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Home , Castrato, Concert performance, Farinelli, Gaetano Guadagni, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Joseph Legros

Patricia Howard. The Modern : and the Coming of a New Operatic Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. xiv + 238 pp. $41.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-936520-3.

Reviewed by Corinna Herr

Published on H-Music (September, 2017)

Commissioned by Lars Fischer (UCL Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies)

Gaetano Guadagni (1729–92) was and is gun his career in in seria and would doubtless one of the best-known castrati of the go on to become “one of the most noted exponents second half of the eighteenth century. In contrast in Europe in serious roles” (p. 28). Having begun to Giovanni Battista Velluti (1781–1861), whom his career in 1748 as an , he moved on to mez‐ called “the last of the good castrati,” zosoprano roles that habitually reached a g2, Guadagni lived in an age in which castrati were though his most famous role, the in Gluck’s still the norm rather than the exception. Not reform opera, was an alto role with a modest much has been published on Guadagni and noth‐ range (to e2). ing that goes beyond his role in Christoph To the best of our knowledge, Guadagni’s last Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed (1762). A fuller took place in 1785 in his account has long been a desideratum, then. Patri‐ then hometown of . He subsequently suf‐ cia Howard has now flled this gap with her de‐ fered a stroke, which left him aphasic—a particu‐ tailed biography. Her reconstruction of his career larly cruel fate for a singer. He nevertheless draws on Claudio Sartori’s invaluable catalogue of seems to have retained his energy and could still published libretti, which were frequently pre‐ be heard in a liturgical context at the pared for specifc performances and therefore Basilica del Santo. Howard cites a contemporary listed the artists involved. Paduan source describing how the “curiosity of The 1760s and 1770s were a crucial time for hearing him sing a versicle attracted an incredible opera reform and Guadagni was repeatedly en‐ number of people” (p. 185). gaged in places that stood at the forefront of this His participation in Crosa’s bufa troupe reform movement, especially and Padua. demonstrated—or perhaps established—a trait Yet the most important location in terms of his ca‐ that later became a crucial factor for Guadagni’s reer progression was , where he spent his success: his ability to act. Unlike , formative years as a singer (1748–55), traveling opera bufa depended, for the most part, on actors there with the opera bufa troupe of the impre‐ who were also able to sing. Opera seria, by con‐ sario Giovanni Francesco Crosa. As Howard trast, depended before all else on trained singers points out, it was most unusual for a castrato to who could meet the challenges of , mes‐ sing in a bufa troupe and this trajectory seems all sa di voce, and the wide range for which castrati the more improbable given that Guadagni had be‐ were known. In the past, the fact that Guadagni H-Net Reviews trained with the famous actor David Garrick has Lespinasse’s reaction to the same singer from the generally been presented as fundamental to his following year: “Never, no never was the perfec‐ acting skills. Howard, however, quite rightly tion of singing so united with sensibility and ex‐ stresses the signifcance of his experience as a pression. What tears he made me shed! what bufa singer and the fact that his acting skills were trouble he brought into my soul! No singing ever enhanced by his cooperations with Filippo Laschi left so deep, so sensitive, so heart-breaking an im‐ and, especially, with Pietro Pertici, who had pression; I could have listened to him till it killed worked extensively with Carlo Goldoni and whom me. Oh! how preferable such a death to life!”[2] London critics considered “one of the greatest co‐ Apparently, Howard has found no similar reac‐ medians of his age and country” (p. 30). tions to Guadagni, which is hardly surprising, giv‐ In her otherwise chronological account, en that such extreme responses were usually pro‐ Howard frequently references the status of cas‐ voked not by the alto but by the male trati in general. In her account of Guadagni’s frst voice—with the notable exception of Francesco sojourn in London, for instance, she discusses the Bernardi, widely known as , whose re‐ state of opera seria in London around the middle turn from England to the Continent in 1737 appar‐ of the eighteenth century, the various well-known ently provoked extreme female reactions, which stories and rumors about the castrati’s virility and again became the butt of much satire. attractiveness to women, and the casting of cas‐ Like Guadagni, Millico too was one of the ini‐ trato roles in the twentieth and twenty-frst cen‐ tial embodiments of Gluck’s Orfeo (or Orphée). turies. Unfortunately, these digressions are too Guadagni’s participation, in 1762 in Vienna, as the long not to interrupt the fow of her account of lead in the premiere of the original Italian version Guadagni’s career and too short genuinely to ad‐ of Gluck’s opera clearly marks his greatest claim dress the issues they raise. Her treatment of vari‐ to fame (which may explain why Howard’s book ous scholarly opinions on the castrati’s ability to was published in 2014, the year of the 300th an‐ perform sexually, for example, only generates the niversary of Gluck’s birth). When the opera, as vague sense that the contemporary discourse “Atto d’Orfeo,” was performed in in 1769 must surely have been more substantial than her as the third act of Le Feste d’Apollo, Gluck altered discussion refects—as indeed it was. One need the part and it was performed by the soprano Mil‐ only consult the contemporaneous discussions of lico. At the 1774 premiere of Orphée in , the (platonic) androgynous ideal, or the legal in‐ , a Haute-contre, sang the title role. tricacies pertaining to the castrato’s marriage, to These respective adjustments of the score chart a realize how profound the impact of these phe‐ development from a stile d’agilità, represented by nomenona was at the time.[1] Guadagni, to a more dramatic part relying on On the issue of sexual attraction, Howard Legros’s more “heroic” . This trajectory mentions reactions to the castrato’s voice, espe‐ maps neatly both onto the development of opera cially that of the notoriously ostentatious Fanny more generally in this period and onto the history Burney after hearing the soprano Giuseppe Milli‐ and eventual demise of the castrati, even if this co in London in 1773. Burney spoke of “rapture” history would not fnally draw to its close until and Millico’s “divinely penetrating” voice. For 1824, when created the fnal Howard, these expressions have a sexual connota‐ castrato role in opera for Giambattista Velluti in Il tion. This is certainly a possibility but one might crociato in Egitto. equally well contextualize these utterances with Guadagni’s acting and singing skills doubtless reference to the Age of Sensibility. Take Julie de afected Gluck’s conception of the Orfeo role. How

2 H-Net Reviews exactly it did so is hard to determine precisely, the methodological problems that arise as a result though. Howard approaches this complex prob‐ of Howard’s decision to ofer a predominantly lem with caution and insight. There is very little chronological account become particularly clear. evidence documenting the role’s development. His Guadagni’s performance of the role in the 1762 statement that the role was “tailor-made” for Orfeo performance, discussed in chapter 6, can‐ Guadagni apart, the librettist, Ranieri de’ Calzabi‐ not fully be understood with taking into account gi, seems to have had no more to say about the his later resumption of the same role in London singer. Given that “Orfeo is literally never of (chapter 8), his acting skills (chapter 4), and his stage, and … sings almost continuously” (p. 98), skills as a singer and (chapters 12 and the dramatic scope of the role would certainly 9). have matched Guadagni’s well-known acting The crucial chapter on “Guadagni the Singer” skills. The noticeable plainness of Orfeo’s is the last in the book. Much of its content would suggests that they were designed for free orna‐ be very useful for the appreciation of some of the mentation, and there has been much speculation earlier chapters, though. Here, Howard comes in the scholarship as to how much ornamentation back to Guadagni’s time in London where he per‐ Guadagni is likely to have introduced. On the oth‐ formed extensively in by Handel (the er hand, Gluck is known to have loathed the tradi‐ parts of Didymus in [1750] and Her‐ tion of free ornamentation that was common cules in The Choice of Hercules [1751] were writ‐ practice in opera seria and engaged in with some‐ ten for him). Examining the music that Handel, times excessive relish by castrati and female Gluck, and others wrote specifcally for Guadagni, singers alike at the time. Howard approaches this she concludes that his was a lyrical alto voice with issue from a comparative perspective, drawing on extensive infections, suited most of all to arie the ornamentation documented for Guadagni’s and arie parlante but less so to bravura stage performances in London where, in 1770, he arias, and emphasizes especially his “strengths as also resumed the Orfeo role in a with ad‐ a declamatory singer-actor” (p. 207). Howard pro‐ ditional music by and him‐ vides no specifc evidence for the contention that self (chapter 8). In addition, Howard also takes —characterized by Pierfrancesco Guadagni’s skills as a singer (chapter 12) and his Tosi as an ornament of the patetico—was Guadag‐ own compositions into consideration. ni’s “trademark.” It may be that this did not strike The chapter on “Guadagni the Composer” contemporaries as worth noting, given that it was (chapter 9) is defnitely one of the book’s high‐ a skill attributed to many castrati (and also to fe‐ lights. Howard analyzes three of his arias (the male singers, especially to Faustina Bordoni-Has‐ arias are available in full on the book’s compan‐ se, who was known to employ a special technique ion website). Her discussion ofers valuable in‐ to prolong her tones ad infnitum). It would cer‐ sights not only into his compositional skills but tainly match Guadagni’s voice profle, though. also into his approach to constructing music in a The telos of Howard’s account is stated clearly manner best suited to show of his singing skills. both in the title and the subtitle of the book. But As Howard mentions only in passing, two of these what could be “modern” about a castrato? Does three arias were in fact part of the aforemen‐ one always have to proclaim a change of para‐ tioned Orfeo pasticcio—surely inviting a direct digm to sustain what one has written? If I had to comparison with Gluck’s corresponding arias. connect the phenomenon of castrato or indeed Howard focuses especially on the “sensitive word- the high male voice with a period other than the setting” (p. 154) in the arias, obviously an issue of Baroque it would be Postmodernism. Only since particular interest to singers. At a point like this,

3 H-Net Reviews the 1980s has a new appreciation for this special [1]. See Corinna Herr, Gesang gegen die ‘Ord‐ phenomenon in singing emerged; only since then nung der Natur’? Kastraten und Falsettisten in have begun to emulate the castrati der Musikgeschichte (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2013); and shared in some of their success. Modernity and Martha Feldman, The Castrato: Refections on might sensibly be associated with the French Rev‐ Natures and Kinds (Oakland: University of Cali‐ olution, which fatly rejected the reactionary phe‐ fornia Press, 2015). nomenon of the castrato. The Enlightenment, on [2]. Letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse, with notes the other hand, contrary to widespread belief, did on her life and character by d'Alembert, Marmon‐ not criticize the castrato. Howard is entirely right, tel, de Guibert, etc., and an introduction by C. A. of course, in stressing that Guadagni’s new art of Sainte-Beuve, trans. Katharine Prescott Wormeley singing difered from that of ’s genera‐ (Boston: J. B. Millet, 1909), 128. tion. Guadagni’s association with Gluck’s reform certainly seems to weigh heavily in favor of the notion of his “modernity,” though one might well argue that the impact of this reform did not gen‐ uinely become apparent until at least ffty years later. Where Howard sees us in a “new operatic age” that is profoundly connected to “nature” and “feeling,” a closer look at opera seria demon‐ strates that many of the traits she identifes with this “new operatic age” had in fact been around since the early eighteenth century at the latest. In many ways, of course, how one approaches these issues will depend heavily on one’s more general understanding of the relationship between histor‐ ical continuity and discontinuity. Howard’s book has many merits, foremost among them her judicious exploration of a com‐ prehensive source base covering four languages and ranging from the ubiquitous to the virtually unknown. At the same time, her account relies on a mostly positivistic compilation of facts seeming‐ ly guided by no intentional interpretive scheme designed to draw connections and thus illuminate cultural contexts or illustrate specifc paradigms. The exception are her three crucial chapters on “Guadagni the Actor,” “Guadagni the Composer,” and “Guadagni the Singer.” These chapters are crucial not only for the book but for any real ap‐ preciation both of Guadagni’s vita and of the work and status of eighteenth-century more generally. Notes

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Citation: Corinna Herr. Review of Howard, Patricia. The Modern Castrato: Gaetano Guadagni and the Coming of a New Operatic Age. H-Music, H-Net Reviews. September, 2017.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=50421

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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