Faustina Bordoni
Faustina Bordoni ( born March 30 1697 in Venice, † November 4, 1781 in Venice) was an Italian mezzo-soprano.
Life
Bordoni was from a noble family of Venice. Her artistic education she received, inter alia, Alessandro Marcello Benedetto Marcello; one of her classmates was Michelangelo Gasparini.
In autumn 1716 the premiere of the opera Ariodante by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo took place in Venice at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo. In this opera Bordoni made her sensational debut. Until 1725, she performed there and at other theaters of Venice. 1718 and again in 1719 she stood with her later rival Cuzzoni on stage.
From 1726 Bordoni worked at various theaters in London. Georg Friedrich Handel wrote several pieces for them and worked - in their own words - like with her. For the first time on May 5, 1726, she joined with her rival Cuzzoni at the King's Theatre in London. There came on June 6, 1727 at the last season performance of the opera by Giovanni Battista Bononcini Astianatte to a head when the two prima donnas began to argue during her appearance on the stage. The consequences were for Bordoni involvement in half of Europe. The next year she sang in Parma, Florence, Turin, Milan, Rome and Venice. Through these tours, she was one of the highest paid singers in Europe.
1730 married Bordoni the German composer Johann Adolf Hasse. With him she was engaged in the following year to the Saxon Court Opera in Dresden. Until 1747 she was acclaimed as the prima donna of the Court Opera. Since her voice showed the first signs of advancing age, at this time, the court was looking for a successor, which was found in the soprano Regina Mingotti. Although this was initially hired only as a second singer, it came in a very short time to bitter disputes between the two, about the letters of Metastasio and Pisendel give information. Only in 1750 the dispute was settled, as Mingotti was engaged for a year to Naples. 1751 Bordoni took her farewell to the stage, Mingotti was her successor as Dresdner Prima Donna.
After the Seven Years War, the Dresden Court Opera was closed. By broken in the bombardment of Dresden fire lost Bordoni Hasse and her husband a large portion of their substance. They went in 1760 to Vienna, where she lived with her son and two daughters a few years ( at least until 1772 ) before they moved to Venice. At the age of 84 years Faustina Bordoni died on November 4, 1781 in Venice.