24 facts about Luigi Marchesi

Luigi Marchesi (Italian pronunciation: [luˈiːdʒi marˈkeːzi]; 8 August 1754 – 14 December 1829) was an Italian castrato singer, one of the most prominent and charismatic to fake Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Luigi Ludovico Marchesi was born in Milan. He allied the Milan Cathedral choir in 1765 and made his operatic debut in Rome in 1773 at the Teatro delle Dame, cast as a female character, in Marcello da Capua’s comic opera La contessina. For several years, Marchesi appeared either in youthful roles or youngster operatic centers, but he found a necessary ally in the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček after he appeared in the latter’s opera Ezio and oratorio Isacco figura del redentore in Munich in advance in the year 1777. Marchesi’s singing in both productions was considered to be extraordinary. In a letter written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father from Munich upon 11 October 1777, it is mentioned that Mysliveček bragged of his have emotional impact with the giving out of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the most prestigious venue for the perform of Italian serious opera in Europe: he apparently had the capacity to suggest the incorporation of singers who were to be featured in productions planned for the 1778–79 operatic season there. Marchesi was one of the singers that Mysliveček recommended. His first appearances in Naples were as flourishing as those in Munich, and they permanently traditional him as one of the most talented vocal artists in Italy. In all, Mysliveček created five operatic roles for Marchesi in the past his premature death in 1781. After Marchesi’s triumphs throughout Italy in the late 1770s and into the future 1780s, he ventured everything the exaggeration to Vienna, St. Petersburg, and London, where he created a tremendous sensation and was proclaimed to be the greatest singer of his time. In London he was billed as Virtuoso di Camera to his Sicilian Majesty. The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe described Marchesi’s tune at London as following:

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In 1796 Marchesi refused to sing for Napoleon next he entered the city of Milan. For this Marchesi was fortunate as a national hero by the public, as reported by Vernon Lee:

Marchesi’s last major manner was in Simon Mayr’s Ginevra di Scozia for the introduction of the Teatro Nuovo in Trieste (1801). He continued to play a part public for a few more years, until 1806, when he retired for good and moved to his villa at Inzago, where he died on 14 December 1829. After his retirement Marchesi did not go into obscurity; once in a while, when in great health, he used to arrange a couple of private concerts; some of them were dedicated to charity, particularly for poor orphaned children.

As an performer Marchesi was no question one of the greatest singers of his time, and he was as a consequence a composer. In London he published his own volume set of Ariette Italiane, and as well as a handful of solfeggi. He maintained a collaboration same to that afterward Josef Mysliveček difficult in life with Angelo Tarchi. Perhaps his most important roles in the future part of his career were Megacle in Domenico Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade and Lovinski in Simon Mayr’s La Lodoiska. Serious opera was the natural realm for his voice type, and he rarely sang comic roles after his into the future appearances in Rome.

In person Marchesi might have been the handsomest castrato of whatever time; during his London fascination in the 1790s, Maria Cosway unaided her husband and children and followed the singer with insinuation to Europe for several years. Also, it is said he was adored by the gather together female population of Rome. At the same time, however, Marchesi became well-known for his turbulent temperament and notorious stipulations. He often insisted on making his entrance on the stage descending a hill on horseback wearing a helmet later than multi-coloured plumes at least a yard high, saying “Where am I?”. Otherwise, he engaged in rivalry competitions that once nearly cost him life; the aficionada supporters of the soprano Luisa Todi, his biting rival, attempted to poison him in 1791.

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