Gioacchino Conti

Gizziello, real name Gioacchino Conti ( born February 28, 1714 Arpino; † in October 1762 in Rome) was a famous Italian castrato.

Biography

At the age of 8 years Gioacchino was castrated. The rationale for this was a serious disease that could be cured by castration allegedly. However, this does not correspond to certain of the truth, because after castration was officially criminalized. From Domenico Gizzi he received 7 years free of charge private lessons at his home in Naples. Gizzi, born in 1680, was at the same Conservatory ( Conservatorio di Sant 'Onofrio in Naples) as Farinelli's singing teacher Nicola Porpora. After completing his training Gioacchino Conti took the stage name Gizziello, following in the tradition of many of his vocal colleagues who named themselves after their singing teachers: eg Porporino after his vocal teacher Porpora.

In 1730 debuted the now 17 years old Gizziello in Rome Opera Artaserse of Vinci in the role of Arbace. He became there soon a crowd favorite, and touched the Romans by his vocal art to tears. His fame soon spread throughout Italy and then learned the famous castrato and students Porpora, Caffarelli, of his famous colleagues. According to a story that Charles Burney had happened, to Caffarelli, who sang at that time at the opera in Naples, be driven in 1731 by carriage specially to Rome in order to listen to the aria of Gizziello. According to this anecdote Caffarelli said to have been so impressed by his performance of his colleagues that he cried out in a disguised voice: " Bravo, bravissimo Gizziello, é Caffarelli, che te lo dice" ( Gizziello, it is Caffarelli, who does that tell you ). Then drove Caffarelli immediately by coach to Naples. This story is all the more remarkable, as there is hardly another episode is known in the Caffarelli such a positive reaction to one of his colleagues, quite the opposite. However, this enthusiasm did not last long, and years later, when Caffarelli and Gizziello should sing together at an event in Naples, swore Caffarelli to entice Gizziello for false singing. Gizziello learned from this project and sought Caffarelli at his home in Naples, which required him great courage, because Gizziello was afraid of his colleagues. Caffarelli " enthroned " during the whole conversation with Gizziello on a toilet bowl. Nevertheless, both are said to have then very well understood, and the vocal performance was without incidents are on the stage. Gizziello was so popular in Rome that his commitment was there even extended for one season and he could leave for Vienna only a season later than planned.

From Vienna was his next stop London. There he made ​​his debut in the revival of Handel's opera Ariodante. The voice of Farinelli, who heard the 22 -year-old Gizziello for the first time in London, moved him so much that he cried and even should have fainted because he was so desperate about it, never to be singing with the same perfection. In England Gizziello sang in Giustino, in Atalanta, Arminio and Berenice. It was doubly a first, not only for the singer, who appeared for the first time in London, but in a way, for the composer Handel, as he had never previously composed arias for a Soprankastraten. For Gizziello Handel changed his habits and wrote the arias for his new star modern and considerably higher than for his Alto: Gizziello was the only castrato, the Handel prescribed a High C in an aria ( in the opera Atalanta, the aria at the end of act 1: non sarà poco ). But Gizziello could the inexorable decline of the opera seria in London not to stop and on June 15, 1737 he had his last appearance in the opera Berenice, four days after Farinelli's farewell performance.

Further stations of his career were, inter alia, Spain, where he had been hired by Farinelli, who now headed the opera there, for some performances. There, too, became Gizziello to become the favorite of the court and could sing very common in the private apartments of the king and the queen. He was regarded as amiable. However, when you wanted him to be bound in Spain with an unusual contract in itself, preferred Gizziello to return to Italy.

In 1752 was Gizziello opera director in Lisbon, where he was sidelined for almost a year because he could not occur because of an illness. He retired soon from the opera stage back (about 1757). The religion is the only consolation have been later in his life regarding his poor health. But he did not go to the monastery, although this rumor holds very persistent. Gizziello died in October 1762 in Rome. Gizziello is a very modest man have been, despite his great skill, far from it, like many of his colleagues to indulge airs and graces. One of his students was singing Gluck's Orpheus first, Gaetano Guadagni, whom he inflicted a perfect vocal technique in Lisbon.

Bibliography

  • Hubert Ortkemper: Angel reluctantly. The world of the castrati; another opera history, Dtv, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-30468-5
  • Patrick Barbier: Farinelli. The castrato of the Kings. The biography, Econ, Dusseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-430-11176-5
  • Saverio Tomas Ella, Le chant des songes, Persée, Aix -en- Provence, 2010, ISBN 978-2-35216-806-5.
  • Castrato
  • Italian
  • Born in 1714
  • Died in 1762
  • Man
  • Opera singer
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