Anna Renzi

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Anna Rentia Romana , engraving by Jacobus Pecinus Venetus, 1644.

Anna Renzi , called " Romana " (also Anna Rentia or Renzini ; * approx. 1620, probably in Rome ; † after 1662) was an Italian opera singer ( soprano ). She is generally considered to be the first real prima donna in Venetian opera.

Life

Her father was Pietro Renzi, who, like herself, was referred to as " romano ", meaning he came from Rome. Her date of birth is unknown but is usually estimated to be around 1620. Since it was common in the 17th century for singers to debut on stage very early, still as adolescents, she could very well have been a little younger and not born between 1620 and 1625.

Nothing is known about Anna Renzi's education, but she is considered a student of the not much older singer and composer Filiberto Laurenzi (born February 6, 1618), with whom she worked from around 1639 to 1644. 1639-1640 she appeared at the French ambassador in Rome in the role of Lucinda in Laurenzi's opera Il favorito del principe .

The composer Francesco Sacrati brought her to Venice, where she appeared in his opera La finta pazza during the Carnival of 1641 at the opening of the Teatro Novissimo (libretto: Giulio Strozzi ). Renzi's portrayal of Deidamia , who pretends to be insane and falls into a wide variety of emotional states, was a resounding success and established not only this opera for decades, but also the form of the insane scene . The singer was admired for her acting as well as her musical talents.

In the years that followed, she starred in a number of other operas that were tailor-made for her. In 1642 she sang Archimene in Sacratis Bellerofonte , and in 1643 in the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo sang Aretusa in La finta savia , with music by Laurenzi and other composers. In the same year Claudio Monteverdi used her expressive talents for the role of Ottavia in L 'Incoronazione di Poppea . Since this role is quite small and limited to tragic expressions and recitatives , and because Renzi's versatile qualities were not fully exploited, it is sometimes suggested that she may also sang the lively and happy role of Drusilla (Schneider, 2012).

In the meantime, with her appearances in an opera, she earned the unusually high sum of 750 ducats for her time , more than any other singer (Glixon, 1995, p. 514). This was followed again at the Teatro Novissimo in 1644, the title role in an opera Deidamia , the music of which presumably came from Laurenzi (libretto: Scipione Errico).

In 1644 the librettist Giulio Strozzi (and adoptive father of Barbara Strozzi ) published the praise Le glorie della signora Anna Renzi romana ("The glories of Signora Anna Renzi from Rome"), with contributions from various other authors of the Accademia degli Incogniti ("Academy of the Unknowns") ) - a circle of educated aristocrats who promoted the development of Venetian opera (including through their own libretti). This publication owes posterity the only known portrait of the singer (see above) and Strozzi's, for the time, relatively precise descriptions of the singing and performance of the Renzi (see below). He also described her character: "Signora Anna, by nature with a melancholy temperament, is a woman of few words, but these are appropriate, sensitive and valuable because of their beautiful statements."

The Englishman John Evelyn heard her in 1645 as Rodopea in Ercole in Lidia by Giovanni Rovetta and wrote that the famous "Anna Rencia" was considered the best female soprano in Italy at the time; Evelyn herself found a castrato contributing even better (" ... famous voices, Anna Rencia, a novel, and reputed the best treble of women; but there was an eunuch who, in my opinion, surpassed her "). After further appearances by the Renzi in the Carnival of 1646, the English invited her to dinner, where she appeared together with a castrato and sang some "rare pieces" on the harpsichord .

On June 17, 1645, Anna Renzi signed a marriage contract with an unidentified "Ruberto Sabbatini, romano" (Glixon, 1995, pp. 515-529), who might be a singer who was in the service of Archduke in 1648 Leopold Wilhelm stood (Liebrecht, 1921, pp. 560–564; Hill, 1976, p. 45); or a violin virtuoso who worked at the court in Innsbruck in the 1650s and later in Neuburg (Senn, 1954, p. 263 f.). In the literature, it is often doubted whether the wedding actually took place, since Renzi does not appear as a married woman in the later known documents.

While the Venetian theaters remained closed "because of the turmoil of war" between 1645 and 1647, it was temporarily in Rome in the autumn of 1647, but it is documented that at the end of the 1640s and in the 1650s her main residence was in Venice, where she worked at the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo sang in the operas Torilda by Francesco Cavalli (?) And Argiope by Alessandro Leardini .

From around 1650 she also gave a number of guest appearances outside of Venice. So she was probably in Florence at the end of 1649 or 1650 (probably in Deidamia from 1644) and sang in Genoa in early 1653 , including in Antonio Cestis Cesare amante .

This was followed by a first stay at the court of Innsbruck , from October 30, 1652 to the end of August 1654, where she a. a. sang the title role in Cestis Cleopatra (= Cesare amante ). After a stopover in Venice, with appearances in Pietro Andrea Ziani's Eupatra at the Teatro di Sant'Apollinare, she was again in Innsbruck in the second half of 1655 to take part in the celebrations for the conversion of Christine of Sweden to the Catholic faith. In the performance of Cesti's opera Argia (text: Giovanni Filippo Apolloni ) she was the only woman among all castrati and men and was presented with a medal and chain by the Swedish ex-queen . On the return trip to Venice, she and other singers had to go to a hospital in Verona for medical reasons .

Anna Renzi's last proven appearance in Venice took place in the Carnival of 1657, in the Teatro Sant'Appolinare, as Damira in Ziani's opera Le Fortune di Rodope e Damira (text: Aurelio Aureli ), again in a role as a supposedly “madwoman”.

Possibly she was back in Innsbruck in January 1660. It seems as if she wanted to marry again in November 1662, but from then on her trail is lost. Her date and place of death are not yet known.

Orazio Tarditi dedicated his canzonette amorose a 2 e 3 voci , published in Venice in 1642 , to the “very famous and virtuoso Signora Anna Renzi” (“ molto illustre e virtuosissima signora Anna Renzi ”) . Several poets also praised her in some sonnets : Scipione Errico in his Poesie liriche (Venice 1646, p. 14), Pietro Paolo Bissari in the first book of his Stille d'Ippocrene (Venice 1648, p. 23 and 86), Giovan Francesco Loredan in Ragguagli di Parnaso (in: Bizzarrie accademiche , II, Venice 1654, pp. 196–198) and Bernardo Morando in the first volume of his Fantasie poetiche (Piacenza 1662, p. 38).

Appreciation

Anna Renzi's career falls shortly after the first public, commercial opera houses were founded in Venice, in the 1640s to the 1650s. A celebrated star of her time, the opera's first prima donna, she was praised for her unusually versatile range of expressions, which ranged from the comic to the tragic, which is why Strozzi compared her to the muses Thalia and Melpomene .

He also described in detail her acting skills and how she used posture, gestures, facial expressions and voice to express a wide variety of emotions, and occasionally suddenly burst out laughing or crying. Her game was "so lifelike that the answers and speeches seem as if they had not been learned by heart, but were created in the moment" (" ... sì viva che paiono le risposte ei discorsi non appresi dalla memoria, ma nati allora " ). She learned all of this by “quietly observing the actions of others; and when she is supposed to portray them (...), she shows her spirit and worth together with what she has learned through her observations "(" ... va tacitamente osservando le azioni altrui, e quando poi ha da rappresentarle [.. .] mostra lo spirito e valor suo appreso con lo studio delle osservazioni fatte ”) (Strozzi: Le Glorie ... , 1644, pp. 8-11).

Strozzi, who as the adoptive father of Barbara Strozzi knew his way around these things, reports on her singing qualities: “She has a fluent tongue and soft pronunciation, not affected, not (too) fast; a full, sonorous voice, not rough, not hoarse, and which does not offend the ear with excessive delicacy; it (the voice) comes from the temperament of the chest and throat, for which you need a good voice and a lot of warmth to expand the passages and enough moisture to make them soft and gentle. "

Apart from a pleasant, beautiful and full voice, Anna Renzi also possessed “happy passages” and the so-called “double trill ” ( trillo doppio ), which she could sing both “lightly and forte” (“ ha il passaggio felice e 'l trillo doppio, gagliardo e rinforzato ”; Strozzi: Le Glorie ... , 1644, pp. 8-11). Her dramatic and vocal qualities would not have suffered even if she had to perform many evenings in a row, as happened after her debut in Sacratis La finta pazza , when she had to sing 12 performances in 17 days.

From Anna Renzi's repertoire only the music for four roles remains: Deidamia in La finta Pazza by Sacrati, Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi; Aretusa in La finta savia by Laurenzi; and Damira in Ziani's Le fortune di Rodope e Damira . This shows that, in addition to a wide range of expression, she had an agile and flexible voice, although not as “unusually virtuoso” as it later became customary.

literature

  • Nicola Badolato: Renzi, Anna , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 87, 2016, online on Treccani (Italian; accessed January 31, 2020)
  • Rebecca Cypess: Anna Renzi , in: Encyclopaedia Britannica (update January 1, 2020), online (English; accessed January 31, 2020)
  • Beth Glixon: Private Lives of Public Women: Primadonnas in Mid-Seventeenth-Century Venice , in: Music and Letters 76, 1995, pp. 509-531
  • Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 43–50, online (English; accessed January 31, 2020)
  • Ellen Rosand: Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice - The creation of a genre , University of California Press, Berkeley / LosAngeles / Oxford, 1991, p. 121, p. 228–234, online (English; accessed January 31, 2020)
  • Claudio Sartori: La prima diva della lirica italiana: Anna Renzi , in: Nuova rivista musicale italiana 2, 1968, pp. 430–452
  • Joachim Steinheuer: Renzi, Anna , in: MGG online , 2005/2016, online (accessed on January 31, 2020)
  • Thomas Walker: Renzi (Rentia, Renzini), Anna , in: Oxford Music online , 2001, online (English; accessed on January 31, 2020)

Web links

  • Barbara Boisits: Renzi (Rentia, Renzini), Anna , in: Österreichisches Musiklexikon online (accessed on January 31, 2020)
  • Anna Renzi , biography online at Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed February 1, 2020)

Individual notes

  1. ↑ a b c Joachim Steinheuer: Renzi, Anna , in: MGG online , 2005/2016, online (accessed on January 31, 2020)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Nicola Badolato: Renzi, Anna , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 87, 2016, online on Treccani (Italian; accessed January 31, 2020)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Rebecca Cypess: Anna Renzi , in: Encyclopaedia Britannica (update January 1, 2020), online (English; accessed January 31, 2020)
  4. ↑ Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers ,… 2005, online , p. 43
  5. ↑ a b c d Thomas Walker: Renzi (Rentia, Renzini), Anna , in: Oxford Music online , 2001, online (English; accessed January 31, 2020)
  6. ↑ Ellen Rosand: Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice - The creation of a genre , University of California Press, Berkeley / LosAngeles / Oxford, 1991, online , pp. 110–121
  7. ↑ Here from the English: " Signora Anna, of melancholy temperament by nature, is a woman of few words, but those are appropriate, sensibel, and worthy for her beautiful sayings ." Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 43-50, here: p. 47, online
  8. ↑ Ellen Rosand: Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice - The creation of a genre , University of California Press, Berkeley / LosAngeles / Oxford, 1991, online , p. 121.
  9. ↑ (The diary of John Evelyn, edited by ES de Beer, II, Oxford 1955, pp. 449-452, 474 f.). Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 43–50, here: p. 46, online
  10. ↑ The diary of John Evelyn , ed. ES de Beer, II, Oxford 1955, pp. 449-452, 474 f. Here after: Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 43–50, here: p. 46, online
  11. ↑ Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 43–50, here: pp. 46 and 48, online
  12. ↑ As of January 2020
  13. ↑ Ellen Rosand: The Primadonna , in: Kapitel 8 I piú canori cigni e le suavissime sirene: The Singers , in: Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice - The creation of a genre , University of California Press, Berkeley / LosAngeles / Oxford, 1991 , online , p. 232
  14. ↑ Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers ,… 2005, online , pp. 44–45
  15. ↑ Here from the English (after Strozzi): “ She has a fluent tongue, smooth pronunciation, not affected, not rapid, a full, sonorous voice, not harsh, not hoarse, nor one that offends you with excessive subtlety; which arises from the temperament of the chest and throat, for which good voice much warmth is needed to expand the passages, and enough humidity to soften it and make it tender "(Strozzi: Le Glorie ... , 1644, Appendix II.2b ). Ellen Rosand: The Primadonna , in: Kapitel 8 I piú canori cigni e le suavissime sirene: The Singers , in: Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice - The creation of a genre , University of California Press, Berkeley / LosAngeles / Oxford, 1991, online , p. 232
  16. ↑ Strozzi here is obviously influenced by the ancient teaching of the elements and humors.
  17. ↑ This may not only mean written out runs , but also improvised "arbitrary" decorations.
  18. ↑ “ Doppio ” here probably refers to the speed of the note values, ie a fast trill that is very likely to be struck in the throat.
  19. ↑ Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Anna Renzi , in: Five Centuries of Women Singers , Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, online , p. 45
personal data
SURNAME Renzi, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rentia, Anna; Renzini, Anna; Romana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1620
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Rome
DATE OF DEATH after 1662