strascino, (slur and drag) ‒ but as putting forth of the voice, as it occurs in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century treatises, meaning that the two distant notes were equal in strength and quality and were joined together without a break and with expression (for a detailed discussion see Ch. 5). See Tosi, Observations, 29, 53, and 178‒79; Mancini, Pensieri, e riflessioni, 87, 91‒93; id., Practical Reflections, 108 and 111‒13.

98 The text of the aria from Filippo, re di Macedonia (III/3): Scherza di fronda in fronda / Incerto l’augelletto / Or corre su la sponda / Del chiaro ruscelletto. / Ma palpitante il core / Ha sempre per timore / Perchè fra duri lacci / Non resti il piè ristretto. The text of the cantata: Scherza di fronda in fronda / Incerto l’augelletto / Or corre su la sponda / Del chiaro ruscelletto. / Tutto l’aletta e gode / Ma teme che di frode / Non resti il piè ristretto. (The little bird hops gaily but warily / from leaf to leaf; / now it runs on the bank / of the clear-running brooklet. / But its heart always flutters / from fear / that its foot may be caught / in a cruel snare.) Translation from Michael Talbot, The Chamber Cantatas of Antonio Vivaldi (Rochester: Boydell Press, 2006), 72.

99 Ibid., 128.

100 Ibid., 128‒29.

101 Ibid., 129‒31.

102 Benedetto Pasqualigo, Antigona. Printed libretti (Venice: Marino Rossetti, 1718, 1721, and 1724), I-Mb Racc.dramm.2267, Racc.dramm.2839, and Racc.dramm.0814.

103 The score is preserved in A-Wgm.

104 ‘…e martedì sera andò ancora in Scena à qtto di S. Angelo l’intitolato Il Pastor Fido Tragicomedia Pastorale, che riesce pure di sodisfazione’. (… and Tuesday evening another one has been staged at S. Angelo entitled Il Pastor Fido, pastoral tragicomedy, likewise with satisfaction.) Avvisi di Venezia, 15 February 1720.

105 ‘Servirà l’Impresario a pochissimo prezzo, riflettendo alle molte migliaia di Scudi, che gli costano i Virtuosi dell’Opera, che però si contenterà di Paga inferiore al più infimo di quelli, purchè non gli venga fatto torto dall’Orso e dalle Comparse’. (He should lend his services to the impresario for very little and consider the thousands of scudi that have to be paid to the famous singers. For that reason he should be satisfied with less pay than the least of them); Marcello, Il teatro alla moda. A compositori di musica; id., ‘Il Teatro Alla Moda – Part I’, trans. Pauly, 384.

106 A scudo might have been 12 lire at that time; the worth of a gold ducat (zecchino) was around 22 lire in 1717. See Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, 60‒61.

107 Carlo Vitali, ‘Italy – political, religious and musical contexts’, in The Cambridge Companion to Handel, ed. Donald Burrows (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 24‒44: 34; Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology of Venetian Opera, 658; John Rosselli, ‘From Princely Service to the Open Market: Singers of Italian Opera and Their Patrons, 1600‒1850’, Cambridge Opera Journal I/1 (March 1989), 1‒32: 25; Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, 31‒32 and 60‒61; Michael F. Robinson, ‘A Late 18th-Century Account Book of the San Carlo Theatre, Naples’, Early Music 18/1 (February 1990): 73‒81: 75.

108 Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 316 and 318.

109 ‘Vivaldi’s operas Arsilda 16, Tito 19, Candace 20 and Verità 20 provided much of the music of Silvia 21. Seventeen Silvia arias were copied in Vivaldi’s aria repository, I-Tn, Foà 28’. ibid., 315.

110 ibid., 319.

111 Cesare Fertonani, Antonio Vivaldi: La simbologia musicale nei concerti a programma (Pordenone: Edizioni Studio Tesi, 1992), 51.

112 ‘Nel suo carcere ristretto / non d’affetto / l’usinguol cantando va. / Col soave dolce canto / piange intanto / la perduta libertà’. Enrico Bissari, La Silvia. Printed libretto (Milan: Giuseppe Richino Malatesta, 1721), 21‒22, I-Mb Racc.dramm.6050 003.

113 La Sig. Anna Maria Strada, sotto la Protezione di S. E. Colloredo Govern. di Milano. Antonio Salvi, Ginevra principessa di Scozia (Florence: Anton Maria Albizzini, 1722), I-Vgc Rol.0599.04; Domenico Lalli, L’amor vince l’odio, overo Il Timocrate. Printed libretto (Livorno: 1722), 6, I-Fn MAGL.21.8.153.1; Sebastiano Biancardi, Il Lamano. Printed libretto (Livorno: 1723), 9, I-Fn MAGL.21.8.235.

114 Michael F. Robinson, Naples and Neapolitan Opera. Oxford Monographs on Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 88‒89 and 155‒56.

115 She used to be the seconda donna to Cuzzoni in London, and embodied Irene in Tamerlano (1724) and Eduige in Rodelinda (1725). Winton Dean, ‘Dotti, Anna Vicenza’, in GMO, accessed 9 November 2014.

116 Salvi, Ginevra principessa di Scozia, I-Vgc Rol.0599.04; Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 299.

117 Special thanks to Giovanni Battista Graziadio, who drew my attention to these two libretti.

118 Nadia Carnevale, ‘Guicciardi, Francesco’, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. lxi (2004), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/francesco-guicciardi_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/, accessed 14 December 2014.

119 Salvi, Ginevra, principessa di Scozia (1722); id., Lucio Papirio dittatore. Printed libretto (Lucca: Domenico Cuffietti, 1724), I-Vgc Rolandi Rol.0685.02; id., Rodelinda. Printed libretto (Lucca: Domenico Cuffietti, 1724), I-Vgc Rolandi Rol.0196.22.

120 Expression borrowed from Desler, ‘Il novello Orfeo’. Farinelli, 177.

121 Antonio Vivaldi, La Silvia. (RV 734, Milan 1721). Reconstruction of twenty-two arias from surviving sources at the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino and the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, with no recitative. Perf. Roberta Invernizzi, Gloria Banditelli, John Elwes, Philipp Cantor, Ensemble Baroque de Nice, cond. Gilbert Bezzina, compact disc (Ligia Digital: 203090, 2000).