Teresa Cornelys

Teresa Cornelys (* 1723 in Venice as (Anna Maria) Teresa Imer ; first marriage Teresa Pompeati ; † August 19, 1797 in London ) was an Italian opera singer and entrepreneur. In London she became known under the name of Mrs. Cornelys as the operator of Carlisle House in Soho Square , where she gave societies, balls and musical performances and employed well-known musicians such as Johann Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel . Horace Walpole described them as " Heidegger of their time" .

She had a brief love affair with Giacomo Casanova , who mentions her several times in his memoir ( “The Story of My Life ” ) and who was allegedly the father of her daughter. According to him, she was temporarily mistress of Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg-Bayreuth and beneficiary of Karl Alexander of Lorraine .

Life

Teresa Imer was probably born in Venice in 1723 as the daughter of the Genoa- born actor Giuseppe Imer († 1758) and his wife. Her father was a friend of Carlo Goldoni and a well-known principal . Together with her older sister Marianna she was trained for the stage at an early age, appeared as an actress in interludes and received singing lessons.

Since most of the facts about her life up to 1759 come from Casanova's memoirs, they cannot really be considered certain. Accordingly, he met her around 1740 in the house of his temporary supporter, Senator Alvise Gasparo Malipiero (1664–1745), who at that time was about 76 years old and in love with the seventeen-year-old who lived in a house next door to his palazzo. Casanova describes how he comes close to her in an unobserved moment, the two of them are caught intimacy by the senator and he is driven out of the house by the same person with canes.

Early stage career

According to Casanova's later testimony, Teresa's success as a singer was not always due to her talent, but rather to her charms. Her stage career between 1741 and 1754 can be traced by mentions in the cast lists of various opera librettos. Mostly she was occupied as Seconda Donna :

• Verona, 1741 - as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare in Egitto
• Florence, 1742 - as Vitellia in Tito Manlio , together with her sister
• Venice, May 2, 1742 - as a bar scene in the premiere of Christoph Willibald Gluck's Demetrio
• Padua, 1743 - as Creusa in Demofoonte
• Genoa, 1743 - as Albina in Alessandro Severo and as Araspe in Farasmane re di Tracia , together with her sister
• Turin, 1744 - as Dircea in Demofoonte

On February 2, 1745, she married the actor Angelo Francesco Pompeati (approx. 1701–1768) in Vienna , where she had sung from 1744 , with whom she had a son, Giuseppe (1746 – approx. 1797). In the 1745/46 season she performed with her sister at the King's Theater in London, where Gluck worked as a composer. She created the role of Iride in Gluck's La caduta de Giganti , appeared as Erifile in Il trionfo della continenza , in an unknown role in Artamene and as Erissena in Alessandro nell'Indie . Afterwards the sisters parted ways.

Teresa went to Hamburg, where she sang Rosmiri in Arsace and Irene in Bajazet in 1748 . She may also have had a role in the premiere of Gluck's La contesa de 'numi , which took place in Copenhagen in 1749. In 1750 she was cast as Aristea in L'olympiade in Braunschweig.

Bayreuth

The course of the following years is mainly known from the mentions of Casanova, but is partly supported by other sources. The time information is not without contradictions. At the beginning of the 1750s, Teresa Pompeati was engaged in Bayreuth and was possibly the margrave's mistress. Her husband, also employed in Bayreuth, separated from her during this time. In February 1753 she gave birth to a daughter who was baptized Wilhelmine Friederike and whose fatherhood is sometimes said to be of the margrave. In 1754 she sang Animia in L'Huomo in Bayreuth - an opera whose libretto was written by the margravine . In Turin she appeared in the same year as Asteria in Bajazet . According to him, she met Casanova in 1753 during her fortnightly stay in Venice, but it is more likely that he is wrong, and the meeting took place in 1754. From this brief but intimate encounter, a second daughter allegedly emerged, to whom Casanova later confessed.

According to Casanova, Teresa returned to Bayreuth, where, contrary to a promise, he did not visit her. According to one version reported by her, she was convicted and chased away by the margrave of an affair with the chamberlain Théodore-Camille de Montperny († 1753) and started the journey to Brussels with a new lover. It is more likely, however, that the entire theater staff was dismissed in autumn 1754 because of an extensive trip by the margrave couple, even if Teresa Pompeati is still listed in a Bayreuth address book in 1755.

Netherlands

After a stay in Paris from 1754 to 1756, Teresa Pompeati spent the following years in the Netherlands. Casanova reports that Karl von Lothringen felt a “temporary mood” for her and entrusted her with the management of all theaters in the Austrian Netherlands . However, only various theater undertakings by Mme Pompeati between 1756 and 1758 can be documented. In October 1756 she opened a theater in Antwerp and ran it with varying successes. At the same time she ran another in Ghent , but fell behind with the lease payments in 1757, whereupon the contract was canceled. She then performed successfully in Liège . Despite her success, she seems to have ruined herself financially, because she had to flee to neighboring Holland , then part of the United Netherlands , to avoid the guilty prison. Casanova probably met her there again in 1759, where she gave concerts under the name Mme. Trenti and lived in poor circumstances. Her admission that her daughter Sophie, who she was with her, came from him, probably only served the purpose of getting Casanova's support. Fatherhood is very unlikely for a number of reasons. Presumably "Sophie" (d. 1823 as "Sophie Wilhelmine Williams" in London) is identical to the daughter who was born in Bayreuth. Even an infant with whom Teresa Pompeati was seen in Paris and whose life data is unknown, cannot come from Casanova. However, Casanova was persuaded to release her son Giuseppe, who had been withheld by creditors as a pledge, and took him to Paris for a better upbringing.

In Amsterdam, Teresa became the lover or wife of a merchant from Burgh , Jan Rijgerboos Cornelis, whose name she bore in various spellings (mostly Cornelys , but also Cornelis , Cornelles , Corneli , Cornely or Cornelius ) from then on. With his financial support, she went to London in 1759. According to Casanova, it ruined him financially.

London

In London, Teresa Cornelys teamed up with the cellist and double bass player John Fermor (also John Freeman), whom she already knew from the Netherlands and who had promised her to make useful contacts. These turned out to be worthless. Nevertheless, she found a donor in him, gave a few concerts with him at the Haymarket and worked out a concept for event subscriptions. Since she could hardly speak English at the time, she used various ladies of better company to solicit support for her endeavors - including Elizabeth Chudleigh , Elizabeth Percy and Caroline Stanhope .

In 1760 she rented the Carlisle House on Soho Square and from the autumn gave large parties that were only admitted to noble and guaranteed persons who had bought a ticket for five guineas . In addition to dancing, masquerades and refreshments, gambling was probably the main attraction. The tickets never went on sale, but were probably given out in the open. It later increased the prices to around nine guineas and only issued the cards in larger quantities to certain lenders.

Over the following years, Teresa Cornelys expanded her business. She hired the best musicians and also organized concerts during the day. From the 1763/64 season, Johann Christian Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel , from 1767/68 Felice Giardini and Mattia Vento appeared in the Carlisle House. In 1768 she had the rooms furnished with precious Chinese motifs and a Chinese bridge between the buildings. These works were probably by Thomas Chippendale , who was also one of her creditors. In 1769 she had additional, extensive rooms set up for cotillons and allemandes . In the same year, under the direction of the castrato Gaetano Guadagni, a large festival with illumination and concert was given on the occasion of the king's birthday. Her highest guests in those years included members of the English royal family, the Prince of Monaco and the Danish king with his entourage. Celebrities like Horace Walpole or Charles and Fanny Burney also attended their events and reported about them.

As glamorous, splendid and successful as Teresa Cornely's endeavors were, financially they turned into a personal disaster. In the first few years she had already incurred large debts that she could never pay off. Instead of building up reserves, she spent the money with full hands and also led costly lawsuits against her creditors - including John Fermor, with whom she disputed the ownership of Carlisle House. When Casanova met her in 1763/64 and brought her son back, whom he had raised in Paris at his expense, she was under house arrest because of the trials. He said she was making £ 24,000 a year at the time , but had already spent more than £ 80,000 in the first three years. On February 1, 1768, she signed an agreement with her creditors that gave her a personal budget of only £ 800 with an annual income of still £ 20,000. Nevertheless, it secretly continued its ruinous course.

The real mistake that brought about their complete ruin and the demise of Carlisle House, however, was their interference in the London opera business, which, under the Licensing Act of 1737, was restricted to certain opera houses. Together with Gaetano Guadagni, who had fallen out with running the King's Theater, and the dancer Simon Slingsby , she performed operas at Carlisle House under the label Harmonic Meetings . The performance of Mattia Ventos Artasere in January 1771 aroused opposition from other theater entrepreneurs and ultimately the judiciary, which sentenced them to smaller fines. In addition, rumors (presumably inaccurate) were launched that their events were all too immoral. Diatribes against them were also circulating at that time.

The failure in the opera business dumped numerous lenders, and in November 1772 Teresa Cornelys was forced to declare her bankruptcy. In December the Carlisle House inventory was sold to creditors at ridiculous prices. Teresa was abandoned by her daughter, who now lived on the charity of various nobles. She was promised an annuity of £ 200 a year. Several attempts to continue to hold profitable masquerade balls at Carlisle House failed. According to her obituary from 1797, she lived the following years as "Mrs. Smith" in Knightsbridge and only made a name for itself for a short time by selling donkey milk for beauty treatments. However, this business also failed. Short-term financial support from her son could not save her from the guilty prison, in which she died on August 19, 1797.

literature

• Philip H. Highfill Jr., Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans: A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, managers & other stage personnel in London, 1660-1800 , Vol. 01, Abaco to Belfille, Carbondale , Southern Illinois University Press, 1973, ISBN 0-8093-0692-1 , pp. 502-507
• Judith Milhous: Cornelys, (Anna Maria) Teresa In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 13. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2004, ISBN 0-19-861363-6 , pp. 439-441.
• Explanations by Günter and Barbara Albrecht in Giacomo Casanova: History of my life , Vol. 1, 3, 5 and 9, Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1983

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} J. Milhouse, p. 441
2. ↑ ^{a b} J. Milhouse in Dictionary of National Biography, p. 439, see literature
3. ↑ Giacomo Casanova: History of my life , Volume 1, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1983, Chapter 4, p. 78
4. ↑ Giacomo Casanova: History of my life , Volume 1, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1983, Chapter 6, pp. 138f
5. ^ Giacomo Casanova: History of my life , Volume 3, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1983, Chapter 13, pp. 253f
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e} J. Milhouse in Dictionary of National Biography, p. 440, see literature
7. ↑ G. and B. Albrecht, explanations in Casanova vol. 3, p. 412, note 30 to chap. 13
8. ↑ G. and B. Albrecht, explanations in Casanova vol. 5, p. 364f, notes 54 and 63 to chap. 6th
9. ↑ ^{a b} G. and B. Albrecht, explanations in Casanova vol. 5, p. 364, note 60 to chap. 6th
10. ↑ Giacomo Casanova: History of my life , vol. 5. Leipzig and Weimar 1983, chap. 6, p. 157f
11. ↑ G. and B. Albrecht, explanations in Casanova vol. 5, p. 366, note 65 to chap. 6th
12. ↑ G. and B. Albrecht, explanations on Casanova, vol. 5, p. 369, note 9 to chap. 7th
13. ^ Archenholz (1787), cited in G. u. B. Albrecht, Explanations to Casanova Vol. 9, p. 421f, Note 10 to Chap. 7th
14. ↑ Highfill at al. (1973), pp. 504f
15. ↑ Giacomo Casanova: History of my life , Bd. 9, Leipzig a. Weimar 1983, chap. 6, p. 185
16. ↑ Highfill at al. (1973), p. 505
17. ↑ Highfill at al. (1973), p. 506