Hannah Norsa (first name sometimes spelt Hanna; c. 1712 â€" 28 August
1784) was an English Jewish actress and singer, who achieved fame
appearing in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera in 1732 and became the
mistress of Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford.Norsa was the daughter
of the London innkeeper Issachar Norsa, an Italian Jew from Mantua.
She created a sensation at her stage debut in the character of Polly
Peachum at the revival of The Beggar's Opera at the Covent Garden
Theatre on 16 December 1732, and over the next few years took leading
roles in operas by Johann Ernst Galliard and others. In 1733 she sang
the part of Deidamia in Gay's posthumously performed ballad opera
Achilles. She also undertook non-singing roles in plays including
George Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem and The Orphan by Thomas
Otway.By 1736 she had come under the wing of Robert Walpole, the son
and heir of the former Prime Minister Robert Walpole and brother of
the writer Horace Walpole. Horace described Norsa as "my brother's
concubine." Robert's marriage had broken up in a formal separation,
and Norsa went to live with him, moving (when he succeeded to the
peerage as Earl of Orford in 1745) to Houghton Hall in Norfolk. A
local clergyman's wife wrote of her in 1749 "She is a very agreeable
Woman, & Nobody ever behav'd better in her Station, She have every
body's good word, and bear great Sway at Houghton, She is every thing
but Lady, She came here in a Landau & Six horses & ... a young
Clergyman with her." Norsa had a son with Orford, born in 1740, who
apparently died young. The music historian David Conway considers
Norsa's story "an archetypal tale of how stage stardom might lead to
social transformation."Norsa stayed with Orford until his death in
1751 having apparently financed his extensive debts. In his will
Orford asked that his successor "take care that Mrs Norsa have her
judgment well served to her." After 1751 she was taken in by the
producer of The Beggar's Opera, John Rich and his family. When she
died in Kensington she was quite prosperous, leaving £3,400 in
investments in Treasury stock. She was buried at St Mary Abbots,
Kensington, on 28 August 1784.
1784) was an English Jewish actress and singer, who achieved fame
appearing in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera in 1732 and became the
mistress of Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford.Norsa was the daughter
of the London innkeeper Issachar Norsa, an Italian Jew from Mantua.
She created a sensation at her stage debut in the character of Polly
Peachum at the revival of The Beggar's Opera at the Covent Garden
Theatre on 16 December 1732, and over the next few years took leading
roles in operas by Johann Ernst Galliard and others. In 1733 she sang
the part of Deidamia in Gay's posthumously performed ballad opera
Achilles. She also undertook non-singing roles in plays including
George Farquhar's The Beaux' Stratagem and The Orphan by Thomas
Otway.By 1736 she had come under the wing of Robert Walpole, the son
and heir of the former Prime Minister Robert Walpole and brother of
the writer Horace Walpole. Horace described Norsa as "my brother's
concubine." Robert's marriage had broken up in a formal separation,
and Norsa went to live with him, moving (when he succeeded to the
peerage as Earl of Orford in 1745) to Houghton Hall in Norfolk. A
local clergyman's wife wrote of her in 1749 "She is a very agreeable
Woman, & Nobody ever behav'd better in her Station, She have every
body's good word, and bear great Sway at Houghton, She is every thing
but Lady, She came here in a Landau & Six horses & ... a young
Clergyman with her." Norsa had a son with Orford, born in 1740, who
apparently died young. The music historian David Conway considers
Norsa's story "an archetypal tale of how stage stardom might lead to
social transformation."Norsa stayed with Orford until his death in
1751 having apparently financed his extensive debts. In his will
Orford asked that his successor "take care that Mrs Norsa have her
judgment well served to her." After 1751 she was taken in by the
producer of The Beggar's Opera, John Rich and his family. When she
died in Kensington she was quite prosperous, leaving £3,400 in
investments in Treasury stock. She was buried at St Mary Abbots,
Kensington, on 28 August 1784.
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