Gaspare Pacchierotti Family, Real Name, Spouse, Profession, Eye Color, body stats, Feet Size, Wiki

Gaspare Pacchierotti Family, Real Name, Spouse, Profession, Eye Color, body stats, Feet Size, Wiki

Gaspare Pacchierotti (21 May 1740 in Fabriano (Marche) â€" 28 October

1821 in Padua) was a great mezzo-soprano castrato, and one of the most

famous singers of his time.Details of his early life are scarce. It is

possible that he studied with Mario Bittoni, maestro di cappella in

the cathedral of his home city. Under the stage name of Porfirio

Pacchierotti, he made his début in Baldassare Galuppi's opera Le

nozze di Dorina at the Teatro dei Nobili in Perugia during the

carnival season of 1759, playing, as young castrati often did, a

female role: Livietta. He made further appearances under his assumed

name in Venice (1764) and Innsbruck (1765). On this latter occasion he

sang Acronte in Hasse's Romolo ed Ersilia on the occasion of the

marriage of Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine, future Grand Duke of

Tuscany and Holy Roman Emperor, and the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain.

Here, for the first time, he encountered the famous castrato Gaetano

Guadagni, then at the height of his career.By the late 1760s

Pacchierotti was well established in Venice, both as an opera singer

and member of the choir of St Mark's, where Galuppi was Director of

Music. His first success as primo uomo (lead male singer) was in that

composer's Il re pastore, in which he first sang the role of Agenore

at the Teatro San Benedetto, Venice, in the summer of 1769. In that

city he also received further vocal tuition from Ferdinando Bertoni,

the composer and singing-teacher, who became a lifelong friend.In

1770, he was at Palermo, where he sang alongside the famous and

notoriously capricious soprano, Caterina Gabrielli, whose every feat

of virtuosity he not only equalled but so far surpassed that he earned

that redoubtable lady's admiration. The following year saw him

performing at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, perhaps the most famous

opera house in Italy at this time. Here he remained for some five

years, performing in twenty operas. His prima donna was often Anna de

Amicis, and soon their respective adoring fans caused the sparks to

fly. One supporter of the soprano, an officer in the Royal Guard

called Francesco Ruffo, saw fit to insult Pacchierotti publicly, and a

duel was fought as a result. Because of Ruffo's royal connection (and

also because, as a nobleman, he was immune from prosecution), the poor

singer spent several days in prison, but apparently the noble youth

himself obtained his release. There is another version of this story

in which Ruffo was the lover (cavalier servente) of a certain Marchesa

Santa Marca, who had become infatuated with Pacchierotti on hearing

him sing in Schuster's Didone abbandonata. His honour insulted, Ruffo

again challenged the singer to a duel, and this time it was none other

than the King of Naples who ordered Gaspare to be released from

prison.
Gaspare Pacchierotti Family, Real Name, Spouse, Profession, Eye Color, body stats, Feet Size, Wiki


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