Attilio Ariosti – composer

Musical friar was once a rival of Handel

Anthoni Schoonjans's portrait of Ariosti
hangs in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin

Baroque composer Attilio Malachia Ariosti, who in later life became a rival of Handel in London musical circles, was born on this day in 1666 in Bologna.

He became a Servite Friar, known as Frate Ottavio, when he was 22, but he quickly obtained permission to leave the order and become a composer at the court of the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato.

During his life, Ariosti composed more than 30 operas and oratorios as well as many cantatas and instrumental works.

Ariosti became a Deacon in 1692 and then obtained the post of organist at the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna.

His first opera, Tirsi, was performed in Venice in 1697 and that same year he was invited to travel to Berlin by Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the Queen of Prussia. She was a great-granddaughter of James I of England and the daughter of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a committed patron of the arts with a keen interest in music.

The Electress Sophia had been heir presumptive to the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain and was waiting for the death of her first cousin once removed, Queen Anne, before travelling to Britain to claim her title.

Ariosti shared the directorship of the Royal Academy
of Music in London with his rival Handel (above)

But she died herself less than two month before she would have succeeded to the British throne and her eldest son, George Louis, Elector of Hanover, became King on the death of Queen Anne, ascending to the throne as George I on 1 August 1714.

While enjoying the hospitality of Queen Sophia Charlotte, Ariosti wrote the music for a number of stage works performed for the court in Berlin. He was court composer there for six years and a portrait of him by Anthoni Schoonjans still hangs in the Charlottenburg Palace.

When Ariosti was returning to his religious order, he stopped off in Vienna along the way, where he became a protégé of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, who made the composer his General Agent in Italy.

Ariosti later went on to enjoy success in Paris and London. While in London he shared the directorship of the Royal Academy of Music with George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini. He was a great success when he played his favourite instrument, the viola d’amore, in a performance of Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula.

The viola d’amore is an alto instrument of the old viol family with special strings under the fingerboard and it has a delicate, mysterious sound. It was developed around the middle of the 17th century and was particularly popular in England.

Ariosti was a versatile musician and could
also sing and write drama

Ariosti became a virtuoso on this instrument and in 1724 he published A Collection of Cantatas and Lessons for the Viola d’Amour, which he sold by subscription. This publication is thought to have been the most successful sale of music by subscription during the 18th century.

Ariosti could also sing, write drama and play the violoncello and the harpsichord. But his preferred instrument was always the viola d’amore, for which he wrote 21 solo sonatas. These are usually known as the Stockholm Sonatas because the sole surviving sources for most of them are in the Statens Musikbibliotek in Stockholm in Sweden.

Experts say the Sonatas display Ariosti’s penchant for surprising harmonies, his inventive use of silence and his wit.

Ariosti’s last opera, Teuzzone, was performed in London in 1727.

There was a time when Ariosti was in competition with Handel to be the most successful composer, but his popularity did not last as long as the German’s and he eventually disappeared from the musical scene. It is not known with any certainty whether he was still in London when he died in around 1729.

A view of the Mantegna frescoes in the Camera degli
Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua

Travel tip:

Ariosti served as court composer to Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Monferrato.  A lover of music, Ferdinando Carlo was the last Gonzaga to rule the Duchy. Mantua is an atmospheric old city, to the southeast of Milan, famous for its Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, where Ariosti would have lived. The Palazzo in Piazza Sordello has a famous room, the Camera degli Sposi, which is decorated with frescoes by Andrea Mantegna.  Musical performances took place in the Galleria degli Specchi, which has the dimensions to accommodate a stage and orchestra and has space for a small audience.

The portico and facade of the Basilica di Santa Maria
dei Servi on Strada Maggiore in Bologna

Travel tip:

The Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi, where Ariosti was once the organist, is in Strada Maggiore, one of the most important streets in Bologna. The church was founded in 1346 for the Servite Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was designed by Andrea da Faenza, a head friar who was also an architect. It is considered a fine example of Italian Gothic architecture.

Also on this day:

1702: The birth of painter Pietro Longhi

1754: The birth of explorer Alessandro Malaspina

1777: The birth of dancer and choreographer Filippo Taglioni

1898: The birth of Francesco Chiarello, survivor of two world wars



Home

Senesino - operatic castrato

Sienese singer who worked with composer Handel

The castrato singer Senesino was one of the
highest paid performers in 18th century London

The acclaimed contralto castrato singer Senesino, who enjoyed a long professional relationship with the composer George Frideric Handel, died on this day in 1758 in Siena.

During the 18th century, when opera’s popularity was at its height, the castrati singers - male singers castrated as boys to preserve their prepubescent vocal range - were the highest paid members of the cast and the likes of Carlo Broschi, who sang under the stage name Farinelli, Giovanni Carestini (“Cusanino”), Gaetano Majorano ("Caffarelli") and Gaspare Pacchierotti were the genre’s first superstars.

Senesino could be added to that list.  When he made his first appearance for Handel in his three-act opera Radamisto in 1720 his salary was reported as between 2000 and 3000 guineas, which today would be worth around £250,000 to £365,000 (€280,000-€400,000).

Born Francesco Bernardi in 1686, Senesino took his name from his home town, Siena. His father was a barber in the Tuscan city.

He joined the choir of Siena’s Duomo - the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta - in 1695 and was castrated at the comparatively late age of 13. He made his stage debut in Venice in 1707, and over the next decade his reputation and salary grew exponentially.

A magazine illustration of Senesino on stage with the
sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni

Although his acting skills were sometimes mocked by the critics, acclaim for his voice was universal.  One composer with whom he worked described it as “a powerful, clear, equal and sweet contralto voice, with a perfect intonation and an excellent shake. His manner of singing was masterly and his elocution unrivalled.”

Senesino was engaged by Handel as primo uomo (lead male singer) in his company, the Royal Academy of Music, in London in 1720.

He would stay in England for much of the next 16 years, along the way becoming a prominent figure in London society, numbering the Duke of Chandos, Lord Burlington and the landscape designer William Kent among his friends. He embraced English culture, amassing a collection of paintings, rare books, scientific instruments and other treasures.

At his peak, Senesino was so popular he would sometimes upstage the great rival Italian sopranos of the era, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, who were also employed by Handel’s company.

Handel created 17 leading roles for Senesino, among them Giulio Cesare, Andronico in Tamerlano, Bertarido in Rodelinda, Floridante and Ottone.

Senesino had a reputation for being touchy
and full of professional vanity

Yet their relationship was often stormy.  Senesino was touchy, vain and insolent, full of professional vanity and with a love of intrigue.  He would frequently test Handel’s patience.

They split for the first time in 1728 following the break-up of the Royal Academy, although after singing for a while in Paris and Venice, Senesino rejoined Handel in 1730, singing in four more new operas and several oratorios.

Yet their relationship was little better and when the Neapolitan Nicola Porpora arrived in London in 1733 to be chief composer at the rival company, Opera of the Nobility, Senesino was lured away for good.

In his new position, he sang alongside the aforementioned Farinelli, who is regarded as the finest soprano castrato of all time.

Senesino ended his career in England in 1736. He continued to perform in Italy before deciding to retire in 1740, by which time the opera-going public had new favourites and saw his style as somewhat dated. He made his final appearance in Porpora's Il trionfo di Camilla at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

He returned to Siena, where he used his wealth to build a handsome town house. It was stocked with furniture imported from England. In fact, he lived as much as he could like an English gentleman. Tea was his preferred drink, he employed a black servant, as was popular in England during his time there, and amused himself with pets that were fashionable in London, including a monkey and a parrot.

The shell-shaped Piazza del Campo in Siena is regarded as
one of Europe's most beautiful medieval squares

Travel tip:

At the centre of Siena is the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, established in the 13th century as an open marketplace on a sloping site between the three communities that eventually merged to form Siena. It is regarded as one of Europe's finest medieval squares, looked over by the Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia.  The red brick paving, fanning out from the centre in nine sections, was put down in 1349. It has become famous as the scene of the historic horse race, the Palio di Siena.

Siena's magnificent Duomo, where Senesino sang as a boy.
is a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque architecture

Travel tip:

Siena’s Duomo - the Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption - was designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has a beautiful façade built in Tuscan Romanesque style using polychrome marble. There had been plans to build an enormous basilica, which would have been the largest in the world, but the idea was abandoned because of lack of funds due to war and the plague. Nonetheless, the cathedral built in its place, with a pulpit designed by Nicola Pisani, is considered a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture.



More reading:

Why Farinelli was music's first superstar

When Cuzzoni and Bordino came to blows on stage

How Nicola Porpora died impoverished

Also on this day:

8BC: The death of the Roman poet Horace

1570: The death of the architect Jacopo Sansovino

1964: The birth of former soccer player and Italy coach Roberto Mancini


Home

Francesca Cuzzoni - operatic soprano

Diva who came to blows with rival on stage

Francesca Cuzzoni, depicted in an 18th century engraving
by the English artist James Caldwall

Francesca Cuzzoni, an 18th century star whose fiery temper earned her a reputation as one of opera’s great divas, was born on this day in 1696 in Parma.

Described rather unkindly by one opera historian of the era as “short and squat, with a doughy face” she was nonetheless possessed of a beautiful soprano voice, which became her passport to stardom.

However, she was also notoriously temperamental and jealous of rival singers, as was illustrated by several incidents that took place while she was in the employment of George Frideric Handel, the German composer who spent much of his working life in London.

Already established as one of the finest sopranos in Europe, Cuzzoni was hired by Handel in 1722.

Handel at that time was Master of the Orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music, the company set up by a group of English aristocrats to stage Baroque opera, partly for their own entertainment but also as a commercial enterprise.  One of his responsibilities was to engage the soloists for the company’s productions.

He ran into immediate trouble with Cuzzoni, who was due to make her debut in Handel’s own Italian language opera Ottone at the King’s Theatre in Haymarket.  On discovering that her part had been written originally with another singer in mind, one whose services the composer had been unable to secure, she is reputed to have refused to perform, coming into line only when Handel allegedly picked her up by the waist and threatened to throw her out of a window.

Cuzzoni (right) and Faustina Bordoni (left) were fierce
rivals notoriously involved in an on-stage fight

In the event, her interpretation of the role was hailed as a triumph and she soon became a star, her performances winning her an army of fans and enabling her to demand a handsome salary of £2,000 a season, which in today’s money would be the equivalent of about £250,000.

Opera’s popularity soared, despite the company jacking up ticket prices eightfold, and Handel was instructed to recruit more stars to satisfy demand.

Cuzzoni, though, was said to be furious, particularly when she learned that one of the new arrivals was Faustina Bordoni, a Venetian soprano who was much more attractive than she and who had been a rival in Italy.

Fanned by the press, their rivalry extended to the stalls and boxes, where opera-goers raucously supported their favourite and sometimes openly booed the other singer. Matters came to a head when they were cast to appear alongside one another in a performance of Giovanni Bononcini’s opera Astianatte.

Despite the presence in the audience of the Princess of Wales, rival factions took turns to jeer and catcall whenever one or the other began to sing and when the two singers appeared on the stage together a fight broke out in the stalls.

On stage, Cuzzoni is alleged to have turned on Bordoni, sparking an exchange of insults. Soon they were said to have begun pulling at each other’s hair and tearing pieces from their costumes. After they were separated, the performance was abandoned.

George Frideric Handel engaged Cuzzoni
to sing with the Royal Academy of Music

In fact, the remainder of the season was cancelled and Cuzzoni was told to leave, only to be reinstated following the direct intervention of the King. An uneasy truth allowed the next season to go ahead but the company wanted rid of Cuzzoni. Eventually it was decided that Bordoni would be offered more money, at which Cuzzoni resigned in a fit of pique and left first for Vienna and then Italy.

She returned to London in 1734, this time at the invitation of a rival company to Handel’s, although she did not make the same impact, her thunder stolen to an extent by the presence in the company of the superstar castrato, Farinelli.

Nonetheless, Cuzzoni continued to prosper until the 1740s, when the quality of her voice began to decline and her extravagant lifestyle found her increasingly in debt. At one point she was arrested in London over a debt of £30 and released from prison after the Prince of Wales paid her bail.

After a final concert in 1751, which was prefaced by a rather sad appeal for support published in her name by the General Advertiser, she returned to Italy for a final time.  She is said to have then eked out a living of sorts by making buttons. She died in virtual poverty in Bologna in 1778.

The Palazzo di Riserva in Parma, where Cuzzoni is
thought to have made her opera debut in 1714

Travel tip:

Cuzzoni, whose father was a professsional violinist,  made her stage debut in Parma in 1714, probably at the Teatro Ducale inside the Palazzo di Riserva, a neoclassical palace in what is now the Strada Giuseppe Garibaldi.  The theatre was replaced in the 19th century by the Nuovo Teatro Ducale, which was built on the site of a former monastery next to the Ducal Palace. Subsequently renamed the Teatro Regio di Parma, the house grew in prominence thanks to the fame of Giuseppe Verdi, who was born in nearby Busseto, and is nowadays regarded as one of Italy’s great opera houses, less well known but on a par with La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.

Parma's pink marble Baptistery is one of
many attractive buildings in the city

Travel tip:

A university city in the Emilia-Romagna region, with a population of almost 200,000, Parma is famous for Grana Parmigiana (Parmesan) cheese and Prosciutto di Parma ham, as well as a wealth of Romanesque architecture, including a cathedral containing acclaimed frescoes by Antonio da Correggio, and a pink marble Baptistery next door. More works by Correggio - and by Canaletto - are displayed at the Galleria Nazionale inside Palazzo della Pilotta.

More reading:

Why Farinelli, the 18th century castrato, was music's first superstar

How Francesco Gemianini, a Tuscan violinist, came to accompany Handel in playing for the English court

Pietro Metastasio, the most celebrated librettist of the 18th century

Also on this day:

1725: The birth of 18th century playboy Giacomo Casanova

1959: The birth of Olympic marathon champion Gelindo Borodin


Home