Catherine Tofts

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The singer Catherine Tofts (white dress), behind Margherita de L'Épine (red muff), the singer Nicolino (in red) and the composer Francesco Haym on the harpsichord in 1709 during rehearsals in the Haymarket Theater. Marco Ricci painted this motif in six versions.
Palazzino on the Grand Canal.
Villa in Mogliano.

Catherine Tofts (born around 1685 in England; died 1756 in Venice ) was an English opera singer (soprano).

Life

Catherine Tofts came from within the family of Gilbert Burnet , Bishop of Salisbury . Tofts became an opera singer at London's Queen's Theater on Haymarket in the early days of Italian opera in England. Their first appearance in London can be traced back to 1703. In 1705 she was the first English woman to sing at a performance of an Italian opera in an ensemble of Italian singers.

In 1705 she took part in the premiere of the Opera seria Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus by Thomas Clayton . Nicola Francesco Haym taught 1706 Bononcini in 1696 in Italy premiered Trionfo di Camilla after an English libretto new one. Tofts sang in the premiere of Camilla , the production was the first in the Italian style in London and was also a great success in the following years. Tofts continued to appear in the operas Rosamond (1707), Thomyris (1707), Trionfo dell'Amore (1708), Pirro et Demetrio (1708) and Clotilda (1709). When she sang with the castrato Nicolini, he sang in Italian and she sang in English because of insufficient language skills. The impresario of the Drury Lane Theater Colley Cibber praised the "silver tone" of her voice.

Her fee was significantly higher than that of the other musicians. With the theater manager Christopher Rich in 1706 she led a dispute about mutual contractual obligations that has been handed down in the archives. She competed with the Italian (?) Soprano Margherita de L'Épine for the reputation of " Primadonna assoluta ". In 1704 there was an incident in the Haymarket Theater when Tofts' maid whistled off the épine and threw oranges at Tofts. Tofts had to distance himself from what had happened in a letter to the Daily Courant . In 1709, Marco Ricci, who worked in London, painted the picture of an opera rehearsal in which the prima donnas turned their backs on each other. Ricci's picture emphasizes the beauty of the tofts. Ricci and Tofts later met again at Smith's in Venice, and Ricci dedicated a painting to Tofts.

Presumably Alexander Pope wrote a mocking poem about her beauty and her character.

So bright is your beauty, so charming your song,
As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along:
But such is thy av'rice, and such is thy pride.
That the beasts must have starv'd, and the poet have died.

In 1709 Tofts left the London stage and came to Venice in 1711. In 1712 the Daily Courant reported on a concert by Toft in Venice. Presumably in 1717 she married the later English consul in Venice Joseph Smith (1674/1682 to 1770). The son John, born in 1721, died in 1727, his tombstone is in the Chiesa dei Santi Apostoli . From the fortune developed by both of them, now jointly, Smith acquired a palazzino on the Grand Canal and a villa on the Terraferma in Mogliano Veneto . Tofts later became nervous and died in 1756. She owned 20 cats, which she considered in her will. Joseph Smith was then married one more time to Elizabeth Murray, forty years his junior, who moved back to England after his death.

Tofts and Smith were buried on the Lido , where Goethe paid his respects to the grave on his Italian trip in 1778 ; the tombstone was later placed in the Anglican St George's Church on Campo San Vio in Dorsoduro, Venice .

grades

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Philip H Highfill; Kalman A Burnim; Edward A Langhans: A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, managers & other stage personnel in London, 1660–1800 . Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993, (1973), pp. 11-16
  2. ^ Allardyce Nicoll : A history of English drama 1660-1900. 3. Late eighteenth century drama 1750–1800 . Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1979, p. 290.
  3. ↑ s: en: The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift / Volume 17 / On Mrs. Tofts , at Wikisource
  4. ↑ a b Proof of sheet music from WorldCat
personal data
SURNAME Tofts, Catherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1685
PLACE OF BIRTH England
DATE OF DEATH 1756
Place of death Venice