Opera

(b Vienna, Aug 24, 1742; d Vienna, Sept 18, 1810). German actor and dramatist. The son of a poor servant, he was taught by the Jesuits along with his younger brother Paul. In 1757 he ran away from home and became a dancer, then turned to acting. He settled in Vienna in ...

(b Mannheim, Feb 20, 1746; d Munich, Jan 10, 1786). German soprano . Her parents, the tenor Pietro Sarselli and his wife Carolina, were singers at Mannheim. She accompanied her future husband to Italy in 1760 and after her return to Mannheim in 1761 was appointed a court musician. She married Franz Wendling, the violinist and brother of Johann Baptist, on 1 December 1764. Beginning with the role of Cirene in Traetta’s Sofonisba (1762), she was cast in the seconda donna roles at the Hoftheater, singing opposite her sister-in-law, Dorothea. She accompanied the court to Munich in 1778, and there created her most famous role, Electra in Mozart’s Idomeneo (1781). She also sang the title role in Salieri’s Semiramide (1782); her last role was Zelmira in Prati’s Armida abbandonata (1785).

(bc 1751; d Charleston, sc , Aug 12, 1796). English soprano . She made her début as Diana in Lionel and Clarissa (February 1770, Drury Lane), when the prompter Hopkins noted: ‘A very fine Voice – Aukward & Clumsy figure – Well faced’. She played some romantic leads at first but soon became established as Lucy rather than Polly in The Beggar’s Opera, specializing in lively second-woman parts. She was popular for her singing of spirited songs like ‘A soldier for me’ and ‘Tally ho!’. She last appeared at Drury Lane in December 1786, leaving her children and husband (recently appointed the company’s prompter) to go to North America, where she acted and sang as Mrs Pownall.

(b Bologna; d Aug 6, 1767). Italian librettist. A Bolognese nobleman active as poet and orator, he was a member of the Arcadian Academy, in which he used the pseudonym Esterio, and founded his own called the Accademia de’ Nascosti. In addition to at least ten opera librettos for various theatres in Venice and Bologna, he wrote several oratorios and prose translations of a number of French plays, printed variously by Longhi or Pisarri in Bologna between 1712 and 1724. His broad literary background influenced his librettos. Le gare generose is based on Jean de Campistron’s Arminius, and Il vincitor di se stesso on Racine’s Mithridate. The preface to Anagilda claims that it is based on a tragedy called Don Sancio, which it attributes to Calderón de la Barca, but the work is more probably based on Corneille’s Don Sanche d’Aragon. Zaniboni’s librettos adhere to the elevated tone cultivated by contemporary academic librettists, such as Apostolo Zeno....

(b Hamburg, c1742; d Brunswick, 1792). German stage designer. He studied painting and architecture in Italy and was in Rome in 1785. After working in Hamburg as a set designer, he served the Duke of Brunswick from 1788 until his death. The few extant designs in his hand are in the Berlin Kunstbibliothek. One, typical of an ...