Gaetano Guadagni News
Italian opera singer (1728-1792)
Commemorations 2025 (Birth: Gaetano Guadagni)
- countertenor
- Italy
- opera singer, actor
Last update
2024-04-22
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2023-12-06 07:44:00
A lifetime's experience: John Nelson finally records Messiah in a finely engaged performance, with a fantastic quartet of soloists
[…] in Dublin was not repeated when Handel presented the work in London in 1743 and the work was only intermittently revived until Handel's charity performances for the Foundling Hospital began in 1750. From then on, Foundling Hospital performances of Messiah were a part of the London scene, and it is to these later performances that we owe the version of Messiah generally performed today.Handel constantly adjusted the work, revising and tweaking. For the 1749 revival the castrato Gaetano Guadagni (best known for creating the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice), Handel created showy arias for the singer, he was added as a fifth soloist, rather than as replacement for the alto soloist. Handel's alto soloist was always a woman, during his lifetime a man never sang 'He was despised', and similarly with one exception when boys were used, the soprano soloist was always a woman.The 1754 Foundling Hospital performance of Messiah is […]
2021-04-12 08:40:08
Towards Perfection: the idea of an ideal version of an opera has not always played out in history, with composers being surprisingly willing to rewrite works to suit circumstances
[…] a sense of thinking differently about the same material. When Handel moved to oratorio, his control over his singers increased; he tended to work with the same group, and often they were performers whom he had trained or coached himself. There were still changes, but there were also fixed limits. A frequently performed work like Messiah tended to be adjusted for each outing, but when in 1750 Handel had an alto castrato available, Gaetano Guadagni, Handel did not let Guadagni sing the contralto arias, 'He was despised' was always sung by a female contralto and Handel crafted new solos for Guadagni. Thus, within all the changes we can detect the hints of a fixed work of art.When Gluck and his librettist Calzabigi premiered Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), Alceste (67) and Paride ed Elena (1770) in Vienna they aimed to reform the style of Baroque opera practised by Handel and […]
2021-03-01 08:24:05
To delight the eyes and ears without the risk of sinning against reason or common sense: the creation of Reform Opera
[…] the dramatic possibilities of dance and would work with Gluck on the ballet Don Juan (1761) and the opera Orfeo ed Euridice (1762). There is another link between the Reformists. The major players, Durazzo, Gluck, Calzabigi, and Angiolini were all Freemasons. Garrick, Handel and the castrato There is one final figure in this mix, the castrato Gaetano Guadgani (1728-1792) who would create the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. In 1748, the young Guadagni pitched up in London singing in a second-class Italian opera company. Guadagni seems to have lacked the rigorous training of most castrati and the music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814) would describe him as a 'wild and careless singer'. But the singer clearly had something, because he caught the eye (or ear) of George Frideric Handel. By this period, Handel was writing only oratorios and he was using a group of singers who had largely […]
2020-10-19 16:52:41
Mendelssohn Cello Sonatas and more, in historically informed performances from cellist Viola de Hoog and pianist Mikayel Balyan
[…] diminished until the revival of the composer's reputation in the late 20th century. On this disc, from Vivat, we get the chance to hear Mendelssohn's Cello Sonatas performed by two fine period instrument specialists, Viola de Hoog (cello) and Mikayel Balyan (piano), and the filling is equally intriguing Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 in the composer's version for flute, cello and piano. Viola de Hoog plays a Guadagni cello from 1750, and her tone combines a rich dark expressive quality, with a certain directness. There is a forthrightness to the sound quality here, which is complemented by the piano's striking tones (Balyan plays an 1845 Erard). This historically informed playing which seeks to elucidate the sound-world of the period rather than trying to ingratiate the music with the listeners. There is something forthright about the style of the disc, with De Hoog's […]
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