Isabella Girardeau

Isabella Girardeau (real: Isabella Calliari (?); Called: La Isabella , Signora Isabella , Mademoiselle Girardo ; proven 1709 to 1712) was a baroque opera singer (soprano) who worked in London . Her memory is linked to a world-famous aria by Georg Friedrich Handel .

Life

Beginning of Handel's aria Lascia ch'io pianga in the autograph ( Rinaldo , 1711)

Very little is known about this singer. According to Charles Burney , she was an Italian woman who was married to a French man . It is believed to be identical to an Isabella Calliari who appears in Quadrio's list of singers from 1700 to 1720. Because of her French surname Girardeau, she was often referred to as " Mademoiselle ".

In December 1709 she signed a contract with the Queen's Theater in London and in January 1710 appeared as Celinda in the opera ( pasticcio ?) Almahide , where, according to Burney, she had to sing two very different arias: a pathetic largo and a virtuoso aria di bravura . The following March she embodied the Mandana in Francesco Mancini's opera Idaspe fedele , alongside the famous Nicolino . In the same year she also appeared together with other opera singers and the trumpeter John Grano in a concert with the Duchess of Shrewsbury at Kensington Palace .

During the 1710-11 season, Isabella Girardeau received a fee of £ 300 for her appearances as Climene in Alessandro Scarlatti's Pirro e Demetrio , as Fronima in Giovanni Bononcini's Etearco and as the lovely Almirena in Handel's first opera, Rinaldo, written for England . In it she sang the Sarabanda “Lascia ch'io pianga” (“Let me weep”), which is probably Handel's most famous aria today. It is said that Girardeau was a "bitter rival" of Elisabetta Pilotti -Schiavonetti, the actress of the sorceress Armida (in Rinaldo ) , not only in opera but also in real life .

1711–12 she appeared in two operas by Francesco Gasparini : in Antioco in the trouser role of Oronte and in Ambleto as Veremonda, where, according to Burney, she performed “a loud aria with obbligato trumpets and oboes ” (“ a noisy song for trumpets and hautbois obligatory ”) had to sing.

After that, their track is lost. As early as 1720 "was La Isabella " as " a star of the past " ( Star of the past).

literature

• Charles Burney: A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1789), Cambridge University Press, 2010, online in excerpts as a Google Book (English; accessed on June 23, 2020)
• Winton Dean: Isabella Girardeau , article in Oxford Music online (accessed June 23, 2020)
• Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans: Girardeau, Isabella (née Calliari?) , In: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800 , Vol. 6 (Garrick to Gyngell), SIU Press, 1978, p. 226, online as a Google Book (English; accessed on June 23, 2020)
• John Grano: Handel's Trumpeter: The Diary of John Grano , online as a Google Book (English; accessed June 23, 2020)
• Julian Marshall: Girardeau, Isabella, detta La Isabella , in: A Dictionary of Music and Musicians , ed. By George Grove, 1900 (English; accessed June 23, 2020)

Web links

• Isabella Girardeau dite Signora Isabella , short biography online at Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed June 23, 2020)

Individual proof

1. ↑ Julian Marshall: Girardeau, Isabella, detta La Isabella , in: A Dictionary of Music and Musicians , ed. By George Grove, 1900 (English; accessed June 23, 2020)
2. ↑ Isabella Girardeau dite Signora Isabella , short biography online at Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed on June 23, 2020)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans: Girardeau, Isabella (née Calliari?) , In: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 , Vol. 6 (Garrick to Gyngell), SIU Press, 1978, p. 226, online as a Google Book (English; accessed on June 23, 2020)
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Winton Dean: Isabella Girardeau , article in Oxford Music online (English; accessed June 23, 2020)
5. ↑ Charles Burney: A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1789), Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 220, online in excerpts as a Google Book (English; accessed on June 23, 2020)
6. ↑ ^{a b} John Grano: Handel's Trumpeter: The Diary of John Grano , p. 278, footnote 5, online as a Google Book (English; accessed on June 23, 2020)