Elisabetta Pilotti

Elisabetta Pilotti (*?; † May 5, 1742 in Hanover ) was an Italian opera singer ( soprano ) who is best known for her participation in some of the early operas by Georg Friedrich Handel .

Life

Nothing is known about Elisabetta Pilotti's childhood and youth. She was married to the cellist Giovanni Schiavonetti (died 1730) and is therefore also known as Elisabetta Pilotti Schiavonetti . Together with her husband, she was employed at the electoral court in Hanover from 1707 at the latest .

1710 she moved to England , where she sang in the next seven years, not only for the royal family, but also as a prima donna in Italian opera at the Queen's Theater occurred (under Queen Anne , from 1710 to 1713), the 1714 under I. George as King's Theater was known. Her husband was meanwhile a member of the opera orchestra.

She made her London debut in Francesco Mancini's opera Idaspe fedele alongside the famous castrato soprano Nicolino .

In 1711, Elisabetta Pilotti sang the role of the sorceress Armida with great success in the world premiere of Handel's first opera Rinaldo, which was composed for England , again alongside Nicolino. She was the only singer to appear in all 47 performances that this opera had up to 1717. Handel composed two other magical roles for her: the particularly vengeful Medea in Teseo (1713) and Melissa in Amadigi (1715). The pilotti was also the first amaryllis in Il pastor fido (1712), and it is believed that she also sang the metella in Handel's Silla (1713), but there is no evidence of this.

She also sang in London in Francesco Gasparini's operas Antioco and Ambleto (1712) and in Giovanni Bononcini's Etearco and took part in the pasticci Ercole , Dorinda , Ernelinda , Lucio Vero and Clearte .

In 1712 she and her husband were back in Germany with the Elector, where it can be proven that she sang for the Electress. Two London opera librettos (including Handel's Rinaldo , 1711) show that Elisabetta Pilotti was initially chamber singer for Electress Sophie von Hannover (1620–1714); after her death she was referred to in other libretti (including Amadigi , 1715) as " Servant to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales ", so she was then in the service of Princess Caroline . She seems to have appreciated this very much, because she is said to have supported the singer and her husband in 1725 with a pension of 1000 Scudi a year.

From 1722 to 1724 the Pilotti, her husband and their son, who was known as the “young Schiavonetto” and was an oboist , had an engagement at the court of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg , Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn . In 1726 she sang a comic opera Pyramus und Thisbe at the Württembergischer Hof in Stuttgart , conducted by her husband Giovanni Schiavonetti, who died in 1730.

She apparently spent the last years of her life in Hanover, where she died in 1742.

Appreciation

Elisabetta Pilotti Schiavonetti was one of Handel's most important prima donnas and a great artist. The parts he wrote for her show that she must have had considerable virtuosity and expressiveness. The Pilotti had a large range of at least two octaves : Handel had it sing a high c '' ' in the aria "Molto voglio, molto spero" in Rinaldo , a note that at that time was rarely required by a soprano and Handel himself composed only once again in 1730 for Anna Maria Strada del Pò in Partenope , and later for the castrato soprano Gioacchino Conti (in Atalanta , 1736, and in Arminio , 1737). The Pilotti's voice must have had considerable volume and a relatively brilliant timbre : in Melissa's revenge aria “Desterò dall'empio Dite” in Amadigi (Act II), Handel at least lets it vie with a trumpet . On the other hand, the same part requires a wide range of expression , from grief and despair (“Ah! Spietato!” Act I) to declarations of love and anger up to stage death with the last broken strength in Act III. The role of Medea in Teseo is decidedly dramatic, and all in all one can rightly view Elisabetta Pilotti as an early example of a dramatic coloratura soprano .

literature

• Winton Dean: Pilotti-Schiavonetti, Elisabetta , online at Oxford Music online (English; accessed June 21, 2020)
• David Wyn Jones: 4. Schiavonetti, (Zanetti) Giovanni , in: Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain , Routledge, London / NewYork, 2016 (originally from Ashgate Publishing, 2000), p. 139, excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed on June 21, 2020)
• Judit Zsovár: Anna Maria Strada del Pò, Handel's Prima Donna: Portrait of an uncommon voice , dissertation at the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, 2016

Web links

• Elisabetta Pilotti , short bio online at Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed on June 21, 2020)

Individual proof

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Winton Dean: Pilotti-Schiavonetti, Elisabetta , online at Oxford Music online (English; accessed on June 21, 2020)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} David Wyn Jones: 4. Schiavonetti, (Zanetti) Giovanni , in: Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain , Routledge, London / NewYork, 2016 (originally from Ashgate Publishing, 2000), p. 139 , in excerpts online as a Google Book (English; accessed on June 21, 2020)
3. ↑ Elisabetta Pilotti , short bio online at Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed on June 21, 2020)
4. ↑ In the aria "L'amor ed il destin".
5. ↑ Judit Zsovár: Anna Maria Strada del Pò, Handel's Prima Donna: Portrait of voice of uncommon , dissertation at the Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, 2016, pp 161-162.