Gaetano Guadagni (16 February 1728 â€" 11 November 1792) was an
Italian mezzo-soprano castrato singer, most famous for singing the
role of Orpheus at the premiere of Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice in
1762.Born at Lodi, Guadagni joined the cappella of Sant'Antonio in
Padua in 1746, but also made his public operatic debut at Venice that
year, which did not meet with ecclesiastical approval: he was
dismissed from his position in Padua by 1748, and soon after appeared
in London as a member of Giovanni Francesco Crosa ("Dr Croza")'s buffo
(comic) company. He does not appear to have had the typical rigorous
training that most castrati undertook (see castrato), which may
account for his being described by the music historian Charles Burney
as a "wild and careless singer" on his arrival in England. He was
rapidly taken up in theatrical and musical circles in the capital, and
also acquired a reputation for his sexual activities, as did many
castrati. This was reported by Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace
Mann dated 23 March 1749:For performances in 1750 Handel rewrote three
arias in Messiah for him, the first, "But who may abide", being
particularly adapted to a castrato's bravura technique (which he
clearly had acquired by this date). Handel had previously set this
text as recitative, and then as a comparatively gentle minuet in
triple time throughout. Both of these were for bass voice: for
Guadagni, as well as transposing the first section up an octave,
Handel wrote a new, virtuosic setting of the text "For he is like a
refiner's fire", especially exploiting the singer's fine low notes.
Guadagni also took part in revivals of Samson (for which Handel
reworked a part originally written for Susannah Cibber), Judas
Maccabeus, Belshazzar and Esther. The one role that Guadagni actually
created for Handel was Didymus in Theodora. Where Messiah had
exploited his virtuosity in rapid passage work, this new role gave
him, at the beginning of the aria "The raptur'd soul", a fine
opportunity to display his "artful manner of diminishing his voice
like the dying notes of an Aeolian harp", as Burney described it. The
latter also claimed to have helped Guadagni with his English, saying
that, "during his first residence in London he was more noticed in
singing English than Italian". In 1755, he was engaged by David
Garrick to sing in an English opera The Fairies by Handel's sometime
amanuensis, John Christopher Smith, and the famous actor, again
according to Burney, "took much pleasure in forming him". At this time
his voice was described by Burney as a "full and well-toned
countertenor (here meaning that his range matched that of the
contemporary English voice of that name; however, the historian was
mistaken in his perception that Guadagni's voice changed from alto to
soprano in later life). Burney also remarked on unusual details in the
manner of Guadagni's performance: "attitudes, action and impassioned
and exquisite manner of singing the simple and ballad-like air Che
farò [in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, see below], acquired his very
great and just applause".In Italy he had further great success in the
years 1756 to 1761, being admired as much for his singing as his
acting, though was often in trouble with impresarios: "he rarely does
his duty" was the complaint, probably meaning that he would not curry
favour with audiences, neither bowing to acknowledge applause, nor
being willing to repeat arias. In his desire thus to maintain dramatic
unity, he was an ideal interpreter for the role of Orpheus in Gluck's
Orfeo ed Euridice, which he premiered in Vienna on 5 October 1762 .
This opera, to a libretto by Calzabigi, marked the start of Gluck's
reforms of opera seria, in which the composer moved away from the more
usual type of serious Italian opera then current, epitomised by the
operas of composers like Vivaldi and Hasse in their settings of the
libretti of Metastasio. Guadagni sang in other "reform operas":
Orestes in Traetta's Ifigenia in Tauride (1763), and the title role in
another of Gluck's operas, Telemaco (1765). He also continued to sing
in Metastasian roles by composers such as Jommelli and Gassmann, and
by Gluck himself. By 1767, his expressive, yet inherently simple style
was finding much less favour with opera-goers than the more typical
florid singing of his contemporaries.
Italian mezzo-soprano castrato singer, most famous for singing the
role of Orpheus at the premiere of Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice in
1762.Born at Lodi, Guadagni joined the cappella of Sant'Antonio in
Padua in 1746, but also made his public operatic debut at Venice that
year, which did not meet with ecclesiastical approval: he was
dismissed from his position in Padua by 1748, and soon after appeared
in London as a member of Giovanni Francesco Crosa ("Dr Croza")'s buffo
(comic) company. He does not appear to have had the typical rigorous
training that most castrati undertook (see castrato), which may
account for his being described by the music historian Charles Burney
as a "wild and careless singer" on his arrival in England. He was
rapidly taken up in theatrical and musical circles in the capital, and
also acquired a reputation for his sexual activities, as did many
castrati. This was reported by Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace
Mann dated 23 March 1749:For performances in 1750 Handel rewrote three
arias in Messiah for him, the first, "But who may abide", being
particularly adapted to a castrato's bravura technique (which he
clearly had acquired by this date). Handel had previously set this
text as recitative, and then as a comparatively gentle minuet in
triple time throughout. Both of these were for bass voice: for
Guadagni, as well as transposing the first section up an octave,
Handel wrote a new, virtuosic setting of the text "For he is like a
refiner's fire", especially exploiting the singer's fine low notes.
Guadagni also took part in revivals of Samson (for which Handel
reworked a part originally written for Susannah Cibber), Judas
Maccabeus, Belshazzar and Esther. The one role that Guadagni actually
created for Handel was Didymus in Theodora. Where Messiah had
exploited his virtuosity in rapid passage work, this new role gave
him, at the beginning of the aria "The raptur'd soul", a fine
opportunity to display his "artful manner of diminishing his voice
like the dying notes of an Aeolian harp", as Burney described it. The
latter also claimed to have helped Guadagni with his English, saying
that, "during his first residence in London he was more noticed in
singing English than Italian". In 1755, he was engaged by David
Garrick to sing in an English opera The Fairies by Handel's sometime
amanuensis, John Christopher Smith, and the famous actor, again
according to Burney, "took much pleasure in forming him". At this time
his voice was described by Burney as a "full and well-toned
countertenor (here meaning that his range matched that of the
contemporary English voice of that name; however, the historian was
mistaken in his perception that Guadagni's voice changed from alto to
soprano in later life). Burney also remarked on unusual details in the
manner of Guadagni's performance: "attitudes, action and impassioned
and exquisite manner of singing the simple and ballad-like air Che
farò [in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, see below], acquired his very
great and just applause".In Italy he had further great success in the
years 1756 to 1761, being admired as much for his singing as his
acting, though was often in trouble with impresarios: "he rarely does
his duty" was the complaint, probably meaning that he would not curry
favour with audiences, neither bowing to acknowledge applause, nor
being willing to repeat arias. In his desire thus to maintain dramatic
unity, he was an ideal interpreter for the role of Orpheus in Gluck's
Orfeo ed Euridice, which he premiered in Vienna on 5 October 1762 .
This opera, to a libretto by Calzabigi, marked the start of Gluck's
reforms of opera seria, in which the composer moved away from the more
usual type of serious Italian opera then current, epitomised by the
operas of composers like Vivaldi and Hasse in their settings of the
libretti of Metastasio. Guadagni sang in other "reform operas":
Orestes in Traetta's Ifigenia in Tauride (1763), and the title role in
another of Gluck's operas, Telemaco (1765). He also continued to sing
in Metastasian roles by composers such as Jommelli and Gassmann, and
by Gluck himself. By 1767, his expressive, yet inherently simple style
was finding much less favour with opera-goers than the more typical
florid singing of his contemporaries.
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