Giulia Masotti

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

( Vincenza ) Giulia Masotti , called La Dori , Signora Giulia or Giulia Romana (approx. 1650 probably in Rome - June 26, 1701 in Vienna ) was an Italian opera singer ( soprano ). She is considered the greatest prima donna and highest paid singer of the 1660s and 1670s.

Life

Rome and Venice 1650–1673

Giulia Masotti's exact date of birth is not known, but according to Janet Paige she is said to have been 50 years old when she died in Vienna in 1701.

Giulia was a student of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome and was initially promoted by Princess Margherita Brangiforte di Butera . She first sang for the cultured circles of the Roman nobility, and her patrons included the Tuscan ambassador (or resident) Torquato Montauto and members of the Medici family , Prince Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna (1637–1689) and his wife Maria Mancini and later the Cardinals Sigismondo and Flavio Chigi .

Valeria De Lucca pointed out that Giulia may have appeared in the opera Orontea by Antonio Cesti (music) and Giovanni Filippo Apolloni ( libretto ) as early as 1661 , probably first in Rome in the Palazzo Colonna and later in Florence in the same year (where one is not exactly identified "Giulia" was one of the singers).

In 1662 an agent of the Medici heard them at a concert in Montauto's house and found their singing "exquisite"; he also described her as a young girl who, though not pretty, was very well mannered . Only a few months later, for the Carnival 1662–63, she was hired by the Venetian nobleman and impresario Abbé Vettor Grimani Calergi to Venice, where she made her debut in Cesti's opera La Dori as prima donna at the Teatro San Luca, with great success . Despite her apparently very young age, her part was changed according to her wishes, because she wanted to sing more " allegro " - that is, lively arias with runs and coloratura - "and not affettuoso ". Her stage partner, the castrato and primo uomo Giuseppe Ghini, reported on the enthusiastic jubilation of the audience :

«La Romana [del] Serenissimo Signore poi ha tanto applauso che a mala fatica la lasciano finire che gridano a tal segno che niente più. I sonetti ogni sera volano per il teatro che abbagliano la vista delle persone […] »

“The Most Serene Lord's Roman woman gets so much applause that they hardly let her finish her arias, they immediately start screaming like never before. So many sonnets fly through the theater every evening that it takes people's eyes off. "

- Giuseppe Ghini : Letter to Leopoldo de 'Medici , January 27, 1663

Another eyewitness reported that the new singer from Rome had outperformed the previous diva Caterina Porri, "she liked her so much, and you can certainly not be better, neither vocally nor in the representation of feelings ( affetti )." From this her debut, Giulia also remained the nickname "La Dori".

Back in Rome, she was besieged with letters by the impresario Grimani Calergi and other aristocratic patrons so that she could return to Venice, but she kept complaining that the journey was too strenuous for her and about her poor health. After some back and forth, she returned to Venice in the next season 1663–64 and sang in the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo in the opera Rosilena by Giovanni Battista Volpe and in Francesco Cavalli's Scipione affricano .

In the next few years, too, attempts were made to bring her to Venice, but she always refused for the same reasons. Only when she was offered immensely high fees was she ready to come back to Venice for the Carnival of 1666–67. This time she sang in Pietro Andrea Ziani's Alciade and again in Cesti's La Dori , which was put on the repertoire at the last minute as a replacement for another opera that Giulia Masotti hadn't liked.

In Rome in August 1668 she sang in a serenata with Cardinal Flavio Chigi , and performed with great success in the Carnival of 1669 in Venice at the Teatro San Luca in Cesti's opera L'Argia , where her interpretation of the aria " Duri lacci Argia sciogliete " ( in the third act) was so popular that it was considered more valuable than a successful (!) opera at a competing theater.

From 1670 to 1673 she continued to appear in Venice at the opera. Since she stayed on a Grimani estate in the Veneto between the seasons , she no longer had any problems with the strenuous journeys and her health. In addition to the brothers Giovanni Carlo Grimani and Vincenzo Grimani, who ran the family's theaters, “Nicoletto” Dolfin was one of their Venetian patrons . 1670–71 she sang at the Theater San Giovanni e Paolo in the operas La Semiramide and L'Heraclio by Pietro Andrea Ziani. Since the former was unsuccessful with the audience, it was replaced at short notice by Masotti's favorite opera and the popular success La Dori by Cesti. The agent of Duke Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig-Calenberg reported: "... Giulia Romana let us hear miracles, which she performed ... with more sweetness and nectar than in the first opera."

1671–72 she appeared in Zianis Attila and Pagliardis Caligola delirante . The last opera she sang in Venice was the not very successful Domitiano (in Carnival 1673) by Giovanni Antonio Boretti, who died shortly before the premiere.

Vienna 1673–1701

As early as 1666, Antonio Cesti, who worked for the imperial court, reported that Vienna intended to hire Giulia Masotti as a singer for Margarita Teresa , Leopold I's first wife . However, these plans were only implemented after Margarita’s death. Giulia first appeared at the celebrations for the official engagement of Leopold to his second wife Claudia Felicitas on September 5, 1673 in Innsbruck ; on October 15th she sang at the actual wedding in Graz . An anonymous eyewitness reports (from Innsbruck):

«Chiuse così lieto giorno la dolce melodia d'una serenata d'Instrumenti, e voci esquisite, resa singolare dal canto della famosa Sra Giulia Romana, che havendo accoppiato il suo gran talento naturale, con uno studio infaticabile, hà accreditata su le rive del Tebro la favolosa memoria delle antiche Sirene, delle quali si narra, che con dolcezza del canto vi facessero in quei tempi più preda, che non saprebbero rapir hoggi tutti i Pirati del'Affrica »

"This so-happy day was decided by the sweet melody of a Serenata with instruments and exquisite voices that was very unique, which her great natural talent has combined with a tireless study by the singing of the famous Signora Giulia Romana, and on the banks of the Tiber , the The fabulous memory of the ancient sirens makes believable, of which it is said that with the loveliness of their song they stole more prey in those times than all pirates of Africa nowadays. "

- Breve descrizzione del viaggio, et arrivo in Gratz della Maestà dell'Imperatrice Claudia Felice… e Delle Augustissime Nozze celebrate con la medesima dalla Maestà Cesarea dell'Imperator Leopoldo (Graz 1673)

After the wedding, Giulia traveled in a sedan chair and accompanied by Antonio Maria Viviani, the music master of the new Empress, from Graz to Vienna, where she arrived around the beginning of December. For her employment in the chamber music of the empress she received an annual sum of 1,500 florins plus various natural items, firewood and gifts. This was not an “astronomical sum”, but more than most of the other musicians earned at the imperial court. Her colleagues included some singers, whom she probably knew from Venice, and the violinist Theresia Schmelzer, daughter of the Vice-Kapellmeister Johann Heinrich Schmelzer , as well as a "singing girl" (" una ragazza che canta di Musica ").

As the prima donna of the Viennese court, Giulia sang in the imperial "house concerts" often together with the highly paid castrato Vincenzino (aka Vincenzo Olivicciani), sometimes together with the musical Empress Claudia Felicitas herself.

A number of larger opera appearances are also documented: On the emperor's birthday on June 9 and 10, 1674, she sang the role of Eraclea in Antonio Draghis and Nicolò Minato's Il ratto delle Sabine , alongside Vincenzino. Leopold himself reported in a letter to Count Harrach: “Giulia has kept herself in tutta perfettione ”. Another listener noted that the participation of women in this opera was something completely new at the imperial court.

After the birth of the first child of Leopold and Claudia Felicitas, Giulia sang the role of the "noble Vestalin Claudia" on October 30, 1674 in the Festa teatrale Il fuoco eterno custodito dalle Vestali , with a text by Minato and music by Antonio Draghi, Emperor Leopold , and JH Schmelzer. The singers included the castrati Vincenzino, "Clemente" ( Clemens Hader ) and "Franzl" (Adam Franz Günther, son of the organist Karl Günther at the Michaelerkirche in Vienna). It is conceivable that Giulia appeared in other opera productions of the Viennese court, but without this being mentioned in contemporary correspondence or libretti, because in the 17th century it was not customary for the performers to be listed in a libretto.

Even after the death of Claudia Felicitas on April 8, 1676, the singer stayed in Vienna and was now assigned to the imperial court orchestra.

After Giulia was initially engaged to Andreas Anton, the son of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, who had broken this connection for financial reasons (!) In autumn 1675, she married the young violinist Ignaz Leopold Kugler (* approx . 1654), member of the court orchestra and son of the imperial concert master Burckhardt Kugler von Edlfeldt (ennobled 1672). The wedding took place at court in the Empress's chambers “in the presence of many courtiers”, which was a great honor for a non-aristocratic singer and indicates the high esteem Giulia Masotti (and her husband) enjoyed at the imperial court.

It is not known exactly what Giulia did at the Viennese court after her marriage and whether she continued to sing for the court. However, she continued to receive a prima donna salary of 1860 florins, while a simple (and married) singer received only 360 florins.

She and her husband had four children and lived with her family in 1679 in the so-called "Hungarian House" near the Augustinian monastery near the Hofburg , and around 1684 at the Graben . Giulia's husband died in 1686. In 1696 Giulia (for health reasons?) Made a trip to her homeland Rome, together with her daughter Teresia.

Vincenza Giulia Masotti died in Vienna on June 26, 1701.

Her daughter Teresia (1682-1711) was her student and also became a singer. She married the theorbist and composer Francesco Conti in 1705 and, like her mother, also sang at the imperial court, where she was referred to as "Frau Theresia Continin Kayl Hoff Musicant" when she died. Conti later married the prima donna Maria Landini .

Appreciation

Giulia Masotti was a singer who appeared in aristocratic circles in Rome and Vienna, but also as a highly paid and celebrated prima donna in the commercial opera in Venice. She was not only celebrated for her wonderful voice and her singing, which are said to have been sweet as “nectar”, her expressiveness must also have been remarkable, for example Francesco Maria Massi described how “Signora Giulia” wrote the aria “ Io moro ” (“ I'm dying ”)“ very, very tenderly and very softly, softly ”(“ dolcino dolcino, e pianino, pianino ”) ended.

She also had a significant impact on libretti and music. In the operas that were composed or newly arranged for her, she challenged and received the largest and most virtuoso female role with the most arias. Beth L. Glixon also pointed out that apparently for Giulia (and her adoring audience) a new custom of an aria finale for the prima donna at the end of an opera was introduced (instead of a concluding ensemble or duet ); and that with Giulia Masotti's appearances in Venice between 1662 and 1673 “the era of the prima donna began”.

In Vienna, too, Giulia had an outstanding position as one of the highest paid musicians at the imperial court of Leopold I, even if her musical activities from the period after 1676 are little documented.

literature

  • Beth and Jonathan Glixon: Case study: the recruiting of Giulia Masotti. In: Inventing the Business of Opera: The Impresario and His World in Seventeenth Century Venice. Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 209–214, (reading excerpt, English, books.google.at ).
  • Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music. Volume 17 (2011), No. 1, 2015, sscm-jscm.org (English; accessed on December 27, 2019).
  • Valeria De Lucca: The Power of the Prima Donna: Giulia Masotti's Repertoire of Choice. In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music. Volume 17 (2011), No. 1, 2015, sscm-jscm.org (English; accessed December 27, 2019)
  • Sergio Monaldini:  Masotti, Vincenza Giulia. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 71:  Marsilli – Massimino da Salerno. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2008, pp. 661-663.
  • Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music. Volume 17 (2011), No. 1, 2015, sscm-jscm.org (English; accessed on December 27, 2019).
  • Colleen Reardon: Letters from the Road: Giulia Masotti and Cardinal Sigismondo Chigi. In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music. Volume 17 (2011), No. 1, 2015, sscm-jscm.org (English; accessed on December 28, 2019).
  • Ellen Rosand: Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre , University of California Press, 1990, pp. 224–26, p. 235, pp. 239–240 (English; books.google.at ).

Web links

  • Giulia Masotti dite La Dori (also [Vincenza Giulia] [Julia] [Joanna]) , short biography on Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed December 26, 2019)

Individual notes

  1. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music. Volume 17 (2011), No. 1, 2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 2.2.
  2. ^ A b Valeria De Lucca: The Power of the Prima Donna: Giulia Masotti's Repertoire of Choice. In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music. Volume 17 (2011), No. 1, 2015, online (accessed on December 27, 2019), Section 2.1.
  3. ↑ a b Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 2.1.
  4. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 2.3.
  5. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 3.9.
  6. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 3.10.
  7. ↑ “Sopra l'altre cose vi è una donna nuova venuta di Roma c'ha tolto tutto il vanto a Caterina Porri, tanto è piaciuta, e certo non si può migliorare nè in voce, nè in rappresentazione d'affetti” . Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 3.10.
  8. ^ Valeria De Lucca: The Power of the Prima Donna: Giulia Masotti's Repertoire of Choice. … 2015, online (accessed December 27, 2019), Section 7.2.
  9. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 3.14.
  10. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 3.15.
  11. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , sections 3.16 to 4.2.
  12. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 4.3.
  13. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 5.4.
  14. ^ Valeria De Lucca: The Power of the Prima Donna: Giulia Masotti's Repertoire of Choice. … 2015, online (accessed December 27, 2019), Section 5.3.
  15. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. ... 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 5.
  16. ↑ a b Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 6.1.
  17. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , Sections 6.3, 7.1 and 7.2.
  18. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , Section 7.2.
  19. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , Table 2 "Giulia Masotti's Operatic Appearances in Venice, 1662 / 63–1672 / 73" (accessible from Section 10.1)
  20. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online (accessed December 27, 2019), Section 2.1.
  21. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 2.2.
  22. ↑ Breve descrizzione del viaggio, et arrivo in Gratz della Maestà dell'Imperatrice Claudia Felice nata Arciduchessa d'Austria & c. e Delle Augustissime Nozze celebrate con la medesima dalla Maestà Cesarea dell'Imperator Leopoldo. Graz: gl'Heredi Widmansterter, [1673]). Here after Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 2.2 (Paige also provides an English translation)
  23. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 2.4.
  24. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , Sections 2.4 and 2.5.
  25. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 4.1.
  26. ↑ a b Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 4.2 (on Vincenzino 4.3)
  27. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 4.4.
  28. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online (accessed December 27, 2019), Section 4.5.
  29. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 5.1.
  30. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 5.2.
  31. ↑ Paige found a passage from 1676 in which Giulia's further participation as a singer is questioned and says that she may have lost her voice. It is just as well conceivable, however, that the letter passage only refers to her changed status, on the one hand because of the death of the Empress, and because she was now a married woman who would soon have children (which mostly also affects the voice). Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , Section 5.4.
  32. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 5.3.
  33. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 5.3.
  34. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , section 5.5.
  35. ^ Colleen Reardon: Letters from the Road: Giulia Masotti and Cardinal Sigismondo Chigi. In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music. Volume 17 (2011), No. 1, 2015, online , Section 4.3.
  36. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , Section 6.3 and footnote 95.
  37. ↑ Janet K. Paige: Sirens on the Danube: Giulia Masotti and Women Singers at the Imperial Court. … 2015, online , Section 6.5.
  38. ↑ Francesco Maria Massi uses this comparison several times in letters to Johann Friedrich von Braunschweig, e. B. "... infused by nectar purified in the foundry of the graces". Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. ... 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 13.2.
  39. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. ... 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 13.2.
  40. ^ Valeria De Lucca: The Power of the Prima Donna: Giulia Masotti's Repertoire of Choice. … 2015, online (accessed on December 27, 2019), u. a. Sections 2.8 and 6.
  41. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. … 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , Section 10.2 and following.
  42. ^ Valeria De Lucca: The Power of the Prima Donna: Giulia Masotti's Repertoire of Choice. ... 2015, online (accessed December 27, 2019), Sections 2.2 and 4.
  43. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. ... 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 12.
  44. ↑ Beth L. Glixon: Giulia Masotti, Venice and the rise of the prima donna. ... 2011/2015, sscm-jscm.org , section 13.4.
personal data
SURNAME Masotti, Giulia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Masotti, Vincenza Giulia; La Dori; Giulia Romana; Signora Giulia; Giulia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1650
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Rome
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1701
Place of death Vienna