Baritone (Voice)

Member of Bannister family

(b Deptford, London, May 12, 1760; d London, Nov 7, 1836). English actor and baritone, son of Charles Bannister. During his career he played, according to his Memories, well over 400 different parts. He became a favourite comic actor and after his marriage to the soprano Elizabeth Harper in 1783 he began to take singing roles. Robson praised his voice as ‘full, round, clear, manly, and intelligible’ and declared: ‘everybody loved Jack Bannister’. In Storace’s operas, from The Haunted Tower (1789) onwards, he and Nancy Storace were frequently paired as the secondary lovers and Kelly later wrote roles for him. In Storace’s exuberant afterpiece The Three and the Deuce (1795) he played identical triplets, while as Walter, the saviour of the babes in Arnold’s The Children in the Wood, he delighted audiences from 1793 until his farewell performance in ...

Member of Mandini family

(b Arezzo, 1757; d Bologna, Jan 25, 1842). Italian tenor and baritone, brother of Stefano Mandini. He is sometimes confused with Stefano because, like him, Paolo had a wide range and sang both tenor and baritone roles. A pupil of Saverio Valente, he made a successful début at Brescia in 1777 and sang widely in Italy before joining Haydn’s company at Eszterháza in 1783–4. He appeared as Don Fabio in Cimarosa’s Il falegname, Gianetto in Anfossi’s I viaggiatori felici, Armidoro in Cimarosa’s L’amor costante, the Marquis in Sarti’s Le gelosie villane and the Count in Bianchi’s La villanella rapita. Haydn wrote Idreno for him in Armida. For the 1785–6 season he joined his brother in Vienna, where he made his début in Anfossi’s I viaggiatori felici as Gianetto and sang Paulino in Bianchi’s La villanella rapita. He went on to sing throughout Italy, returning briefly to Eszterháza (...

Member of Mandini family

(b 1750; d c1810). Italian baritone. His first known appearance, in Ferrara in 1774, was followed by a string of engagements throughout Italy. At Parma in 1776 he was described as ‘primo buffo mezzo carattere’. In 1783 he and his wife were engaged by Joseph II for his new Italian opera company in Vienna, Stefano making his début on 5 May 1783 as Milord Arespingh in Cimarosa’s L’italiana in Londra. That season he distinguished himself as Mingone in Sarti’s Fra i due litiganti and as Count Almaviva in Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia; in the last, Zinzendorf noted, he excelled in all four disguises in Almaviva’s role. In 1784 he created the title role in Paisiello’s Il re Teodoro in Venezia and the following season created Artidoro in Storace’s Gli sposi malcontenti and Plistene in Salieri’s La grotta di Trofonio. He also sang in Bianchi’s ...