Venanzio Rauzzini (1746-1810)
- Sonata (I) for the Piano-Forte with an Accompanyment for the Violin Adlibitum, Op.15 (1786)
Performers: Zsolt Kalló (violin); Tamás Szekendy (1961-2014, fortepiano)
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Italian soprano castrato and composer. After early studies in Rome and
possibly also in Naples with Porpora, he made his début at the Teatro
della Valle in Rome in Piccinni’s Il finto astrologo (7 February 1765).
His first major role was in Guglielmi’s Sesostri at Venice during
Ascension Fair 1766. In the same year he entered the service of the
Elector Maximilian III Joseph at Munich, where he remained until 1772.
He first appeared there in Traetta’s Siroe (Carnival 1767) and later
that year was given leave to perform in Venice and in Vienna, where
Mozart and his father heard him in Hasse’s Partenope. Burney, visiting
Rauzzini in August 1772, praised his virtuosity and the quality of his
voice, but was most impressed by his abilities as a composer and
harpsichordist. His last known operatic performance in Munich was in
Bernasconi’s Demetrio (Carnival 1772). According to Michael Kelly he was
forced to leave because of difficulties with noblewomen engendered by
his good looks. Rauzzini performed for two more years in Italy before
moving permanently to England. Engaged for Carnival 1773 at Milan, he
was primo uomo in Mozart’s Lucio Silla (26 December 1772) and in
Paisiello’s Sismano nel Mogol (30 January 1773). In January Mozart wrote
for him the brilliant motet Exultate, jubilate (kv165/158a). Later that
year he sang at Venice and Padua, and in 1774 at Turin (Carnival) and
Venice (Ascension Fair). From November 1774 to July 1777 Rauzzini sang
regularly at the King’s Theatre in London, making his simultaneous début
as singer and composer in the pasticcio Armida. Bingley reported that
his acting in Sacchini’s Motezuma (7 February 1775) greatly impressed
Garrick. Both Burney and Lord Mount Edgcumbe, however, deemed his voice
sweet but too feeble, a defect Burney ascribed to Rauzzini’s devoting
too much time to composition. Indeed, Rauzzini contributed arias to four
other pasticcios in the season 1775-76 and wrote a comic opera, L’ali
d’amore.
Piramo e Tisbe, his best-loved opera, was first staged in London on 16
March 1775 it was revived there in three other seasons and performed at
many continental theatres. In the following years many of his works,
both vocal and instrumental, were published in London. Rauzzini’s
singing also gradually won over London audiences. For his last London
appearance in 1777 he composed an Address of Thanks, presumably the
cantata La partenza ‘sung by him and Miss Storace’. In the autumn of
1777 Rauzzini took up residence in Bath, where he managed concerts by
many renowned performers, among them his pupils John Braham, Nancy
Storace, Charles Incledon, Mrs Billington and Mme Mara. At Dublin in
1778 he met and taught Michael Kelly and promoted his career with advice
to study in Naples. In the spring of 1781, again in London, Rauzzini
sang in concerts with Tenducci and others and wrote the second act of
the opera L’omaggio di paesani al signore del contado. He was
intermittently in London during the next three seasons to stage his
operas L’eroe cinese, Creusa in Delfo and Alina, o sia La regina di
Golconda, which was heavily criticized by the Public Advertiser (10 May
1784). Ballets with music by him were performed at the King’s Theatre in
the season 1783-84, and he also directed the production of Sarti’s Le
gelosie villane (15 April 1784). During this period a scandal arose over
his claim that certain arias in Sacchini’s operas were his own. He was
not in London when his incidental music for Reynold’s Werter (originally
performed at Bath) was used at Covent Garden on 14 March 1786, and
after the London première of his unsuccessful opera La vestale (1 May
1787) he remained permanently at Bath in his handsome town house and
sumptuous country villa in Perrymead. Among his many guests was Haydn,
who wrote the canon Turk was a faithful dog and not a man during a visit
from 2 to 5 August 1794. Near the end of his life Rauzzini published a
set of 12 vocal exercises with an introduction summing up his ideas on
the art of singing and reflecting his own tasteful execution.
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