Soprano (Voice)

Member of Baglioni family (opera)

(fl 1753–88). Italian soprano, daughter of Francesco Baglioni. In 1753–9 she toured northern Italy with her father and one or two sisters, appearing in five comic operas at Venice in 1754–5. She also performed there in 1760–65 and 1775–8. Although best known for comic roles, she also sang in opera seria, appearing at Turin in 1759–60 (Galuppi’s La clemenza di Tito, Traetta’s Enea nel Lazio) and at Parma in 1761 and 1763 (J. C. Bach’s Catone in Utica). In 1762 she was in Milan and Vienna (Hasse’s Il trionfo di Clelia) and in 1767 in Naples, by which time she had married Domenico Poggi. She returned to Vienna where, in 1768, Mozart wrote for her the elaborate part of Rosina in La finta semplice, which however she never performed. She sang in Vienna in 1772–4 with her sisters Costanza and Rosina, and may have done so in Paris in ...

Member of Baglioni family (opera)

(fl 1752–1770s). Italian soprano, daughter of Francesco Baglioni. She began her career singing with her father in productions of comic opera. Her first role was Eugenia, a serious part in Galuppi’s comic Arcifanfano, re dei matti (1752, Parma). She continued to sing serious roles in productions of comic opera in northern Italy with her father and her sisters in the early 1760s; by ...

[née Harper]

Member of Bannister family

(bap. Bath, Nov 22, 1757; d London, Jan 15, 1849). English soprano. She was admired as a charming woman with a pure voice and unadorned singing style. Most of her stage career was spent in summer seasons at the Haymarket, where she sang from 1778 and created many roles in operas by Shield and Arnold, including Eliza in The Flitch of Bacon and Laura in The Agreeable Surprise. She also sang in concerts and was at Covent Garden from 1781 to 1786, creating the title role in Shield’s Rosina. She married the actor John Bannister in 1783, reputedly teaching him to sing and turning him into a model husband and father. She retired in 1792 to ‘trim Friendship’s lamp round her family fire’.

Member of Bland family

(b ?1768/9; d London Jan 15, 1838). English soprano and actress. She was said to have had Italian Jewish parents who came to England when she was very young and, despite reports of a certificate stating that she was born and baptized at Caen in Normandy in September 1770, it seems almost certain that she was the ‘Italian Lady (four years old)’ who sang with the conjurer Breslaw and his Italian company at Hughes's Riding School near Blackfriars Bridge in May 1773. After further seasons with Breslaw she sang in 1780 with an Italian puppet show and the next year was in a pastoral medley at the Italian Opera and sang Cupid in King Arthur at Drury Lane. Miss Romanzini was a leading member of Charles Dibdin's child company at the Royal Circus, and then sang principal female roles in English operas in Dublin in ...

Member of Danzi family

(b Munich, 1768; d Munich, June 11, 1800). German soprano and composer. She was the daughter of the singer, actor, and theatre director Theobald Marchand, who came from Strasbourg and whose troupe was active in Mainz, Frankfurt, Mannheim, and Munich. From an early age she played children’s roles in the theatre and performed as a pianist and singer. In Munich she received tuition from the soprano Franziska Lebrun (née Danzi), who later became her sister-in-law. She and her younger brother Heinrich lived in Salzburg from 1781 to 1784 with Leopold Mozart, who taught her singing and the keyboard (she is often mentioned in his letters as ‘Gretl’). He supported her first attempts at composition (sonatas for piano or for violin and piano) and tried to have them published by the Viennese publisher Christoph Torricella, but without success. Wolfgang Mozart heard her sing on his visits to Salzburg in ...

[‘Francesina’]

(b c 1715; bur. Hammersmith, Middlesex, July 20, 1778). French soprano. Although her birth name was Duparc, she was known professionally as Francesina. Trained in Italy, she sang in several operas at Florence, Pistoia, and Lucca in 1731–5. In 1736 she was engaged by the Opera of the Nobility for London; her first appearance there was on November 15, when she sang and danced before members of the royal family at Kensington Palace. The following week she made her King’s Theatre début in Hasse’s Siroe, and went on to sing in operas by Broschi, Pescetti, Veracini, and Duni. The following season (1737–8) she appeared in operas by Pescetti and Veracini, Handel’s new operas Faramondo (Clotilde) and Serse (Romilda), and his pasticcio Alessandro Severo (Sallustia). From then she was known almost exclusively as a Handel singer. She was his leading soprano at the King’s Theatre in early ...

[Mainvielle-Fodor]

Member of Fodor family

(b Paris, Oct 13, 1789; d Saint Genis-Laval, Aug 14, 1870). French soprano, daughter of Josephus Andreas Fodor. She studied in St Petersburg with Eliodoro Bianchi. After some public appearances as a pianist and harpist, she made her stage début about 1810 in Fioravanti’s Le cantatrici villane. In 1812 she married the French actor Mainvielle, and after singing in Stockholm and Copenhagen, returned to Paris, where she made her début at the Opéra-Comique on 9 August 1814 in Grétry’s La fausse magie and Berton’s Le concert interrompu; she also sang in numerous roles at the Théâtre Italien. Her London début was in 1816 as Paer’s Griselda at the King’s Theatre, where her many other roles included Mozart’s Vitellia, Fiordiligi, Countess Almaviva, Zerlina and Susanna. The Morning Post described her voice as ‘rich, harmonious, and, without possessing extraordinary power, of a considerable compass. Her taste is chaste, her execution correct, easy and elegant, and her science evidently profound. To the brilliance of ornamental flights, she joins the still greater charm of feeling’....

[FrantziskaFrantiška][née Benda]

Member of Hataš family

(b Staré Benátky, bap. May 26, 1728; d Gotha, Dec 15, 1781). Czech soprano, daughter of Jan Jiří Benda sister of Franz and Georg Benda, and wife of Dismas Hataš. With her parents she left Bohemia in 1742 for Potsdam, where she studied singing with her eldest brother Franz. On the recommendation of her brother Georg she was appointed Kammersängerin of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha in December 1750, a position that she held until her retirement in 1778. In May 1751 she married Dismas Hataš. Her appearance at Gotha in G. Benda’s Xindo riconosciuto (1765) seems to have been exceptional; she normally performed at concerts and in the church rather than in opera. She was appreciated for her musicianship and superb coloratura technique as well as for the quality of her voice. G. Benda composed his Collezione di arie italiane for her. She also taught singing....

German family of musicians.

Lebrun [Brün, Le], Ludwig August (b Mannheim, bap. May 2, 1752; d Berlin, Dec 12/15/16, 1790)

Lebrun [née Danzi], Franziska [Francesca] (Dorothea) (b Mannheim, March 24, 1756; d Berlin, May 14, 1791)

Lebrun [Dülken], Sophie (b London, June 20, 1781; d Munich, July 23, 1863)

Lebrun [Stentzsch], Rosine (b Munich, April 29, 1783; d Munich, June 5, 1855)

[Francesca](Dorothea)

Member of Lebrun family

(b Mannheim, March 24, 1756; d Berlin, May 14, 1791). German soprano and composer, wife of Ludwig August Lebrun. She was the daughter of Innocenz Danzi and elder sister of Franz Danzi. She made her début in 1772 at the Schwetzingen Schlosstheater in Sacchini’s La contadina in corte and sang in the court opera at Mannheim, holding the title virtuosa da camera. In 1777 she triumphed in the role of Anna in Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg, which was composed for her voice. She spent the next year in London and in 1778 married Ludwig August Lebrun. While retaining her court position (from 1778 at Munich), she visited several European countries with her husband, making guest appearances in operas and concerts. On August 3, 1778 she sang the principal role in Salieri’s Europa riconosciuta at the opening of La Scala, Milan. Early in 1779 she appeared with her husband at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, where she caused a stir by fitting Italian texts to the solo parts of symphonies concertantes. For the opera seasons of ...

English family of musicians.

Linley, Thomas (i) (b Badminton, Gloucs., Jan 17, 1733; d London, Nov 19, 1795)

Linley, Elizabeth Ann (b Bath, Sept 7, 1754; d Bristol, June 28, 1792)

Linley, Thomas (ii) (b Bath, May 7, 1756; d Grimsthorpe, Lincs., Aug 5, 1778)

Linley, Mary [Polly] (b Bath, Jan 4, 1758; d Clifton, Bristol, July 27, 1787)

Linley, Ozias Thurston (b Bath, bap. Aug 22, 1765; d London, March 6, 1831)

Linley, William (b Bath, Jan 27, 1771; d London, May 6, 1835)

Member of Linley family

(b Bath, Sept 7, 1754; d Bristol, June 28, 1792). English soprano, daughter of Thomas Linley (i). She was taught by her father and made early appearances in concerts at Bath and Bristol. She made her London début at Covent Garden in 1767, with her brother Thomas Linley (ii), in Thomas Hull’s masque The Fairy Favour, and made regular appearances in the London oratorio seasons, 1769–73, and at the Three Choirs Festival from 1770 to 1773, often with her sisters Mary and Maria. After a broken engagement to Thomas Matthews, which inspired Samuel Foote’s comedy The Maid of Bath (Haymarket Theatre, June 26, 1771), she eloped to France with Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1772 and married him in April 1773. The incident may have inspired her husband’s libretto The Duenna (1775). She then withdrew from public life, but continued to sing at benefits and to give private concerts at her home, where she was sometimes accompanied at the keyboard by the music historian Charles Burney. Some of the music she supposedly composed appears in her father’s theatre works, and she wrote lyrics for at least one of her brother Thomas’s cantatas. She also wrote poetry and moving elegies on her brother’s death, and kept the accounts at Drury Lane....

[Polly]

Member of Linley family

(b Bath, Jan 4, 1758; d Clifton, Bristol, July 27, 1787). English soprano, daughter of Thomas Linley (i). She was taught by her father and frequently sang with her sister Elizabeth Ann at concerts, festivals, and in the oratorio seasons. In 1769, at the age of 11, she performed at Covent Garden in Colman’s ...

Member of Mandini family

(fl 1782–91). French soprano, wife of Stefano Mandini. The daughter of a Versailles court official, she was engaged with her husband in the Italian opera company in Vienna; she made her début there in 1783 as Madama Brillante in Cimarosa’s L’italiana in Londra and then sang Countess Belfiore in Sarti’s Fra i due litiganti. She is known to have created three roles, all small parts: Marina in Martín y Soler’s Il burbero di buon cuore (1786), Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro (1786) and Britomarte in Martín y Soler’s L’arbore di Diana. The high tessitura of her aria ‘Il capro e la capretta’, which Mozart wrote for her as Marcellina, belies any claim that she was a mezzo-soprano. She was apparently an attractive but poor singer. Zinzendorf wrote of her performance as Marina: ‘La Mandini let us see her beautiful hair’. As Britomarte she was said to sound ‘like an enraged cat’ and the performing score contains a pencilled comment at the head of her only aria: ‘canta male’. All that is known of her later career is that she sang with her husband in Naples and Paris....

Member of Monti family

(b Naples, 1730; d Naples, 1814). Italian soprano, cousin of Laura Monti. She made her début in Carnival 1746 in Conforto’s La finta vedova at the Teatro dei Fiorentini and from then until 1759 appeared regularly there and at the Teatro Nuovo, singing comic servant parts. She enjoyed the patronage of the Marchese di Gerace, with whom she was arrested suddenly in 1760 by the theatrical censors, who presumed impropriety; but after petitions and protests both were freed (there were testimonies to her ‘honest, philanthropic life, without any scandal’ and her regular attendance at church) and after two months she was able to resume singing at the Fiorentini theatre. For almost 20 years Monti was perhaps Naples’s most popular prima buffa. The best composers of the period created roles for her: Cocchi, Latilla, Logroscino, Jommelli, Traetta, Piccinni, Sacchini, Guglielmi, Paisiello and Cimarosa. Her style almost certainly influenced the development of Neapolitan ...

[Constantia](Caecilia Josepha Johanna Aloisia)

Member of Mozart family and Weber family

(b Zell, Wiesental, Jan 5, 1762; d Salzburg, March 6, 1842). Austrian soprano, wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and later of his biographer Georg Nikolaus Nissen, and cousin of Carl Maria von Weber. She is known primarily for her activities promoting the publication and performance of her first husband’s works and recounting numerous anecdotes of his life.

Constanze was the third daughter and fourth child of the bass, copyist, and composer Fridolin Weber and Marie Cecilia Stamm. Much of what is known or can be supposed of Constanze’s early life and education is tied to the professional careers of her elder sisters, the sopranos Aloisia (later Lange) and Josepha (later Hofer), and to her father’s more documented musical activities. The family first met Mozart in Mannheim in 1777–8, when Fridolin was a singer at the court chapel and Aloisia was studying with G.J. Vogel. In ...

Member of Parke family

(b London, Aug 26, 1772; d London, July 31, 1822). English soprano, composer, and pianist, eldest daughter of John Parke. She was taught by her father and played the harpischord at his 1781 benefit concert when she was eight years old. The following year at his benefit she made her début as a singer and played a piano concerto by J.S. Schroeter. In 1784 the Public Advertiser praised the taste and spirit of her playing and a year later wrote that she ‘certainly will be one of the best Piano Forte performers in England’. However, as an adult performer she was primarily a singer. She had sung among the trebles in the Handel Commemoration concerts in 1784 and by the age of 20 was a leading soprano soloist in concerts and oratorios in London and the provinces. Her uncle W.T. Parke remembered her singing in ...

Member of Ries family

(b Bonn, c1745; d after 1794). German singer, daughter of Johann Ries. She was appointed soprano at the electoral court at Bonn on April 27, 1764. In 1774 she married Ferdinand Drewer, a violinist in the court orchestra, and they remained in Bonn until ...

[née Mahon]

Member of Mahon family

(b Oxford, c1767; d London, Oct 16, 1805). English soprano, sister of John Mahon and William Mahon. In 1790 she married J. Second, a well-known Bath dancing-master. She was the most accomplished of the five sisters, all sopranos, and Parke in his Musical Memoirs related that ‘her singing was inferior only to Mrs Billington’. She made her Oxford début in 1785 and later sang at Covent Garden, Ranelagh, and at the Bath, Birmingham, Salisbury, Three Choirs and Winchester festivals. She was principal in the first English performances of Haydn’s Creation and Mozart’s Requiem.

There were two other brothers. Ross Mahon (b c1755; d Blandford, 25 Feb 1789) was a musician in the Dorset Regiment of Militia. He appeared at the Winchester Festival of 1787 with John and James. James Mahon (b c1763) was a bass and played the trumpet. He appeared frequently at West-Country festivals, was a principal singer at the Handel commemorations of ...