Felice Salimbeni

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Portrait of Felice Salimbeni by Georg Friedrich Schmidt (1751)
The castrato Felice Salimbeni during an opera performance of the Royal Court Theater Berlin. Costume figurine.

Felice Salimbeni (* around 1712 in Milan ; † October 16, 1755 in Vrhnika near Ljubljana ) was an Italian opera singer ( castrato / soprano ).

Life

As a child of destitute parents, he went through the classical singing training of a castrato with Nicola Antonio Porpora together with the old castrato Giuseppe Appiani . In 1731 Salimbeni first appeared in opera productions. In the carnival season in Teatro Capranica in Rome, he first sang in the first listed on 12 January 1732 Opera Cajo Fabrizio of Johann Adolph Hasse , the role of Bircenna. Here he performed together with his castrati colleagues Caffarelli (Pirro), Domenico Annibali (Cajo Fabrizio) and Angelo Maria Monticelli (Sestia). This first line-up was one of the few cases in which Salimbeni appeared in a female role, but at the same time it was Hasse's first opera, whose music Salimbeni was to sing often. In the two following seasons of the Teatro Capranica Salimbeni could be heard in two productions by his teacher Porpora: as Ersinda in Germanico in Germania (world premiere on February 11, 1732) and as Giasone in Issipile (world premiere on January 24, 1733). In May 1733 he appeared as Ariodante in the opera Ginevra by the lesser-known Italian composer Giuseppe Sellitto at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice.

Singer at the Kaiserhof in Vienna

In the summer of 1733 Salimbeni became a singer at the Imperial Opera in Vienna. It is reported that the imperial court poet Pietro Metastasio took particular care of Salimbenis and arranged opera libretti especially for him. In the libretto of the opera L'olimpiade , which premiered on August 30, 1733 , Metastasio is said to have incorporated a description of the singer himself into the description of the Megacle, the role that Salimbeni also sang. This description of the Megacle is:

«Io l'ò presente. Avea
Bionde le chiome, oscuro i ciglio, i labbri
Vermigli si, ma tumidetti, e forse
Oltre il dover; Gli sguardi
Lenti e pietosi un arossir frequency
Un suave parlar »

“I always have her (his figure) in front of my eyes. He had blond hair, black eyebrows, and beautiful red lips, but a little raised, and perhaps a little too much; his gaze was humble and gentle; he often blushed; his language was sweet. "

His next major appearances in such an opera specially arranged for him took place in the role of Sesto in the first performance of the opera La clemenza di Tito on November 4, 1734, in Achille in Sciro on February 13, 1736 and in Ciro riconosciuto on August 28 1736, all set to music by the imperial court composer Antonio Caldara .

Christoph Schaffrath was later one of his teachers . Stations in his career included the opera houses in Rome, Vienna, Berlin and Dresden. He sang title roles in operas by Antonio Caldara and Nicola Porpora , among others .

Rating

Salimbeni was regarded as an outstanding Hasse interpreter and one of the most famous singers of his time.

literature

  • Salimbeni, Felice. In: Wilibald Gurlitt , Carl Dahlhaus (Hrsg.): Riemann Musiklexikon . In three volumes and two supplementary volumes. 12th completely revised edition. 2. Personal part L – ZB Schotts-Söhne, Mainz 1959, p. 568 (first edition: 1882).
  • Johann Adam Hiller : Life descriptions of famous music scholars and musicians of recent times. Part 1. Leipzig: Dyk 1784, pp. 232–240 ( digitized version of the Bavarian State Library).
  • Friedrich Karl Gottlob Hirsching : Historical-literary handbook of famous and memorable people which in the 18th century. died. Schwickert, Leipzig 1807, pp. 80–83 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  • Moritz Fürstenau : On the history of music and theater at the court of the electors of Saxony and kings of Poland. Rudolf Kuntze, Dresden 1862. Part 2, pp. 262–266 ( digitized version of the Bavarian State Library).

Web links

Commons : Felice Salimbeni  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Adolph Hasse: Cajo Fabrizio. Rome, January 12th 1732 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  2. ^ Nicola Porpora: Germanico in Germania. Rome, [11] February 1732 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  3. ^ Nicola Porpora: Issipile. Rome, January 24th 1733 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  4. ^ Giuseppe Sellitto: Genevra. Venice, May 13th 1733 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  5. ^ Johann Adam Hiller : Life descriptions of famous music scholars and musicians of recent times. Part 1. Leipzig: Dyk 1784, p. 234 ( digitized version of the Bavarian State Library).
  6. ^ Libretto of the L'olimpiade (setting Antonio Caldara, Vienna August 30, 1733) . First act, scene 4.
  7. ^ Johann Adam Hiller : Life descriptions of famous music scholars and musicians of recent times. Part 1. Leipzig: Dyk 1784, p. 233 ( digitized version of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).
  8. ↑ Riemann Music Lexicon , 1959.
personal data
SURNAME Salimbeni, Felice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (castrato / soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1712
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1755
Place of death Vrhnika near Ljubljana