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Giovanni Francesco Crosa and the First Italian Comic Operas in London, Brussels and Amsterdam, 1748–50

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Richard G. King  and
Saskia Willaert
Richard G. King
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Saskia Willaert
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Extract

In the autumn of 1748 the opera audience in London was introduced to a newly arrived troupe of Italian singers, an eccentric impresario and an operatic genre previously unknown in England. The buffo company, led by ‘Doctor’ Giovanni Francesco Crosa, would entertain the King's Theatre public for the first time with full-length Italian comic operas. In May 1750, after two tumultuous seasons which saw the gradual dissolution of the troupe and financial disaster for the management, Crosa fled the country, never to return. The King's Theatre closed its doors, to reopen only in the autumn of 1753 with a programme devoted exclusively to serious opera. It was not until 1766, when Piccini's La buona figliuola conquered the London opera stage, that Italian comic opera found real success at the King's.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 118 , Issue 2 , 1993 , pp. 246 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 Royal Musical Association

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References

This study is based in part on Saskia Willaert's M.A. thesis, ‘The First Italian Comic Operas in London, 1748-1750’ (King's College, London, 1990). Richard G. King wishes to thank the Ministry of Education of the Netherlands for a grant which made his part in the research and writing of this article possible.Google Scholar

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55 PRO LC 5/161, f. 301.Google Scholar

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84 A General History, ii, 850. As noted above, a Mrs Freeman performed in 1744, and The London Stage lists a dancer named Shawford who appeared frequently between May 1748 and May 1753 (his first appearance is dated December 1740). The name of Angelo de Angelis is familiar, but as a creditor, not a debtor, of Crosa (see above).Google Scholar

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92 ‘Je vis Penici avec plaisir; étant vieux et ne pouvant plus chanter, il jouait la comédie, et en bon acteur, ce qui est rare; car les chanteurs, hommes et femmes, se fiant sur la durée de leur voix, négligent l'art de la scène, et d'ordinaire un simple rhume en fait très médiocres sujets.’ Mémoires de J. Casanova de Seingalt, ed. Raoul Vèze, vii (Paris, 1928), 136.Google Scholar

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101 ‘Laschi sucht nie auf Kosten der Natur das Händeklatschen des Parterrs. Er ist ein Schauspieler von grosser Einsicht: seine Scherze sind fein, anpassend, nie herbeygeschleppt, sondern immer aus der Sache selbst geschöpft: sein Anstand ist frey; er ist – wenn sich die beiden Worte ja einigermassen vergesellschaften lassen – ein edler Buffo. Er spielt noch die Liebhaber, aber man bemitleidet ihn über den Verlust einiger Saiten an seiner Stimme, der ihm zuweilen Misstöne abzwingt. Man sieht es an der Anstrengung seiner Gesichts, und dem Blinken seiner Augen, wie sehr er selbst diesen Verlust fühlet, den er durch Verwechslung der Töne und Coloraturen zu ersetzen suchet. Seine körperliche Ausübung, und seine tiefen Kenntnisse, sowohl in der Schauspielkunst als der Musik, versichern ihm indessen noch itzt einen Platz unter den vortrefflichsten Theatralpersonen Italiens: und was das Ohr bey seinen Arien zuweilen leidet, darüber entschädigt er durch seine Recitative, worein er alle Wahrheit und Ausdruck zu legen weis.’ Joseph von Sonnenfels, Briefe über die Wienerische Schaubühne, ed. Hilde Haider-Pregler (Graz, 1988), 70–1. Cited with slight variants in Angermüller, Vom Kaiser zum Sklavin, 20.Google Scholar

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