Matteo Berselli

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Matteo Berselli (recorded from 1708 to 1721) was an Italian opera singer and castrato who was known for his very high soprano voice , and who also worked in Dresden and London .

Life

Winton Dean suspects that Matteo Berselli came from Venice , where he had his first verifiable opera appearances in 1709 and 1710, including as Eudemo in Albinoni's Il tradimento tradito (premiere: January 5, 1709), alongside Santa Cavalli and the tenor Giovanni Paita . If this was Berselli's operatic debut, it is noticeable that despite his high soprano voice, he appeared in a male role and not as a woman, as was often the case with young castrati. He also sang in operas by Francesco Gasparini in Venice .

His career took him to opera houses across Italy, including Bologna (1712), Reggio nell'Emilia (1713), Florence (1715) and Milan (1715). In Rome he sang in 1714 in the Teatro Capranica the roles of Quinto Fabio in Gasparini Lucio Papirio (UA: January 27) and Domiziano in Antonio Caldara Tito e Berenice (UA: January 8). He was also in Rome in 1716, as Ernando in Mancini's Vincislao (premiere: February 2, 1716), and in the title role of Gasparini's Il Ciro (premiere: February 15, 1716). Here, too, it should be noted that Berselli appeared exclusively in male roles despite the Roman ban on women appearing.

In the same year 1716 he traveled to Naples and took part in several operas, including Alessandro Scarlatti's La virtù trionfante (premiere: May 3, 1716), alongside the famous old castrato Senesino (Francesco Bernardi) and Margherita Durastanti .

Together with these two singers and with Santa Stella , Vittoria Tesi and the bassist Giuseppe Maria Boschi , Berselli then belonged from 1717 to 1720 to the ensemble of Italian singers who performed at the Dresden court in Antonio Lotti's operas Giove in Argo , Ascanio , and Teofane and in Ristoris Cleonice performed; For this engagement he received (in total) a sum of 4,500 thalers; a carriage was made available to him for this purpose.
The fact that Berselli had an unusually high tessitura for his time is demonstrated by the part of Adelberto in Lotti's Teofane , which was composed for him and requires a high d '' '. After Johann Joachim Quantz , who had to do with Italian operas for the first time in Dresden in 1719, the soprano even had a few more tones in the treble. Quantz counted Berselli to the most remarkable ("most remarkable") singers he had heard in Dresden, but on the other hand did not spare criticism either:

“Berselli had a pleasant, but somewhat thin, high soprano voice, the range of which stretched from the dashed c to the three-dashed f with the greatest of ease. By doing this he astonished the audience more than by the art of singing. In the Adagio he showed little affect , and in the Allegro he did not get much involved in passages . His shape wasn't adverse, but the action wasn't fiery either. "

Quantz reports that during a rehearsal for the opera Flavio Crispo there was a dispute between the composer Heinichen and Berselli and his colleague Senesino, who complained that the musical setting of the text in an aria intended for Berselli was clumsy or nonsensical. Allegedly it was this dispute (and especially Senesino's behavior) that should have led to the dismissal of the Italian singers from Dresden.

Even George Frideric Handel had heard in Dresden Berselli 1719 and tried him along with the other singers to London for the Royal Academy of Music poach. The soprano reached the English capital in the autumn of 1720, but sang only one season at the King's Theater . He made his English debut as Nino in Giovanni Bononcini's L'Astarto . He also appeared as Tigrane in the second, revised version of Handel's Radamisto . In order to put Berselli's voice in the right light, Handel wrote four completely new arias and kept only one of the earlier pieces (“La sorte, il ciel” in Act 2). In the opera Muzio Scevola (premiere: April 15, 1721) composed by Amadei, Bononcini and Handel , he sang Orazio. The only aria that Handel composed for it Berselli (in Act 3), found Charles Burney "the most pleasing and most pleasant of all the charming Sicilianas by Handel" ( " the most pleasing and agreeable of all Handel's charming Sicilianas "). Burney was also convinced that the singer must have been in Handel's favor because he left Berselli no less than 6 ad libitums and adagios for free improvisation and decoration.

Berselli's other roles in London were: Megabise in the opera Arsace by Orlandini and Amadei , and Ciro in L 'odio e l'amore by Bononcini (premiere: 20 May 1721)

After these appearances, the singer's track is lost, and the date of his death is also not yet known.

literature

  • Winton Dean: Berselli, Matteo , on Oxford Music online (full access only with subscription; English; accessed July 30, 2020)
  • Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans: Berselli, Matteo , in: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 , Vol. 2 (Belford to Byzand), SIU Press, 1973, p. 66 f
  • C. Steven LaRue: Handel and His Singers: The Creation of the Royal Academy Operas, 1720-1728 (Oxford Monographs on Music), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995
  • Francisca Paula Vanherle: Matteo Berselli , in: Castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Vocal Phenomenon and a Case Study of Handel's Opera Roles for Castrati written for the First Royal Academy of Music (1720-1728) (dissertation), University of Texas, Austin , December 2002, pp. 128-130

Web links

  • Matteo Berselli , article online on Quell'Usignolo , with list of CD recordings (French; accessed on July 30, 2020)
  • Antonio Lotti's Teofane , article on the Ancient Groove Music website (accessed July 30, 2020)
  • Matteo Berselli , list of opera roles on Italian Opera (Italian; accessed July 30, 2020)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Winton Dean: Berselli, Matteo , on Oxford Music online (full access only with subscription; English; accessed on July 30, 2020)
  2. ↑ Il tradimento tradito (Tomaso Albinoni) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  3. ^ Lucio Papirio (Francesco Gasparini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  4. ^ Tito e Berenice (Antonio Caldara) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  5. ↑ Il Vincislao (Francesco Mancini) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  6. ^ Il Ciro (Francesco Gasparini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  7. ↑ La virtù trionfante de l'odio e de L'amore (Alessandro Scarlatti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  8. ↑ Antonio Lotti's Teofane , article on the website of Ancient Groove Music (English; accessed July 30, 2020)
  9. ^ Johann Joachim Quantz: Mr. Johann Joachim Quantzens curriculum vitae, designed by himself . In: Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg: Historical-Critical Contributions to the Recording of Music , Vol. 1, Publisher: Schützens Witwe, Berlin 1754/55, p. 212, online at Wikimedia.com (accessed on July 30, 2020)
  10. ↑ ie Berselli did not sing slow arias with enough feeling and expression
  11. ↑ According to this, Berselli would not have been very virtuoso in fast pieces.
  12. ↑ = acting
  13. ^ Johann Joachim Quantz: Mr. Johann Joachim Quantzens curriculum vitae, designed by himself . In: Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg: Historical-Critical Contributions to the Recording of Music , Vol. 1, Publisher: Schützens Witwe, Berlin 1754/55, p. 213, online at Wikimedia.com (accessed on July 30, 2020)
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Horn: Venetian Opera at the Dresdener Hof - Notes on Antonio Lotti's guest performance in Dresden (1717–1719) together with a hypothesis on the cause of Heinichen's failure , p. 138 and p. 143–145 (and sheet music sample p. 147) (as PDF at Qucosa.Journals )
  15. ^ L 'Astarto (Giovanni Bononcini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  16. ↑ Francisca Paula Vanherle: Matteo Berselli in: castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Vocal Phenomenon and a case study of Handel's Opera Roles for castrati written for the First Royal Academy of Music (1720-1728) (dissertation), University of Texas, Austin, December 2002, pp. 128-130, here: 128
  17. ^ Il Muzio Scevola (Filippo Amadei) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  18. ^ Charles Burney: A General History of Music, p. 741. Here after: Francisca Paula Vanherle: Matteo Berselli , in: Castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Vocal Phenomenon and a Case Study of Handel's Opera Roles for Castrati written for the First Royal Academy of Music (1720-1728) (dissertation), University of Texas, Austin, December 2002, pp. 128–130, here: 129
  19. ↑ "... this singer must have been high in the composer's favor of taste, as he is left to himself in no less than six ad libitums and adagios, which he had to embellish" (Charles Burney: A General History of Music, P. 741). Here after: Francisca Paula Vanherle: Matteo Berselli , in: Castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Vocal Phenomenon and a Case Study of Handel's Opera Roles for Castrati written for the First Royal Academy of Music (1720-1728) (Dissertation), University of Texas, Austin, December 2002, pp. 128-130, here: 129
  20. ^ Arsace (Giuseppe Maria Orlandini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  21. ↑ L 'odio e l'amore (Giovanni Bononcini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
personal data
SURNAME Berselli, Matteo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (soprano castrato)
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century
DATE OF DEATH 18th century