A long-term fascination with rival 18th century Italian opera singers, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni, who allegedly came to blows on stage, has inspired Dunedin mezzo-soprano Claire Barton to help bring their story to life.
Rebecca Fox finds out more about the tale of the two great opera divas.
History is littered with celebrity female ‘‘rivalries’’ whether real or perceived - Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, Lady Gaga and Madonna, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, just to name a few.
Providing plenty of fodder for fans and the media, stories of their rivalries abound, sometimes making it hard to know what is real and what is myth.
One of the earliest ‘‘celebrity’’ rivalries is thought to have occurred on the opera stages in London in the 18th century when composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) brought in two Italian divas to perform in his opera company - Francesca Cuzzoni (1696-1778) and Faustina Bordoni (1697-1781).
‘‘They were a sensation when they went to London. They created such huge excitement and controversy because they were supported by two different groups of supporters who became really rowdy and excited by their favourite singer and would consequently also get quite rowdy when the other alleged rival singer would perform.’’
Dunedin opera singer Claire Barton, who has been fascinated by the story since she did her honours dissertation in 2006 on Cuzzoni’s relationship with Handel, says just what happened next is hard to determine from all the stories that abound.
‘‘The rivalry definitely, if there was one, broke out in London. And we’re still really not sure how much of that was just a beat-up, because there’s actually a pamphlet. It makes a lot of what might have been a fairly small situation in terms of the two singers but there was certainly a disturbance at the Haymarket.
‘‘Put it this way, it’s almost the equivalent of, if this story is true, of two sopranos, or two singers, coming to blows at a Royal Variety Concert. As humans, we absolutely suck up anything that’s mildly scandalous.’’
Allegedly the divas, who had sung together at the beginning of their careers in Italy, came to blows on stage during a performance of Bononcini’s Astianatte with Princess Caroline (daughter of King George II) in the audience.
‘‘There was lots of conversation in London at the time about how this had happened and why it had happened. You know, there were pamphlets written about it, talking about how dreadful the scenes were. And it was referenced in John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, this fight scene between these two sopranos.’’
Every period of time since then there has been a similar story being told about two women on stage together, Barton says. The stories about who is best, or who is the mean one, or who is the ugly one have fed various scandal publications over the years.
‘‘What they did as performers almost sort of set into place some of the stereotypes we have about female opera singers and about female performers generally and about the rivalry between female performers as well.
‘‘So, you have, in the 20th century, in opera, you’ve got Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas. You’ve got it in pop music as well.’’
The story of Cuzzoni and Bordoni percolated away in Barton’s mind during the next few years until she finally talked about doing something with the story with a friend when in London studying.
‘‘We were just sort of thinking this would be a quite cool idea because the two characters in this opera were really two of the great opera divas, celebrities in their own right, women. I thought this would be fun.’’
When she returned to New Zealand she talked to Prof Emeritus John Drummond about the idea. While he knew of the story, he was interested to find out more about those involved and the songs they had sung. He began doing some research, digging out some which have never been performed in New Zealand before.
‘‘So there was only prima donnas and no seconda, so they were both insisting, of course, that each was the prima donna. So he [Handel] had to write operas that had two prima donna roles, that were exactly the same in amount of arias and so on.’’
The arias of the time were quite difficult, very showy, extravagant and exciting or ‘‘if they are sad, they are very sad or if they are angry they are terribly angry’’.
‘‘So there was this huge rivalry built up. ‘‘Once I got the facts in my head, because it’s a good story, then I started to sit down to see how we could make it a theatre piece. Well, this is, of course, a story that has to be told.’’
He came up with the concept of the two divas meeting in heaven — ‘‘neither expecting the other one to be there’’.
‘‘So it’s a kind of comedy about their discovering each other, and then reminiscing about the past, about the years they had. Which means that they then start to sing again the arias that they sang in the operas of the time. And the rivalry ebbs and flows. Sometimes they’re quite rude about it to each other, and sometimes they’re not quite so rude.’’
Not wanting to give away too much about the storyline, he does admit the two divas, played by Barton and soprano Rebecca Ryan, probably will not come to blows this time.
‘‘They do talk about it, and what happened, and why, and so on. So I think audiences will find it entertaining.’’
For Barton, having Opera Otago take up Drummond’s piece for the Dunedin Fringe Festival, after years of it sitting on the backburner due to Covid-19 and her completing her PhD, is a great opportunity.
‘‘I really liked what he did with it. He put together a piece, which is a dramatic piece, but it includes the music of the time. So, works by Handel, works by Orlandini and Bononcini and other composers. ’’
Barton plays Cuzzoni, who was often described as short and squat, while Bordoni, played by Ryan, was described as tall and elegant. The other difference was that Bordoni was brought up under the protection of two aristocratic composers while Cuzzoni was the daughter of a violinist.
‘‘She’s got composers who are aristocratic, they’re working in a different milieu, and they’ve got access to different things than, you know, someone who’s a professional violinist.’’
Cuzzoni is a great part to play, says Barton, as she had such an interesting history. The other ‘‘famous’’ story about her is that Handel allegedly tried to throw her out a window after she refused to perform an aria on stage with Bordoni.
‘‘But she ended badly, and Faustina didn’t. Faustina married a composer, lived a respectable life, and lived a relatively long life. Whereas with Cuzzoni, she’s supposed to have died poverty-stricken. The story is that she ended up making buttons and lost her voice. Same thing with Tebaldi, she lived a long life; Maria Callas died in a flat in Paris.’’
As Barton is a mezzo-soprano and Cuzzoni a soprano, it requires some ‘‘fun’’ vocal negotiation, she says.
‘‘It’s not the first time I’ve sung a role where it’s allegedly soprano. This sort of period of music, we’re not talking sort of stratospherically high singing a lot of the time, which is kind of good. I think for me, I’ve always had a little bit of sympathy with Cuzzoni. In terms of like, she just seems to get the rough end of the deal in terms of the way she’s depicted, the way in which she’s remembered, and certainly in the life that she actually led.’’
She was always getting criticised for her stature and clothing. A music historian of the time, Charles Burney, described her as ‘‘short and squat, with a doughy, cross face, but fine complexion; ... not a good actress; dressed ill; and was silly and fantastical’’.
‘‘I don’t know why I’ve always felt kind of sympathetic towards her. I mean, maybe it’s one short singer to another. But she just, it feels like to me, she’s more transgressive as a character than Bordoni.
‘‘Bordoni does all the right things, makes all the right moves. Cuzzoni feels like she’s pushing against what’s expected. I mean, we’re talking about a time when you’re dealing with musicians who are really, really, really highly trained on stage.’’
The drama was played out in a society with lots of tensions. In the 1720s London’s opera scene was dominated by Italian opera singers yet there was quite a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment at the time.
‘‘There was a backlash against that as well, you know, because Italian opera was decadent and it was seen as foreign.’’
To create the atmosphere of the time, John van Buskirk, on the harpsichord, will lead a baroque ensemble while James Adams directs it.
For Barton, though, it is a rare chance to perform an opera about women.
‘‘I love opera. I’ve spent my life singing opera. But a lot of the time when we do it, women are sort of presented as caricatures. And these women are an example of that, you know. They’re an example of two actual human beings who were presented to the public as caricatures.’’
She hopes it honours them and their skill as artists.
‘‘A lot of the time the noise around them makes one forget about their work and their work as interpreters of music by Handel and their work as great performers.’’
TO SEE
An Enchantment of Nightingales, Dunedin Fringe Festival, Hanover Hall, March 19-20 6pm, March 22 at 2pm.
