Francesca Cuzzoni News
singer
- soprano
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- opera singer, stage actor
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2024-04-25
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2023-09-17 09:22:00
Polite pastoral: Handel's Tolomeo from Baroque Encounter
Handel: Tolomeo; Carmen Lasok, Glenn Kesby, Lucy Thomas, John Lofthouse, director: Christopher Tudor, conductor: Asako Ogawa; Baroque Encounter at St John's Smith SquareReviewed 16 September 2023A production given in period style that never quite managed to break out of the decorative pastoral entertainment and demonstrate the underlying drama of Handel's operaPremiered in 1728, Handel's Tolomeo was the last opera he would write for the great triumvirate of singers, castrato Senesino and sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. Handel would revive it in the 1730s, but its modern performance history is rather sparse. English Touring Opera did it in 2006 (revived 2009, see my review) and its best claim to fame, rather bizarrely, is that composer Arthur Somervell adapted on of the arias from the opera as the song Silent Worship.The opera made a welcome return to the London stage when Baroque Encounter performed it at St John's Smith Square on Saturday 16 September […]
2023-09-10 16:29:00
Extravagantly theatrical: Handel's Flavio revived by Bayreuth Baroque in the splendour of the 18th-century theatre
Handel: Flavio - Rémy Brès-Feuillet (in bath), Yuriy Mynenko - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival (Photo: Clemens Manser)Handel: Flavio; Julia Lezhneva, Max Emanuel Cencic, Monika Jägerová, Yuriy Mynenko, Rémy Brès Feuillet, director: Max Emanuel Cencic, Concerto Köln, conductor Benjamin Bayl; Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival at the Margravial Opera House, BayreuthReviewed 9 September 2023An undeserved Handel rarity in a lavish production highlighting the historical background and managing to combine comic and serious Having revived a real rarity in Vinci's Alessandro nell'Indie in 2022 [see my review], the 2023 Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival opened with, if not a rarity, a work from the Handelian fringes. Handel wrote Flavio for the end of the 1722/23 season, a season that had included the premiere of Handel's Ottone and the sensational London debut of soprano Francesca Cuzzoni. Flavio, which starred Cuzzoni alongside castrato Senesino, received eight performances, and was revived by Handel in 1732. Then it was […]
2020-10-26 14:53:57
Giuditta Pasta and Senesino, 2020
[…] fine house. Even though Handel and Senseino quarreled quite often, in 1730 the composer hired Senesino again for the resurrected (Second) Academy, this time for “only” 1,400 guineas a year. Apparently Senesino’s popularity didn’t diminish, though the relationship between him and Handel got worse and eventually Senesino quit the Royal Academy and, with the financial help of wealthy music lovers, created a new company, the Opera of the Nobility. Senesino, Farinelli and the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni were the lead singers, while Nicola Porpora – their chief composer. He stayed with the company till 1736. Senesino then moved to Italy; his last performances were in Porpora’s Il trionfo di Camilla at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1740. Senesino died on January 27th of 1759. According to contemporary music critics, his voice was powerful and clear, with great diction and intonation. As a contralto he was unsurpassed; many Londoners preferred […]
2020-05-07 06:50:15
Veni, Vidi, Vinci: Franco Fagioli brings bravura brilliance and distinctive style to arias by the early 18th century Neopolitan composer
[…] quite a narrow time-range, as Vinci initially worked in comic opera, only moving to opera seria in 1724, and he died in 1730. He was Neapolitan trained, and one of a group of Italian composers of the period with strong links to the major castrati, many of whom had similar Neapolitan training. These are arias sung the by major singers of the day, and those on the disc include material sung by Faustina Bordoni, Francesca Cuzzoni, Carlo Scalzi and Farinelli amongst others. Il trionfo di Camilla was staged in Parma in 1725, with a cast which had previously premiered Vinci's La Rosmira fedele (see below). Notable amongst the singers was Faustina Bordoni, one of Handel's 'Rival Queens' and future wife of Johan Hasse. We hear two arias, both sung by Camilla, 'Sembro quell’usignolo' and 'Più non so finger sdegni', which was re-used by Handel in his 1725 […]
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