Maria Caterina Negri

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La Negri (probably Maria Caterina Negri) as an Amazon on a caricature by Anton Maria Zanetti

Maria Caterina Negri (born September 28, 1704 in Bologna , † after 1744) was an Italian opera singer (alto) who worked with Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Friedrich Händel , including in the world premieres of his operas Ariodante and Alcina .

Life

Her parents were Antonio Negri and Teresa Maranelli. Her older sister Rosa Negri (March 18, 1698 - after 1743) was also a singer and often appeared in smaller roles next to her (also in London with Handel).

Nothing is known precisely about your training. Fétis' (1875, p. 295) assertion that she was a student of the soprano castrato en Antonio Pasi is not documented. Maria Caterina Negri had an apparently powerful alto voice capable of coloratura with a range from the low g to the e ''.

In contemporary libretti she is sometimes only listed as "Maria Negri", and was therefore sometimes confused in literature with the soprano Caterina Bassi Negri from Modena or with another Maria Negri who worked in Italy in the 1720s and 1730s (including in Naples 1734–35 in operas by Pergolesi and Latilla ).

She made her debut at the age of 14 in the Carnival of 1719 at the Teatro Formagliari in Bologna, in the operas La Camilla regina de 'Volsci (probably by Giovanni Bononcini ) and La Partenope by Luca Antonio Predieri . In the years up to 1724 she appeared at numerous Italian opera houses, in Modena, Lugo , Florence , Genoa , Livorno , Milan , Faenza and Ferrara . She appeared in operas by Giuseppe Maria Buini , Giuseppe Maria Orlandini , Carlo Francesco Pollarolo and Giovanni Porta , among others .

Maria Caterina Negri was one of the singers who specialized in male roles (such as Diana Vico ); when she sang female roles, these were mostly roles of Amazone n or " en travestie " (women disguised as men). Almost nothing is known about her private life.

From 1724 to 1727 she lived in Prague and belonged to the ensemble led by Antonio Denzio in the theater of Count Franz Anton von Sporck . Here she appeared in pasticci and operas with music by Stefano Andrea Fiorè , Tomaso Albinoni , Antonio Vivaldi , Francesco Feo and others.

From autumn 1727 to spring 1728 she was in Venice and sang at the Teatro Sant'Angelo for Antonio Vivaldi as seconda donna in his operas Farnace (as Selinda), Orlando furioso (as Bradamante), and in Rosilena e Oronta . In the following years it was proven at theaters in Livorno , Genoa and Mantua . In January 1732 she sang in Frankfurt a. M. in the opera Siface re di Numidia by Giuseppe Maria Nelvi.

Her collaboration with George Frideric Handel in London began in October 1733, first at the King's Theater at the Haymarket until May 1734, then until 1737 at the Covent Garden Opera . He used them in numerous new operas and in revivals of older works as seconda donna and mostly in male roles. She sang u. a. In 1734 in the world premieres of Arianna in Creta and Il Parnasso in festa , in 1735 as Polinesso in Ariodante and as Bradamante in Alcina and 1736 in Atalanta . In 1737 she appeared in Arminio , Giustino and Berenice next to the castrati Gizziello and Domenico Annibali ; also in Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità . She also sang in the revivals of Ottone , Sosarme and Partenope . In addition, she appeared in several pasticci arranged by Handel : in Semiramide riconosciuta (Leonardo Vinci and others), Caio Fabbricio (Johann Adolf Hasse and others), Arbace (based on Leonardo Vinci's Artaserse ) and Didone abbandonata (Vinci and others).

Afterwards the Negri returned to Italy and sang in the Carnival of 1738 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in the operas Ormisda and Olimpiade (composer unknown).

In January 1740 she was demonstrably in Lisbon , Portugal, where she sang as primo uomo in Ciro riconosciuto (composer unknown?). The Negri made last appearances in 1743 in Parma , and in 1744 in Rimini and her hometown Bologna.

After that, their track is lost. The place and date of her death are not known.

A caricature by Anton Maria Zanetti shows an opera singer known as “ La Negri ” in an Amazon costume (Fondazione Cini, Venice; fig. Above). According to Sechi, this is probably Maria Caterina Negri and not the soprano Antonia Negri Tomii called " La Mestrina " (active from 1728 to 1742 in Venice), as other authors have suspected. For Maria Caterina speaks the fact that she embodied warlike female figures like Bradamante (in Vivaldi's Orlando ) and Selinda in Venice from 1727-28, while Antonia Negri Tomii (according to Sechi) only appeared in female roles of pathetic character.

roll

  • Elvira in Giuseppe Maria Buini's La fede ne 'tradimenti (March 26, 1723, Teatro dell'Accademia dei Remoti, Faenza)
  • Bradamante in Vivaldi's Orlando furioso (November 1727, Teatro Sant'Angelo, Venice)
  • Arsace in Vivaldi's Rosilena ed Oronta (January 1728, Teatro Sant'Angelo, Venice)
  • Viriate in Giuseppe Maria Nelvis Siface re di Numidia (January 1732, Frankfurt a. M.)
  • Carilda in Handel's Arianna in Creta (January 26, 1734, King's Theater, London)
  • Clori in Handel's Il Parnasso in festa (March 13, 1734, King's Theater, London)
  • Filotete in Handel's Oreste (December 18, 1734, Theater Royal, London)
  • Polinesso in Handel's Ariodante (January 8, 1735, Theater Royal, London)
  • Bradamante in Handel's Alcina (April 16, 1735, Theater Royal, London)
  • Irene in Handel's Atalanta (May 12, 1736, Theater Royal, London)
  • Tullio in Handel's Arminio (January 12, 1737, Theater Royal, London)
  • Amanzio in Handel's Giustino (February 16, 1737, Theater Royal, London)
  • Arsace in Handel's Berenice (May 18, 1737, Theater Royal, London)

literature

Web links

  • Maria Caterina Negri (aussi Catterina) , on the Quell'Usignolo website , with a list of CD recordings (French; accessed June 30, 2020)

Individual proof

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Giovanni Andrea Sechi:  Maria Caterina Negri. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI).
  2. ↑ Winton Dean, Daniel E. Freeman: Negri, Maria Caterina , in: Oxford Music online (English; accessed July 1, 2020)
  3. ^ "Maria Caterina Negri". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia .
  4. ^ Reinhard Strohm : The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi , LS Olschki, 2008, ISBN 8822256824 , pp. 446-447.
  5. ^ Sylvie Mamy: Antonio Vivaldi , Fayard, 2011, ISBN 2213665796 , p. 221.
  6. ^ Siface, ré di Numidia (libretto of the first performance, January 1732).
personal data
SURNAME Negri, Maria Caterina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Negri, Maria Catterina; Maria Negri; La Negri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (alto)
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1704
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna
DATE OF DEATH after 1744