Valeriano Pellegrini

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Valeriano Pellegrini on a caricature by Pier Leone Ghezzi , around 1720–30.

Valeriano Pellegrini , also known as " Valeriano " (or " Valeriani "; * approx. 1663 probably in Verona (?) - January 18, 1746 ) was an Italian soprano - castrato and opera singer with a career in Italy, Germany and England .

Life

His exact date and place of birth are not known, according to Grove he came from Verona and is "approx. Born 1663 “- this year of birth is probably calculated from an age specification at his death (see below). After Marx, Valeriano grew up in Verona and Bologna .

From 1689 to 1696 he was a member of the papal choir of the Capella Sistina in Rome . He also sang in the Chiesa Nuova and in private concerts with Cardinal Ottoboni . After that he was possibly with Cardinal Cybo in Naples , where he had to interpret both sacred and secular music.

In 1699 Valeriano went to the imperial court in Vienna , with appearances in Giovanni Bononcini's opera La fede publica .

Back in Italy he sang La forza dell'amicizia (composer unknown) in Mantua in an opera in 1700 in a first-class ensemble with Maria Landini , Angela Ghering and the young Margherita Durastanti . In Genoa in 1701 he took part in two operas at the Teatro del Falcone: in Muzio Scevola by Cavalli and Giovanni Bononcini, and in Pollarolos (?) Lucio Vero , again alongside Landini, as well as with Nicola Paris and the tenor Giovanni Buzzoleni . In the same year he also appeared in an opera by Marc'Antonio Ziani in Piacenza .

From 1702 he was employed at the Bavarian court in Munich for a fee of 1000 guilders a year.

Since the Bavarian Elector was in financial distress due to the War of the Spanish Succession , Valeriano took a position at the court of the Palatinate Elector Johann Wilhelm in Düsseldorf , where he stayed until 1716 - apart from a few "tours" abroad. There he sang in works by Agostino Steffani , including the title role in his opera Arminio in 1707 (alongside Benedetto Baldassari and others), and two years later as Gheroldo in Tassilone (1709). For his services, Valeriano was made a knight by the elector .

In the same year he traveled to Venice and sang the part of Nero at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in the world premiere (December 26, 1709) of Georg Friedrich Handel's opera Agrippina , alongside Margherita Durastanti and Diamante Maria Scarabelli . He received a lot of applause for his virtuoso performance ( "... il Valeriano ..., il quale è molto aplaudito, perché è virtuoso ..." ). During the same season and with the same stage partners, he also sang in Antonio Lotti's opera Il comando non inteso et ubbidito (premiere: February 8, 1710)

Probably at Handel's suggestion, Valeriano went to London in 1712, where he gave a first concert in the Old Spring Garden on April 9th. He made his debut at the Queen's Theater in November 1713 as Mirtillo in Handel's Il pastor fido (premiere: November 22nd). Handel also composed the title role in Teseo (premiere: January 10, 1713) and probably the role of Lepido in Lucio Cornelio Silla (June 1713) for him. Valeriano also appeared as Silvius in Dorinda (December 10, 1712), and as Vitige in Ernelinda (February 26, 1713) with music by Gasparini . Valeriano Pellegrini was the highest paid singer in London at the time at £ 645 . At a benefit performance of Ernelinda in his favor on May 2nd, he sang several new arias, including one in English; that evening he gained an additional 74 pounds.

Valeriano Pellegrini apparently also acted as a kind of art dealer for the Palatinate Elector. In Verona in 1708 the singer acquired a collection of medals for Johann Wilhelm and in 1715 he bought a painting of a Madonna by Correggio from the painter Sebastiano Ricci , which however subsequently turned out to be a forgery and led to a legal dispute with Ricci, in which the Elector himself switched on. Ricci tried to pull himself out of the affair, however, by claiming that Pellegrini had commissioned the painter Cassana to “rework” the picture, and that was the only reason why it was no longer recognizable afterwards.

After his singing career, Valeriano Pellegrini entered the clergy and lived as a priest (?) In Rome in 1729 . Unlike some of his colleagues, who kept an intact voice into old age and even sang in church (e.g. Matteuccio or Caffarelli ), he is said to have lost his beautiful voice.

He died in 1746 at the age of 83, according to Rosselli "completely impoverished and after living on alms for a few years " - this is not surprising, however, since as a clergyman of the Catholic Church he had probably taken a vow of poverty .

Voice and singing

Valeriano Pellegrini was one of the leading sopranos of his time, as evidenced not only by his impressive career, but also by the salaries he earned. Steffani composed for him in 1709 in a vocal range from c 'to b "(Gherardo in Tassilone ). Valeriano was one of the few castrato soprano that Handel used as primo uomo in his operas (as did Gizziello later ). The singer must have possessed a whole range of expressive possibilities and a very agile and also quite large voice with dramatic power, as is particularly required in the part of Teseo , including in the aria "Qual 'tigre o qual' megera" (act IV).

literature

  • Enrico Celani: I Cantori della Cappella Pontificia nei Secoli XVI – XVIII , in: Rivista musicale italiana 16 , 1909, pp. 55–111
  • Winton Dean & John Rosselli: Pellegrini, Valeriano , on Oxford Music online (full access only with subscription; English; accessed August 1, 2020)
  • Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans: "Valeriano", stagename of Valeriano Pellegrini , in: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800 , Vol. 15 (Tibbett to M. West), SIU Press, 1993, pp. 97-98
  • Franco Paliaga: Dalla Laguna all'Arno. Cosimo III, il Gran Principe Ferdinando de 'Medici e il collezionismo dei dipinti veneziani a Firenze tra Sei e Settecento (dissertation), Università degli Studi di Udine, 2012–2013 (Italian)
  • Rashid-S. Pegah: Two Steffani studies. Additions to the biography and work of Agostino Steffani , in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (ed.): Agostino Steffani: European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of Leibniz's time , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2017, p . 169–183, here: 176–177, excerpts online as a Google book (accessed on July 28, 2020)
  • Juliane Riepe: Singer in the Church, On Practice in Italian Music Centers of the 18th Century , online at Academia (accessed August 1, 2020)
  • John Rosselli: Castrati , in: Singers of italian Opera: the history of a profession , Cambridge University Press, 1995, Chapter 2, pp. 32-55, here: 48, online in excerpts as a Google Book (English; accessed on 1 August 2020)

Web links

  • Valeriano Pellegrini , article online on Quell'Usignolo , with list of CD recordings (French; accessed on August 1, 2020)
  • Nicolas Slonimsky, Laura Kuhn, Dennis McIntire: Pellegrini, Valeriano , short bio in: Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians , on Encyclopedia.com (English; accessed August 1, 2020)
  • Valeriano Pellegrini , opera roles on Italian Opera (Italian; accessed July 30, 2020)
  • Literature by and about Valeriano Pellegrini in the WorldCat bibliographic database

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Winton Dean & John Rosselli: Pellegrini, Valeriano , on Oxford Music online (full access only with subscription; English; accessed August 1, 2020)
  2. ↑ Hans Joachim Marx: Handel and his contemporaries. A biographical encyclopedia (= The Handel Handbook 1 ), Teilbd. 2, Laaber-Verlag, 2008, pp. 762-764. Here after: Rashid-S. Pegah: Two Steffani studies. Additions to the biography and work of Agostino Steffani , in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (ed.): Agostino Steffani: European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of Leibniz's time , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2017, p . 169–183, here: 176 (see also footnote 36), online in excerpts as a Google Book (accessed on July 28, 2020)
  3. ↑ Enrico Celani: I Cantori della Cappella Pontificia nei Secoli XVI-XVIII , in: Rivista musicale italiana 16 , 1909, pp. 55–111, here: p. 69. Here after: Juliane Riepe: Singer in the Church, Zur Praxis in Italian music centers of the 18th century , p. 67 (footnote 74), online at Academia (accessed August 1, 2020)
  4. ↑ Valeriano Pellegrini , article online at Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed August 1, 2020)
  5. ↑ La forza dell'amicizia (Anonimo) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  6. ↑ Le gare dell'amore eroico, o sia Il Muzio Scevola (Francesco Cavalli) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  7. ^ Lucio Vero (Anonimo) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  8. ^ I rivali generosi (Marc'Antonio Ziani) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  9. ↑ a b c Rashid-S. Pegah: Two Steffani studies. Additions to the biography and work of Agostino Steffani , in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (ed.): Agostino Steffani: European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of Leibniz's time , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2017, p . 169–183, here: 176–177, excerpts online as a Google book (accessed on July 28, 2020)
  10. ^ Rashid-S. Pegah: Two Steffani studies. Additions to the biography and work of Agostino Steffani , in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (ed.): Agostino Steffani: European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of Leibniz's time , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2017, p . 169–183, here: 176–177, excerpts online as a Google book (accessed on July 28, 2020)
  11. ↑ According to a letter from Giorgio Stella to Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz, Venice, January 10, 1710, on the Stanford University website (Italian and English; accessed August 1, 2020)
  12. ↑ Il comando non INTESO et ubbidito (Antonio Lotti) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  13. ^ A b c d Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhans: "Valeriano", stage name of Valeriano Pellegrini , in: A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London , 1660-1800 , Vol. 15 (Tibbett to M. West), SIU Press, 1993, pp. 97-98, online as a Google Book (English; accessed August 1, 2020)
  14. ↑ Franco Paliaga: Dalla Laguna all'Arno. Cosimo III, il Gran Principe Ferdinando de 'Medici e il collezionismo dei dipinti veneziani a Firenze tra Sei e Settecento , (dissertation), Università degli Studi di Udine, 2012–2013, pp. 279–280 (Italian)
  15. ^ Singers of Italian Opera: the history of a profession. Cambridge University Press, 1995, Chapter 2, pp. 32–55, here: 48, Google Books (English)
  16. ^ "... Valeriano Pellegrini (Pellegrini), ... died destitute in 1746, ..., after having for some years lived on charity". John Rosselli: Castrati . In: Singers of italian Opera: the history of a profession. Cambridge University Press, 1995, Chapter 2, pp. 32–55, here: 48, Google Books (English)
personal data
SURNAME Pellegrini, Valeriano
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valeriano; Valeriani
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (soprano castrato)
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Verona
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1746