Introduction

Francesco Borosini: First Among Tenors

Introduction

In today’s opera world, few people would challenge the idea that tenors are regarded as the biggest stars. One only has to look at the huge financial and popular success of the "Three Tenors" phenomenon, or the legendary status which has been accorded Enrico Caruso. By contrast, tenors of the 17th and early 18th centuries rarely achieved any particular fame. They were almost never given any leading roles (these went to the castrati or the prima donna); as a result they had few opportunities to prove themselves and were slow to earn the type of recognition that leads to stardom.

This paper focuses on one tenor, Francesco Borosini (fl. 1712-1740), who I contend was one of the first tenors to achieve international fame in the operatic world of the 18th century. In doing so, he helped to sow the seeds of a new tradition that would not find its full flower until the late 18th century: that of the tenor as primo uomo.

Following an elaboration of the problem I will present an overview of Borosini’s life, highlighting those episodes that I believe give evidence to his success. I will then present some contemporary accounts of his skills as a singer and actor; I will also discuss the music that was composed for his remarkable voice. I will draw on a variety of sources including reproductions of manuscript scores, contemporary printed libretti, modern editions, and the critical and historical literature.

Tenor roles in early 18^th century opera

The reasons behind the scarcity of leading tenor roles during this time are mostly rooted in the newly forming traditions of a genre that was still relatively young. As the medium of opera became established in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, so did connections between certain types of roles and the voices that sang them. Much has been written about these connections, both in contemporary and present day sources. Due to a variety of circumstances, until roughly 1725 casting a tenor in the leading male role was a significant departure from the normal Italian practice.

According to late 17th century practice, tenors were almost always relegated to minor parts; Benedetto Marcello in his satirical Il Teatro alla Moda mentions "captains of the guard, friends of the king, shepherds, messengers etc." as being appropriate parts for the tenor. Tenors also frequently took on comic roles such as the old man, the meddlesome schemer or the bumbling advisor to the hero. Tenors were seldom allowed to assume the role of the hero or "romantic lead"; heroic and romantic leading roles were the domain of the castrati (although not infrequently such roles were assigned to female singers).

There may have been very practical reasons why the castrati were preferred for leading roles. Certainly they were admired for the power and beauty of their voices and for the astonishing virtuosity with which they sang coloratura passages. At a time when an increasing number of composers were beginning to write arias with full orchestral textures throughout (as opposed to the earlier practice of alternating orchestral ritornelli with phrases of singing over light continuo accompaniment), a singer’s ability to project over an orchestra came to be highly prized. Contemporary accounts of the sounds produced by castrati often mention the piercing quality which their treble voices possessed (powered as they were by the increased lung capacity of their dramatically altered bodies, a side effect of the castration process). Perhaps at the heart of the matter was the fact that the castrati were simply better equipped to produce the volume necessary to be heard by audiences. It may be that it was simply a matter of time before a small number of tenors would gain the necessary technique to be able to match the achievements of the castrati in this regard.

The "stars" of Baroque opera

"Star status" in the world of early 18th century opera was based on a number of complex factors. Singers’ standing can be judged not only in the context of their profession but also within each individual opera in which they appeared. Naturally a singer’s "rank" within the cast of a particular opera was often heavily influenced by his existing status as a singer of renown; on the other hand, a singer could not achieve stardom unless she performed a sufficient number of leading roles in a series of operas.

Within a given opera, who the "stars" were was normally based on the relative importance of each role to both the drama and the music. During the creative process the status of each role was determined by the librettist as he assigned passages of recitative and arias to each character to fit the dramatic scheme; the composer then assigned roles to singers of particular voice types. Practical considerations were paramount; the composer was obviously limited to what specific singers he had at hand. If, for example, the best available castrato was not judged fit to portray a particular male lead, the role could be assigned to a woman (or, far less likely, to a tenor or bass). At other times a role may have been assigned to a singer with whom the composer was unfamiliar; during initial rehearsals the relative importance of each role may have shifted based on judgments of the new singer’s skills.

Distinctions in the relative importance of roles in an opera are sometimes difficult to discern, and each factor needs to be considered before one can determine who the stars of a given production were. When examining a specific opera to determine which are the roles of primary importance, historians must consider each of the following factors, keeping in mind that each piece of evidence cannot stand on its own and must be considered in conjunction with the other criteria:

Plot. Italian operas of the early 18th century generally include six to eight characters; the action of the opera often centers around three or four of these characters with the others serving as foils (confidants, handmaids, military advisors and the like). Careful examination of the libretto or study of the synopsis is crucial in determining which characters were most central to the drama, and consequently which performers were the featured actors.
Character lists and cast lists. Libretti from this period contain "personaggi", or a list of characters; order within this list is an indication of the relative importance of each role. The placement of a particular character within such a list can be helpful in determining the status of the singer who performed the role. Cast lists indicating performers’ names are also sometimes present in the libretto or in a manuscript score. If both libretto and score contain a cast list, frequently they do not agree entirely about the ordering of names. In the event that the opera was revived on other occasions or that the libretto was set by other composers, libretti of other such performances can be examined in order to corroborate evidence in the specific version being investigated. On many occasions the person performing the title role is the clearest candidate for "star" of the production; it would be unlikely for an opera to be named for an unimportant character.
The number and quality of arias. More than just a measure of the musical demands on the singer performing the role, the "length" of the role in terms of arias is an important indicator of the relative status of a given role. The presence of a variety of arias, their length, the degree of virtuosity, the use of extended passages of accompanied recitative or of solo scenes, and participation in any ensembles must also be taken into account. Evidence from the 18th century suggests that number of arias was very important in defining the importance of a role, and that singers frequently judged the relative worthiness of a role by comparing the number of arias in each role.

By way of example, let us examine specific roles in two of Handel’s operas. In Rodelinda, for example, the title character is clearly the principal star; the libretto contains eight arias for her (while two other leading characters have six each), and in the original production she was portrayed by the prima donna, Francesca Cuzzoni. In the case of Tamerlano, the primo uomo (in this case Senesino) was assigned a role "to type" (the lover Andronico). In the event, however, his role is far less pivotal to the action than those of Tamerlano, Bajazet, or Asteria (assigned to secondo uomo, tenor, and prima donna respectively), and its position in the cast list reflects this (see Appendix A for cast list and tally of arias per role).

We have discussed the phenomenon of "stardom" in 18th century opera and why this distinction was so infrequently applied to tenors. What follows is a biographical overview of Francesco Borosini, with particular attention to those elements that demonstrate his achievement of international fame, something no tenor before him had achieved.

Borosini’s life: birth, childhood, family

Francesco was probably born in Modena between 1686 and 1690. His father, the tenor Antonio Borosini (c.1660-c.1721), had sung in the chapel at San Marco in Venice from March 1679 until early in 1686, when he was called by the Duke of Modena to sing in his court. In Modena, Antonio established close friendships with the other court musicians, notably Antonio Gianettini, maestro di cappella; Gianettini was Francesco’s godfather. The Borosini family maintained their home in Modena until 1692 when Antonio was appointed to the royal court at Vienna. Antonio appeared in a number of northern Italian opera houses between 1690 and 1707, including those in Rome, Genoa, Reggio Emilia, Venice, and Naples. On two occasions his services were specifically requested by the Elector of Hanover (January 1689 and Carnival 1696). Francesco undoubtedly learned a great deal about his own future as he watched his father’s career unfold.

Vocal training, earliest appearances

Not surprisingly, Francesco’s first and only singing teacher was his father. There is little doubt that Francesco traveled to Vienna and resided there with his father during his childhood. He was being groomed for the "family business", and made his own debut in 1708 in Venice (Lotti’s Il vincitor generoso). There probably were other engagements around this time, of which documentation has not come to light. In 1712, shortly after his father’s official retirement, Francesco was engaged by the imperial court in Vienna.

Francesco at Vienna

The singers of the Viennese court maintained a furiously busy schedule of operas, oratorios and chamber works by each of the court composers. Johann Josef Fux, Antonio Caldara, Francesco Conti, and Giuseppe Porsile were employed in various compositional posts during the reign of Charles VI (1711-1740). Francesco appeared in numerous works of all sorts, beginning with modest roles such as Aristeo in Fux’ Orfeo ed Euridice and several others in works of Conti. He apparently pleased the maestri; within a few years he began to be assigned leading roles in Conti’s works, including Amassi in Sesostri, re di Egitto (1717) and the title roles in Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena (1719) and Archelao, re di Cappadocia (1722). Contemporary records concerning employment of court musicians indicate that Francesco was among the highest paid of all the court singers, and so presumably was called upon to perform featured roles in many sacred and secular works.

International Success – early engagements abroad

Were we only to take into account Borosini’s achievements in Vienna, he would be reckoned reasonably successful. But when coupled with his travels and triumphs abroad, his enduring place in music history can be assured.

It appears that some of Francesco’s earliest professional sojourns away from Vienna were to Reggio Emilia, sister city to his native Modena. There, during the Spring Fair of 1719, he created the title role in Francesco Gasparini’s Il Bajazet. This was Gasparini’s second setting of the same story; he had composed Tamerlano in 1711 for the Teatro San Cassiano in Venice, based on a libretto by Agostino Piovene. The libretto of the 1719 version was heavily adapted by the Modenese court poet Ippolito Zanella. This version’s on-stage death scene helped make it a leading tenor role without precedent; in the introduction of the libretto, Borosini is specifically credited with this innovation to the story. Il Bajazet, and Borosini’s role in it, takes on greater than isolated significance due to its connection to Handel’s Tamerlano (1724), which will be discussed presently. The later work, based on the same subject and with the same singer portraying the tragic Bajazet, was heavily influenced by Borosini’s history with the role.

The following season Borosini returned to Reggio to appear in the collaborative Nino (one act each was composed by Giovanni Maria Capelli, Gasparini, and Antonio Bononcini); among his co-stars in this work was Faustina Bordoni. He also appeared in Milan in 1720, in Giuseppe Vignati’s Aquilio in Siracusa; his role of Arrenione received top billing in the printed libretto.

Another highlight of Borosini’s increasingly international career was his appearance in Fux’s highly successful Costanza e fortezza in Prague in 1723. The imperial court musicians presented this opera in honor of Empress Elizabeth Christine, whose birthday was the occasion for the open-air performance. The renowned flautist Johann Joachim Quantz, who made a guest appearance in the orchestra, documented the participation of about a hundred singers and some two hundred instrumentalists, and commented in glowing terms on Borosini’s abilities. Quantz called him a "splendid singer and a fine actor", with a voice "extraordinarily flexible and spirited."

London, 1724-25

By the time Borosini reached London he was already a well-established artist with dozens of opera and oratorio appearances to his credit. Today, however, he is probably best known for his appearances in three operas by Handel at the King’s Theater, Haymarket, between October 1724 and February 1725. He was the first Italian tenor of the period to achieve success with the London public.

During Handel’s many years of involvement with the King’s Theater, he had made several attempts to forge contracts with Italian tenors. Borosini was the first of these to make the trip to England, and the roles to which Handel assigned him would remain the most significant tenor roles he would ever compose. It is not known when or where Handel first had the opportunity to hear Borosini or negotiate his engagement at the King’s Theater. Handel spent time in Venice during the winter of 1707-8 (his Agrippina was performed at the Teatro S. Giovanni Grisostomo in December 1709); it is possible that he heard Borosini in one or more operas there. No doubt Borosini also caught the attention of British visitors to Italy, some of whom (for example Charles Montagu, first Duke of Manchester) were later to become directors of the Royal Academy in London.

It is likely that they met and negotiated during Handel’s 1719 mission to the continent to search out singers for the newly formed Royal Academy. Rumors had apparently been circulating in London that Borosini was among those who was being recruited. Paolo Rolli, Italian librettist and one of Handel’s competitors in the London opera scene, wrote to his friend Giuseppe Riva in Modena that "They are saying that Borosini is the tenor coming and not Guicciardi".

In August of that year Borosini performed in two operas celebrating the marriage of the Electoral Prince Friedrich August to the Archduchess Maria Josepha and the resulting union of the Viennese and Dresden courts (the operas were Fux’s Elisa and Caldara’s Sirita). It is known that around this time Handel negotiated with another Viennese singer, the castrato Gaetano Orsini, who had appeared in the same celebratory operas. In all likelihood Handel conducted similar talks at this time with Borosini, although the tenor did not arrive in London until 1724 and Orsini would never appear there.

Tamerlano

We hear that there is a new Opera now in Practice at the Theatre in the Hay-Market, called Tamerlane, the Musick composed by Mynheer Hendel, and that Signior Borseni, newly arrived from Italy, is to sing the Part of the Tyrant Bajazet. N.B. It is commonly reported this Gentleman was never cut out for a Singer.

This announcement appeared in Mist’s Weekly Journal, a London periodical, on October 17, 1724. The consensus among historians is that the apparent insult with which the announcement ends is probably a humorous allusion to the fact that Borosini was an Italian singer with a natural adult male voice, not another Italian castrato. Borosini was accompanied to London by his wife Rosa, also a singer, who had appeared with her husband in several works; while in London she appeared in Ariosti’s Dario and the pasticcio Elpidia.

Handel’s first assignment for Borosini was indeed the all-important role of Bajazet in Tamerlano. Handel had assigned the role to tenor voice prior to Borosini’s arrival in London, and in fact completed the score in July 1724. Arriving later that year, Borosini brought with him the score of Gasparini’s Il Bajazet, and Handel proceeded to make many changes to his version, incorporating several details from the Gasparini/ Piovene/Zanella version of the story. Among these changes was the addition of Bajazet’s climactic on-stage death scene, the aforementioned scene that Gasparini and Zanella had added to their revised version at Borosini’s suggestion (see endnote #10). In Handel’s expert hands, this scene became a dramatic scena featuring an extended period of continuous accompanied recitative and arioso. Handel also adapted some of music he had already composed to better suit Borosini’s range, in one case simply transposing an entire aria down one whole step.

The fact that Handel made substantial changes to an already completed score at Borosini’s suggestion testifies to the fact that Handel felt those changes would improve the work dramatically; it also speaks to his belief in Borosini’s ability to perform the improved version convincingly. History shows that Handel was a powerful impresario who did not suffer gladly the whims of foolish singers; he had celebrated brushes with more than a few renowned singers. The manner in which he tailored the role of Bajazet to Borosini’s unique gifts is strong evidence of the respect he must have had for Borosini as an artist.

Even though Borosini had undertaken the role of Bajazet previously, the assignment of a tenor to this role in this particular circumstance is extremely significant. On London’s operatic stages it was unheard of for a tenor to undertake a role of such critical importance to the plot. As has been discussed, tradition throughout Europe had relegated the tenor to such secondary characters as the aged father figure, the aged military leader, or the aged advisor to the monarch. Bajazet is indeed a father and elder, but his character is infused with a nobility of station and of behavior that would have been attractive to the traditional primo uomo—the castrato.

Rodelinda

Next, Handel assigned Borosini the pivotal role of the would-be usurper Grimoaldo in Rodelinda. Borosini had experience portraying villains; in 1717 he had sung the featured role of Amassi, the murderous usurper in Conti’s Sesostri, re di Egitto. Handel put to good use the multi-faceted character of Borosini’s voice in the six arias he composed for Borosini in this role. In particular, the dramatic scena near the end of act three recalls the final scenes of Tamerlano and Il Bajazet; Borosini’s apparently considerable dramatic skills would be similarly exploited by Giuseppe Porsile in the title character’s mad scene in Spartaco (1726).

Other works for London

Handel also re-scored the soprano role of Sesto for Borosini in the 1725 revival of Giulio Cesare in Egito; in the original production in 1724 the role had been sung by Margherita Durastanti prior to her departure from England. Sesto is the adolescent son of the murdered Pompei who attempts to avenge his father and protect his mother Cornelia. The assignment of this role to Borosini is of particular interest, as tenors almost never were called upon to play youthful characters. It is also interesting to note that in subsequent revivals of this work Handel preferred to use a tenor for Sesto when a worthy one was available. Of the five arias for Sesto in the original production, two were retained (Borosini sang these an octave lower than originally written), two others were replaced with newly composed ones, and one aria was dropped. The duet with Cornelia was replaced by an additional newly composed aria. Two of the three newly composed arias are reproduced in the Appendix of the Chrysander edition of the score; all three exist in a manuscript in the British Museum.

Borosini’s year in London was distinguished not only for the three Handel works but for three additional operas in which he portrayed featured roles: the title role in Attilio Ariosti’s Artaserse, a leading role in Ariosti’s Dario, and a lesser role in the pasticcio Elpidia. All of these new works in which Borosini appeared, a total of six, were prepared, rehearsed and premiered at the dizzying pace of one each month between October 1724 and the following May.

While undoubtedly absences from his Viennese court duties were strictly controlled, it is tempting to imagine what other accomplishments might have been in store for Borosini had he remained in London. Despite his short stay he made a lasting impression on the London audience, opening the door to several tenors who were to have more substantial roles than they would have had in the past. In ensuing seasons Handel did periodically have other Italian tenors in his company, namely Luigi Antinori, Annibale Pio Fabri, and Giovanni Battista Pinacci. It is significant to note that Tamerlano and Rodelinda (the two operas in which he composed roles specifically for Borosini) were only revived selectively during Handel’s lifetime, and only when he had a suitable tenor at hand. Tamerlano had to wait until 1731 for its only revival, with Pinacci in the role of Bajazet.

Borosini the impresario - the Kärtnertortheater

In 1728, Borosini (in partnership with Josef Karl Sellier, former dancer and ballet composer for the imperial court) was given an imperial privilege, a twenty-year exclusive right to present intermezzi (adaptations of popular court operas) for the public at the newly built Kärtnertortheater. From this point on, there is documentary evidence of few stage appearances by Borosini. It is likely that what appears to be a gap in his stage appearances between 1729 and 1747 (when he sang in London in two works) was actually filled with appearances in his own productions at the Kärtnertortheater. Hopefully, examination of extant performance materials or libretti of these intermezzi will yield evidence that he indeed performed in these works.

Borosini retired as court singer in March of 1731. As this event probably did not mark the end of his singing career, one might reason that Borosini took this step in order to focus his attention on developments at the Kärtnertortheater.

Contemporary accounts concerning Borosini as a singer

There are essentially only two sources where one can look for information about characteristics of Borosini’s voice and his skill as an operatic performer: contemporary reports and the scores of the operas in which roles were composed for him. Of the former unfortunately there are few. Quantz’ highly complimentary recollections have already been mentioned. Lady Bristol remarked on a performance of Tamerlano that "the new man takes extremely"; there is some controversy over the identity of the singer to which she referred. Winton Dean and Otto Erich Deutsch contend that Andrea Pacini, who portrayed the title role, was the object of her comment. H.C. Robbins Landon disputes this, saying "the new castrato, Andrea Pacini, had the title role, but the sensation of the evening was the new tenor, Francesco Borosini." Paul Henry Lang supports this view, stating "Handel was entirely successful in portraying Bajazet, a noble hero who dominates the opera; his antagonist, Tamerlano, sung by a new alto castrato, Pacini, is not nearly so convincing."

More than twenty years later Borosini returned to London, possibly as a visiting impresario, during the 1746-47 season; evidence indicates that he did sing in Paradies’ Fetonte and Terradellas’ Bellerofonte. Burney remarked that during this season the male singers, including Borosini, had "never been possessed of the powers of pleasing"; this suggests that as a singer, Borosini’s finest accomplishments were behind him. Apparently at the time Burney had no recollection or knowledge of Borosini’s earlier successes in London.

Recently a letter written by General William Cadogan, first Earl, has come to light; in it he mentions a visit to the opera and singles out Borosini. The letter, in French, is dated 17 November 1724, within a fortnight of Borosini’s London debut as Bajazet in Tamerlano.

‘Tuant aux Plaisirs, L’opera va toujours son Train, et Borosini a l’applaudissement general.’

(‘Killing with pleasures, the Opera continues on its way, and Borosini has the general applause’)

The music

Upon examination, considerable remarkable insights into Borosini’s vocal capabilities can be gleaned from the operas themselves. Perhaps the most startling discovery is the wide compass that nearly every composer exploited. Many of the roles written for Borosini cover a range of two octaves. Borosini was evidently capable of producing as clear and substantive a tone on G₁ as on g:

He often was called upon to traverse the entirety of his range in the course of a mere two measures:

It appears he was anything but daunted by the inclusion of large leaps:

or by the juxtaposition of high and low pitches in general:

One can easily understand how Quantz would have been inspired to call Borosini’s voice "lively and flexible":

While composing arias for Borosini, both Conti and Fux not infrequently would notate low-lying passages of several measures in bass clef. The reason for this was purely pragmatic: it was easier for the composer to indicate a change to bass clef than to draw many ledger lines in tenor clef. Borosini’s wide range provided composers with an amazingly varied palette of expressive colors. Borosini was called upon to do what any other tenor could do in the "average" tenor’s tessitura; in addition he was able to do much of what the typical bass could do.

Of all the composers whose arias could be studied by this author, Handel was the only one who avoided showy exploitation of Borosini’s remarkable range. Grimoaldo’s arias in Rodelinda, for example, never plunge any lower than C, although there is a plethora of challenging coloratura and other opportunities for vocal display. The role of Bajazet in Tamerlano does include A₁ and A#₁, but for the most part this role is distinctive in its restraint.

Was Borosini a "star"?

As has already been discussed, international fame as an opera singer in the early 18th century was predicated on a singer’s ability to prove himself repeatedly in leading roles. What constitutes a leading role is dependent on three factors:

the importance of the role in the progress of the drama;
the billing afforded the role in cast lists (along with its status as a title role, if applicable);
and the number and type of arias written for the singer in the role.

Among the roles in which Borosini appeared, several stand out as being crucial to the unfolding of the action. Some of these have already been mentioned within the biographical overview: Bajazet (in Gasparini’s Il Bajazet and in Handel’s Tamerlano), Grimoaldo (Handel’s Rodelinda), Amassi (Conti’s Sesostri, re di Egitto), and Ulisse (Conti’s Penelope). In each case, examination of the plot reveals that the character portrayed by Borosini was central to the action.

In other cases, the relative importance of the character played by Borosini can be gleaned from its placement in the cast list. Many of Borosini’s earliest appearances were in the lowest-billed role of the opera; these included Ermano in Lotti’s Il vincitor generoso (1708, his debut role), Sibari in Conti’s Il Ciro (1715), Aristeo in Fux’s Orfeo ed Euridice (1715, his first appearance in a Fux opera), Sicinio in Caldara’s Cajo Marzio Coriolano (1717), and Calcante in Fux’s Diana placata (1717). Of the composers in the Viennese Hofkapelle, Conti appears to be the first to entrust Borosini with more important roles, composing Amassi in Sesostri, re di Egitto for him in 1717. Soon thereafter his name was placed near the top of cast lists with increasing regularity.

Borosini appeared in title roles on several occasions; among them were Don Chisciotte (Conti, 1719), Bajazet (Gasparini, 1719), Archelao (Conti, 1722), Artaserse (Ariosti, 1724), Spartaco (Porsile, 1726), and Lucio Papirio (Giacomelli, 1729). Click here to see a list of all operas and other secular dramatic works in which Borosini’s participation is documented in reliable sources.

Study of cast lists also yields information concerning the company which Borosini kept throughout his career. On his various trips to the Italian opera houses, his co-stars included Faustina Bordoni and Farinelli; in London he appeared with Francesca Cuzzoni and Senesino.

The final criterion used to establish the importance of a given role is the number and quality of arias assigned to it. Selected operas listed in Appendix A are accompanied by figures showing the number of arias assigned to Borosini with those assigned to his co-stars in a few works. Special mention needs to be made of those works in which Borosini was assigned a particularly challenging scene (for example an extended solo scene of accompanied recitative and aria). Such scenes, when they occur, appear most often in the final act as the opera reaches its dramatic climax. As has already been mentioned, scenes such as this occur in Handel’s Tamerlano and Gasparini’s Il Bajazet (the on-stage death scene which Borosini encouraged both composers to include in the role), Handel’s Rodelinda, and Porsile’s Spartaco.

Conclusion

While clearly there are a great many more sources which need to be studied before the full story can be written, what is already known about the life, career, and voice of Francesco Borosini confirms that he did enjoy "star status" during his mature career. He appeared in a number of title roles during his career; these include Don Chisciotte, Bajazet, Archelao, Artaserse, Spartaco, and Lucio Papirio. Other roles which he sang stand out as being central to the drama and requiring exceptional singing and acting skills; a list of examples would certainly include Bajazet in Handel’s Tamerlano, Grimoaldo in Rodelinda, Amassi in Conti’s Sesostri, re di Egitto, and Ulisse in Conti’s Penelope. The fact that Borosini was a tenor adds an extra element to his status, due to the fact that affording star status to a tenor was still a rare phenomenon.

His successes as a singer and actor helped to strengthen the position of the tenor in the realm of late Baroque opera. His participation in the music performed at the Viennese court during his nearly two decades of service adds an exciting element to our knowledge of this forgotten repertoire. It is this author’s hope that uncovering information about the original singers of this repertoire can add to our collective understanding of performance practice issues and renew our interest in a largely neglected area of opera history.