Elisabetta de Gambarini (1731-1765)
- Lessons for the Harpsichord, Op.2 (1748)
Performers: Bаrbаra Hаrbаch (cembalo)
Further info: Elisabetta de Gambarini (1731-1765) - Sets de Lessons
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Soprano and composer of Italian descent. She was a daughter of Charles
Gambarini, counsellor to the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel. She took the
second soprano part at the first performance of Handel’s Occasional
Oratorio in 1746, and in the Covent Garden revival a year later assumed
most of Duparc’s role as well. She created the Israelite Woman in Judas
Maccabaeus in 1747, and probably sang Asenath in Joseph and his Brethren
the same year. Her name appears in the performing scores of Samson and
Messiah, but it is not certain when she sang in these works. Her voice
seems to have been a mezzo with a regular compass of d' to g'', extended
occasionally down to b and up to a''. About 1748-50 she published some
harpsichord pieces and songs in Italian and English, including a setting
of ‘Honour, riches, marriage-blessing’ from The Tempest. Her op.2 has a
frontispiece portrait engraved by Nathaniel Hone in 1748; it gives the
date of her birth as above, but this may understate her age. She had a
benefit at the Great Room, Dean Street, on 15 April 1761, when an ode of
her composition was performed together with a cantata by the aged
Geminiani; he may have been her teacher. In May 1764, as Mrs Chazal, she
is said to have given a concert at which she appeared as organist and
composer. According to Gerber’s Lexikon she was also a painter.
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