Opera Bluffs The Podcast
Opera Bluffs The Podcast
What a load of Bluffoni! ~The Francesca Cuzzoni story
This week Cathy tells Eimear the story of Francesca Cuzzoni the 18th century Opera star who had problems with "fake news" way before Trump.
Diclaimer - Sound quality on Eimear's audio is awful. She didn't turn on her microphone!! School girl error! Hopefully doesn't diminish from the story. Enjoy! *Won't happen again.
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[inaudible] Catherine Young[inaudible]
Speaker 2:Yes. Uh, right. Is that done or do we have to talk about, let's do some housekeeping. So what the hell were you going to tell me about? I don't really have any news or, sorry, I don't have a story this week. Cause you have a story apparently before you tell your story, I wanted to share this amazing thing. I found her on YouTube. Are you ready? And I'm not sure how it got this came up. Actually I do. It came up every so often when the boys, the cat boys are like driving me demented, I put the Italian and I put on birds for cats or whatever the cats this came up. Right. I think whatever the, um, what are they called? The things that like analyze you and then put things together. Psychologist? Uh, no. And YouTube they're like, Oh, algorithms, algorithms. Right? And then this came up. So obviously I was putting in bird song and opera. Alas, is this happened? Are you ready? Can you hear this? What was that? Like birth with orchestra. Oh, wow. Oh, you're showing me now. Oh, that's good. And then wait, there's a big pile of seagulls that kind of do a little mermaid, like, wow.
Speaker 1:Hi.
Speaker 2:So me and my cats watched this for a little while Anyway, so I thought that was hilarious. That is hilarious. That's nobody else will find that funny. Super cute. What was that? The magic and the opera. It was the magic. It was the propaganda propaganda Aria from the magic flute. I remembered we need to explain things. Cause you know,
Speaker 3:We know stuff. Yes. We know big stuff. Well,
Speaker 2:I know all this. No, that's not
Speaker 3:True. No, it's not true. Nothing useful, nothing useful, but Arias and stuff. We know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's the duet at the end where they fight over having boys or girls and the bird people. So that's fun. Well, they're not, are they a bird person? I call him a bad person.
Speaker 3:I've never met a birdie. A person.
Speaker 2:Well, that's been either. Um, yeah. Did you see in the David McVicker production of the magic stage, the keenly side recording? I'm sure every other recording has this too, but he wears a duck on his head and his hat, a dad in the back of his jacket, his bird. Oh, comes out the back of his head. Um, that's like the other one
Speaker 3:Bunny he's covered in Birgit and that one too. Poor pap again. What is your, so today we are doing a profile because last time we spoke about, um, Adelina Pathi and so this time have you noticed, I'm going to try, I'm actually going to try and pronounce Jamie, but I have messed up the, I tried to print these things off. Look how big that print is. It's ginormous. Like I'm a toddler like I'm learning to read. Okay. So this is Francesca[inaudible]. Who was one of the first like proper premadonnas she was, have you heard about, uh, handles like jeweling, divas. He used to write for both of them. And then she was, she was at one of them and so she was born in Parma, in Italy. And her father was a violin teacher. By the way, this is all information from Wikipedia. So no credit, but born in Parma, Italy and her father was a violin teacher and her teacher, her senior teacher was Francesco Lancey. Who was a famous Naples singing teacher and Wikipedia. Doesn't say about anything about her mother. Oh, so I'm going to assume she doesn't have one. I know there's also a, well, well, she must have had one, but women weren't a thing then. Yeah. So she debuted in Palmer in 1714. So wait, how old was she? She was born in 1698. Do some maths do some math? 16, 14.
Speaker 2:She was born in 68. She was really old ninety-eight Oh nine. Oh, she was,
Speaker 3:She was 16. 18. No, she was 16. She's 18. Oh Jesus Christ. Oh, percent. 18. I'm sure you're right. Fine. I, you know, I'm not even going to look it up because um, well at 98 to 16 it was 1498 to 14.
Speaker 2:Oh, sorry.
Speaker 3:Excuse me.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's brilliant. I genuinely thought you were an idiot then for a minute.
Speaker 3:And now we all know who the idiot
Speaker 2:Is.
Speaker 3:So she debuted at 16. That's nice. Isn't it debuting at 16? I would like to do
Speaker 2:I get 16, first of all, why weren't they like drinking in a Bush somewhere and trying to avoid the parents? I mean,
Speaker 3:That's exactly what I was doing.
Speaker 2:I guess that wasn't TV. Then I was a bad decision in very controversial. Ooh. Why early opera? Isn't it easier to say, but that's not true. Cause I can't make a waiver to handle opera
Speaker 3:So true. That's very true. Sorry. I love you. I love handle, but it is true. So she appeared for the first time with, uh, the singer who was later to be uh, Oh mate. We'll do this bit again. Um, what's her name? What's her name?
Speaker 2:That's a first name. No Francesca. Okay. Fine. Funny, fine. Right.
Speaker 3:She made her Venetian debut in 17, 18 ceiling. Seeing the role of Delinda in polar Rolos which that's a silly name. I'm sorry. Polar. Rolo Dante. In which for the first time she appeared on the same stage as ghetto wasn't Michael Jackson. It's Faustina Bordone later. Oh, you read about this the more you're like not sure they were rivals. I think they were just women working together, but everyone likes a fight. So
Speaker 2:Yeah, Kathy,
Speaker 3:I know it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen in the real world. Everyone knows that women are vicious to each other and they hate each other. So they also sang together in Venice. Oh, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, bored. She sang loads and in Italy and around Europe until 22 1722. And then,
Speaker 2:Which makes sense? Sorry for sorry, Sophie.
Speaker 3:She, she went to London and I'm imagining like very much Dick van situation of her turning up on the streets of London where the chimney sweep, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Thanks. 70 14. Yes. Oh no. Hang on. Where are we? I like
Speaker 3:This in the Capitol was clearly anticipated in the press though. The London journal for the 27th of October, 1722 reported that Mrs. Cot, Sona, an extraordinarily, an extraordinary Italian lady
Speaker 2:Daily. I just love that.
Speaker 3:He doesn't know how to spell or say her own name. Obviously it's spelled C O T S O N.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:And then on the way to London, she'd found time to marry Pietro Giuseppe Sandona during her journey. So she didn't make a debut in London until the 12th of January, January, 1723. And guess what role, what
Speaker 2:Is getting it, getting it on?
Speaker 3:Well, now I know what you're talking about. Cause I got married this year. I've been enlightened.
Speaker 2:Oh I do. For that. I would have plan right in my head, but now, now I know that's what it means. Um, hi, I'm Bob is the husband just first name? Peter, Peter and Fran. Um,
Speaker 3:She didn't make her debut in London until the 12th of January. So that's a, that's a Capricorn by the way. That's in the Capricorn 1723 creating the role of guess what? Guess what? Heavy hair.
Speaker 2:Oh no, but that's a very good guess. It's the,
Speaker 3:This role of funny in handles? Oh, Tony, King's there to hammer that home market for the uninitiated I have. I love handle.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. So far the only information I've plunked is in her name is Fran and she married a guy called Peter three opera so far that I've never heard of him.
Speaker 3:And she was in a lot of operas that you've never heard of. There were a lot of like, uh, you know, operas from this time when the Brock operas, when, um, they're just not done anymore, you know? And maybe they should be, but maybe they shouldn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Maybe they, um, no, that's not fair. Why am I such a bro?
Speaker 3:I dunno. I love Brooke, but I've, I've sang a lot of it and I fricking love it. You know? I didn't know what they should then, you know, they don't like it in Germany. If you turn up with a hat, turn up with a handle area. Well, I turned up with a handler. Maybe they just don't like it in certain voice types. But I turned up with a hand Laurier and the look on their face was a big panel. And I was like, or I have some handle, which most people in Britain like handle, they know what to do with handle. They can judge you on handle. These people have never been so dressed down with a look like absolutely not. We don't want to hear your handle. It's like a route that was fine.
Speaker 2:He was German. Yeah. I, I don't know. Maybe that was just a one-off
Speaker 3:I can't remember which house it was. I think, um, I can't remember. It was a huge panel though. And they literally looked at me like I was a piece of and then they asked for[inaudible] and I was like, okay, fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. I will play the horse for the horse.
Speaker 3:Finally. This funny thing that happened. So, um, this is a really funny handled quote who was so also to give you some backstory, right? She was a very, very highly regarded singer in her time. She was very, very famous. And this guy, well known writer on singing, Giovanni Battista Mancini gave a glowing Testament to her art quote. Should I do an impression? No.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. No,
Speaker 3:I can't do Italian, man. You do Italian, man. How do you do Salomon?
Speaker 2:[inaudible] more in a slow
Speaker 3:Or a rapid EHRs. No, that's just
Speaker 2:A fence. Imagine if somebody said,
Speaker 3:So do you have this in your voice? Uh, native warble.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Native Yodel anyway, enabled her to execute divisions with such facility as to conceal their difficulty. So grateful and touching was her natural tone that she rented pathetic whenever, whatever she sang, when she had the opportunity to unfold, the whole volume of her voice, her powers of conducting, sustaining, increasing and diminishing her notes by my new degrees acquired for her. The credit of being a complete mistress of her art, her trill was perfect. She had the acquit, she had a creative, fancy and a command of tempo rubato. Oh, you should hear my Roberto mate off.
Speaker 2:Ha ha huh.
Speaker 3:High notes were unrivaled and clearness and sweetness and her intonation was so absolutely true. Oh, I was playing my husband a piece of, uh, I think it was Wagner the other day. And somebody saying a high note. I think it was uh, like a C like it was something like an, it was a Valkaria
Speaker 2:And why is that sound funny? By the way? I don't know why I laughed there. Oh, it's funny because it sounded like a drill. He was like, Oh, I was like, no, that's the point.
Speaker 3:Doesn't need to be nice. That's not the point of it. Um,
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Her high notes were owned by within clearness and sweetness and her intonation was so absolutely true that she seemed incapable of singing out of tune. She had a compass of two octaves C to see an alt that's. That's actually not that big range. I would say that most Soprano's knack would probably go way lower than C. Her style was unaffected simple and sympathetic quants wrote that her style of singing was innocent and effecting and that her ornaments took possession of the soul of every auditor by her tender and touching expression. Can I just paint a picture? So she's making lots of nice noises. Um, and then I found a bit that described what she looked like, so,
Speaker 2:Oh, Oh no. She an absolute like dragon. No, it's just me. And isn't it like
Speaker 3:We've been able to get away from this. I'm like, yeah, she sounds nice. Nice noise. But let's see. Hang on.
Speaker 2:Oh no, she faced like a bulldog, but in those days, of course one, did they have gloves? No one's supposed to did, did they have photographs in 17? No thingy. No. We were still painting painting. Oh. So we judging this woman based on her leg portrait where she's probably looks for lenses
Speaker 3:Being judged at the time. So, um, which is quite fun. Oh this is,
Speaker 2:She got her appearance.
Speaker 3:No recommendation. Bernie described her as, Oh yeah. I know what's that mean
Speaker 2:Her parents was no recommendation. Oh Jay just, Oh my God. She's describing it.
Speaker 3:Short and squat with a doughy cross face, but fine complexion. Not a good actress. Dressed ill and was silly and fantastical
Speaker 2:Opera singer
Speaker 3:Isn't silly and fantastical. Isn't that the point
Speaker 2:I was at my first repeat
Speaker 3:Fantastically silly and fantastical word for word. This is really funny. So this is the lady that made a handle really, really angry, but apparently she was just incredibly difficult.
Speaker 2:The party handle was exactly
Speaker 3:The thing. I'm looking back through history now. And I'm like, were those women incredibly difficult? Or,
Speaker 2:Or where they just have
Speaker 3:Where they just having a disagreement. And um, w when she refused to sing, an Aria handle had written for her from that was from
Speaker 2:Actually, no. Yeah. So to, and Ren
Speaker 3:Her role false or imaginary, there is attached to famous story. So that's in the attorney that neither of us had heard of. So,
Speaker 2:Um,
Speaker 3:So she refused to sing it because it had been written for somebody else. Cause you know, handle like recycled loads of his rap, his stuff that he'd written, he he'd recycle it into a different area, in a different thing for different purpose. So she was like, absolutely not. This wasn't written for me. So he, she refused because of that. And he grabbed her and said, I know you are she devil, but I am Beelzebub the King of all devils. And I swear that if you don't sing this at this very minute, I'll throw you out of the window.
Speaker 2:Oh wow. It's quite extreme. Right. I mean, it's, I hope it's like a ground floor window. Well the same person. So this is
Speaker 3:Moron. And who wrote this thing? She's from this Francis Franciscan university of Steubenville. She wrote that, um, uh, that many singers, opera singers of the 18th century, both male and female and were extremely difficult. People with a poncho for high handedness and erratic behavior. Oh, that's changed largely because opera was one of the most popular and influential art forms. Actually I'm joking. Most opera singers I've ever met have been incredibly lovely and down to earth art forms in Europe during the 17 hundreds and major centers of European culture, especially Naples Paris and London, the art form reflected cultural attitudes and deeply affected, affected the masses. Opera stars commanded the attention of the public by being at the center of cultural life. However, a strange in congruency existed with regard to them as well. Opera singers were so popular and influential, but they were also scandalous scandalous individuals that rings true though. They entertained in fact, uh, uh, complained about modern opera singers. It's not, there's no scandal. Well, you can, I can't think of anything since, um, I can't even,
Speaker 2:Well, there's lots of like, Oh, what are you kidding? Move. Just come out of me too. Oh,
Speaker 3:That stuff. Yeah. Yeah. But with actual opera singers on opera
Speaker 2:Singer, what do you mean? Like getting off of each other? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like, you know, running around scandal scandal. No, not issues of power like that. I, that is terrible.
Speaker 2:Yes. Because an abuse,
Speaker 3:Abuse is not funny. It's annoying. It's very annoying.
Speaker 2:Um, well there was that. Um, which isn't particularly, uh, hang on a minute. What were the analysis when um, Oh, NASA is run off with what's a phage Kennedy. Yeah. That was pretty scandalous. Paroled. Maria. That was pretty short. Oh. And then there was the Jesse Norman thing. Just enormous. Uh Oh, she said something. I answered why Jesse Norman definitely
Speaker 3:Amazing. By the way, everybody listen to Jessie. Norman. She is astonished.
Speaker 2:Oh, Jesse. Norman is one of the, she's just astonishing now. Hang on. Here we go. Jesse. Norman was a diva. She was, she was a diva. I like, I like, Oh, she did die this year. Was it last year? Last year I got that. Like Pang of like, but she had, she definitely did something in a taxi and said things, Oh, I know what it was. Um, she did do something in a taxi. I'll find that at some other point, she used to make people, um, squirt like water mist to, um, make the, to catch the dust before she'd walk on stage. Oh, that's clever. So she'd have people spraying water in front of her as she walked. It is very clever, but that's probably annoying if that's not your job.
Speaker 3:Maybe if like, if you did it yourself, like if I had a water bottle, that's very clever because you know how, like when you do walk on stage, there is dust everywhere. And then it gets in your throat. Sometimes
Speaker 2:It does. No, it does. Diva demands have a good David. Did David do moments, different demands? Jessye Norman.
Speaker 3:I made the mistake of eating nuts pre-performance once. And it was, it was just a mistake. I regretted instantly. And then just, they would not go away. I was singing bits of nuts, flying everywhere. It was embarrassing. It was fine.
Speaker 2:What are you talking about it? Uh,
Speaker 3:I went what?
Speaker 2:Oh, I wasn't listening because I was just meant to tell you that. Apparently Jesse Norman refused to be picked up from airports and wouldn't get in. If it wasn't a row, Royals rolls Royce. Why is that so hard to say a rolls Royce should only be picked up in a room that actually isn't the scandal that wasn't even the same.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm sure. There's another one. I've heard another one. I'm sure. She's brilliant. We should do lots on her. She's fantastic.
Speaker 2:She is. She, do you know what? Let's not even tell anybody else anymore. She's an entire program.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Okay. So we've done the BLS about, but I just thought that was really funny. That handle said he was, um, he was anyway, she went on to sing that Aria that she kicked off about. And according to Bernie, the mysterious Bernie, whoever he is her singing of the, sorry, it fixed her reputation as an expressive and pathetic singer. That's that's a compliment in those days.
Speaker 2:It's being pathetic.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But it meant sympathetic. You know, it didn't mean it meant, you know, talking at your heartstrings, not, not pathetic. Like we would call her now pathetic Consona pathetic. Her success was such that the price of half a Guinea opera tickets went up to four guineas instantly. Ooh, what's that now? Um, I have no idea. Should we look it up? I'll find that out. I'll look it up. By the time of her benefit concert. Only two months later, some noblemen were believed to be giving her 50 guineas a ticket. Her salary was also large 2000 pounds a season. So there we go. 2000 pounds in those days though. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. How much is it Guinea? I spoke to any wrong Gwynnie. It's like, yeah. Cause when it came up, I thought I typed in Guinea grinning, like, uh, one, uh, I don't need a whole thing. I've gone into the war on mint with that right
Speaker 3:Down that wormhole. I'm always doing that. Boil men. Oh, she was in Bemba of Handel's Royal Academy of music. 1719 for its five years Handel wrote or created nine roles for her. The most famous of which was get, guess what?
Speaker 2:Okay, excellent.
Speaker 3:The type of role. And that's in Juliet[inaudible] chance of Julius Caesar. It is, but I always put the emphasis on the wrong. I always want to say[inaudible] and that's all I always want to check today. And the title role in Rodan, Linda and the latter, she wore a Brown silk dress trimmed with silver, with the vulgarity. This is a quote with the vulgarity and in the courtroom of which all the old ladies were much scandalized. The young adopted it as a fashion. So universally that it seemed a national uniform for youth and beauty Brown and silver. That's Bernie again, I wonder who that guy is. We should probably find out,
Speaker 2:But Brown and silver wouldn't go down. Well now.
Speaker 3:No, that's horrible.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. So Holy. Are you ready for this guineas? Uh, we buy is 440 pounds, 70 minutes. So it's like a hundred pounds. It's 400 pounds. But so like originally, yeah. And then in 17 now it says 1710, because that's what I put it in this and it only went 10 20 and I hit 10 because I was lazy. Um, you could buy one of the following with four pounds so you could buy, Oh, no horses. Why that's there? It's an option. One cow. Great. Seven stones of wool. Not sure why w Oh was in like human stones or you know, like fat weight stones, uh, two quarters of wheat. I'm not sure what the portraits is that enough to like,
Speaker 3:That's funny. I wonder if people were like, I'll swap you this stone for some wall
Speaker 2:46 days. Wages of the other skill tradesmen. That is, I see. That's a cool website. Ooh, okay. Sorry.
Speaker 3:So she also sang in seven operas by guests, not Beyonce. It's[inaudible] yes. I hadn't heard of them either for, by Giovanni Bon, Bon and Cine and two. And I thought they said pistachios originally. It doesn't say pistachios. It says pasty CIOs. The enthusiasm offers support has led to curls with the fans of[inaudible] and later with those of Faustina, Bordone her nemesis whose London debut was in Handel's Alessandra in 1726. And this Allie, Allie, Andrew,
Speaker 2:That one. Yeah. But have you heard the Arias from that Sandro?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're insane because Handel was writing for two competing divas. So he gave them both like chances to shine and they're just fantastic.
Speaker 2:Were they both in the same show? I'm not paid attention at all. You know why I wasn't paying attention though, because I realized how much now that I'm in 17, 10, 2000 pounds is worth how much she was making 2,210,000 pounds a year. That's good from just that theater alone yet, which could have butter 371 horses, 480 cows at 3,333 stones of world. That's amazing thousand quarters and 22,224 days of work for the average skill Stripe.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. So they were all very wealthy. What I find funny is how ostracized they were there, how they went in society, they go these singers they're so popular, just like Trump, but rejected. Um, so anyway, so in Alessandra what's really funny is that they, because they were both in it and they both were amazing. It completely over overshot, the lead role of Allesandro who was sentencing, you know, It made him look a complete fool rivalry is amazing. Isn't it? I thought, yeah. Yeah, fine. So there's this rival between her and first, um, became scandalous when in a performance of bond on cheese STNR in 27 nights, 1727 attended by princess Caroline. That's nice. Isn't it?
Speaker 2:I'm assuming not of Monaco. Okay.
Speaker 3:No, I'm guessing that's a Britain. Is it though? I'm not sure she doesn't say it must have been no.
Speaker 2:Oh, by the way, princess Caroline was married to King George. The second, let's see the bunkers one. No, that's the third. So that's who she was.
Speaker 3:So, um, so this, uh, this, uh, this performance, so the audience were hissing on one side and clapping on the other giving rise calls and other indecencies, wouldn't it be fun if opera was like that now, where did we find if you had two divas on stage and it was like, woo. Yeah, it'd be distracting. There was such a rumpus at the performance and the rest of the opera season, the whole rest of the season was canceled. Yeah, no, can't do it anymore. You're not allowed it so funny. Um, anyway, recent research has revealed that it wasn't, the ladies rivals so much, but their supporters. So they, it wasn't them so much. It was just everybody that supported them. Um,
Speaker 2:Fair enough. I mean, remember they didn't have telly, this was there. I was not keeping up with the kiddos.
Speaker 3:I'd be like, Ooh, well done. I would be totally. Absolutely. Um, there was further Lampoon. They were further in Lampoon and John gaze, the Beggar's opera, which I saw a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2:Was it um, Oh, what's the daughter called of the, don't tell me this. I was in this opera, not this opera. I was never in drug gaze version. I was in the bloody Threepenny, the current file version, Polly and Lucy are there. The names probably is definitely one of them. I can't remember the other one now.
Speaker 3:Um, so they wanted to start a second Royal Academy, but Handel was like, no, no, you're too much. So she didn't anyway. So in certain that 1733, um, they agree if English aristocrats set up an opera company to rival handle handles and concerning, he was one of the first things they approached.
Speaker 2:Oh, hang on. Cause handle. Wasn't he at Covent garden as we now know. Yes. And is this when they set up Drury lane? Oh, I don't know. As we now know it. Yeah. I think it is because they used to be, um, they were massive rivals that if one production they quite often put on this tape productions, uh, at the same time audience would go to both and judge them. Yeah. Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 3:Um, so she's saying that this thing, this company that was set up called the opera of the nobility, um, Oh God. And they even did a version of Handel's attorney, which we were talking about earlier. You know, I have heard of that algebra. I now remembering I have definitely had that. Um, it would seem that she made less of an impression during this visit. Not, uh, not least due to the presence of foreign Ellie in the same company. Yeah. That's cool.
Speaker 2:Oh, by the way, anyone who doesn't know is the, cause we've done that thing where we just assume there's a movie made of him. So even before I knew I could ever get into opera and you, what opera was, I knew there was a film called fair Nelly about the last ever castrati. Cause Strato, I suppose he is his name is Brian Riley. He was meant to be amazing though.
Speaker 3:I had a massive chest apparently. And you know, so countertenor is that where?
Speaker 2:Yeah,
Speaker 3:Apparently I have massive chest, tiny, different necks, a massive chest. I've heard that. I don't know where I heard that because they didn't have hormones or something. Yeah. Something to do with that. They, they grow because of the rib cage expands and everything and grows big, like a man. And then, you know, like a big strong man, but then they don't have anything else develops because they're castrated. If people didn't know that they get frustrated when they're boys,
Speaker 2:I think that Bradley what's wrong with my cash.
Speaker 3:Do I turn him into a Castro?
Speaker 2:The balls? And he might not be fat. Might just be pig. Chested.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. That's what's wrong with your cat?
Speaker 2:I'll bring the vet in the morning. Tell him we're abandoning the diet. It's not fast. He's a good strategy.
Speaker 3:I guess that[inaudible]. There we go. Excellent news. Oh, wow. In, uh, so into Rin in 38, she got paid 8,000 Lira. Um, so this ability, opera collapse,
Speaker 2:Uh, no remember liras probably tons, but wasn't it like 8,000 liras for an ice cream in Rome in like 1992.
Speaker 3:Yes, probably. But this was ages ago, she's saying in Vienna and seems to have made her last operatic appearances in Hamburg in 1740 on certain 70th has had tab that day on 17th of September, 1741, the London daily post, um, reported that she was to be beheaded for the poisoning of her husband. Yeah. But yeah. I'm like she, you know, all of that Meghan Markle press stuff, all of the light. And then you, you had the comparisons between the press that Meghan Markle got and Kate McLaughlin got, and it was really bad. Just really bad, really obvious, really bad. This she's the original concern he has beheaded her. Oh no. She has poisoned her husband. Uh, but the cause though they had separated in 1742. He didn't die until 1748. So that's grading. Oh. Hang on, off.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And when she got done for beheading, a husband that she'd separated from
Speaker 3:No, no, no. It was just the press at home were like, while she was away, they were like the London daily post reported that she, she was to be beheaded for poisoning her husband. So she wasn't, she wasn't, she hadn't done it. Her husband was alive. It was all just like, Oh yeah. Could you imagine
Speaker 2:If you were here and you woke up to that news
Speaker 3:And then she went to[inaudible] and you became a court singer. Mistook got in 1745 and then she was just really poor. She was poor and had to work. Yeah. Yeah. She went into debt. She was, yeah. She was making 200,000 pounds a night. No, not yet. So yeah. She absconded from Stuttgart to belong here in 1748. So she still needed to perform to pay her creditors. And then, so she went back to London in 1750, where Bernie heard her thin cracked voice in a concert, a concert on the 18th of May on the 2nd of August of that year. Uh, this guy called Horace Walpole wrote that old concern. He had been arrested for a debt of 30 pounds and bailed by guess who
Speaker 2:Guess who, you know,
Speaker 3:You're going to start a conspiracy theory on this one. It was the Prince of Wales. Huh?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. And then on the that's nice. I think that's nice. It's weird though. But mine too. Um, was she dashes, present if you were like famous wasn't that like hard, really terrible. Yes. No. Apparently it was quite plush. Uh, the, it was more embarrassing that you didn't get bought out. That was the killer.
Speaker 3:Oh. So then, so the Prince of Wales bought her out. That's nice of him.
Speaker 2:It is nice of him. I'm glad he did that. I've just feel like I've gone on a roller coaster there. I know I read that thing about her being accused of poisoning, her husband.
Speaker 3:Nope. Just away. Just gone on a Cision. Um, so then the general advertiser on the 20th of May, 1751 gave notice of a final benefit concert for concerning accompanied by a letter from the singer where she says, I am so extremely sensible of the many obligations I have already received from the nobility and Gentry of this kingdom. That nothing but extreme necessity and a desire of doing justice could induce me to trouble them again. But being unhappily involved in a few debts, I'm extremely desirous of attempting everything in my power to pay them before I quit in England. Is that awful?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's a football. I wonder what she did. You not find out what she did. She didn't do anything. She just started money. She just money. Just like, I mean, just for rent and stuff from me, I can't hang on to anything, but like you can't, I'm rolling in cash. Rolling in it. Like all artists, she gamblers, but she had drinker. Did she give it away to men who likes to deuce? I don't think so. No. I think she's just an extravagant singer. Oh, listen to this bit though. It's just so funny. So
Speaker 3:There isn't mentioned she has no mother unusually. Most people do. I'm extremely sorry. That was such a blah, blah blah. On her last year's little is known. Save that she returned once more to the continent and lived a poverty stricken existence, eking out a living, living, making buttons. No. Imagine if that was your life, you were like the biggest opera singer and then you're making buttons.
Speaker 2:Hang on. Couldn't she have taught singing make quite an extreme, like what's her mental health. Okay. I'm guessing button makers are not great people. That's a lot of work
Speaker 3:Handwork. When you spent your whole life on the stage, it doesn't seem to.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah. And so then she of the two children she seems to have had by Sandow neat. Nothing is known. They may have died in infancy. So her mother isn't mentioned and the children are mentioned
Speaker 2:So weird. Well relevant characters really in one's life. Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie, am I expecting to mention a mine yet? I've never even heard of her. Isn't it funny?
Speaker 3:She was, I've only heard of her because I I've tried to sing like previously in a, in a younger life. I tried to sing the Arias that were written for her. Um, and so that's how I've come across it. If you hadn't done, you know, if you weren't interested in handle, which I wouldn't blame anybody for not being interested in handled by the way, for people that don't know every handle opera is about five hours long, at least if not longer. And it's pretty niche. It's pretty niche to, I love it. But it's niche.
Speaker 2:Yeah. The Brits, you Brits all seem to love it. It's a real British thing. Whereas I just not, well, it's fine. Um, yeah. Well, yeah. Do you know what it reminds me of? I think I've got PTSD from being in like upper school. I just having to watch hours of handle scenes and not know what's going on.
Speaker 3:Those scenes are like a rare, Oh, they're just so excruciating. You don't get any sense of the plot from a handle scene because the opposite so long. So you're just taking something completely out of context. It is just, Oh, painful.
Speaker 2:Hmm. If you go,
Speaker 3:I'm an independent article from it's about, um, the handle house museum in London concerned. He eventually gave up singing and moved back to Italy. Her last year is far removed from the glamor of London of the London stage. We spent in poverty and apparently making buttons. So that's the independence
Speaker 2:I went to Handel's house in London. It's lovely. Isn't it? Yeah. But turns out handled was never there. Is that the one? Yeah. Maybe
Speaker 3:The little house like that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Why was the handle's house heaven? Remember? I'd like to go back now that I know anything about him.
Speaker 3:A lot of time in Ireland as well. Wasn't he in Dublin? Isn't that where the Messiah was
Speaker 2:That it's exactly with him and say, Oh my gosh, I know. And I used to live off Handel's street. Oh wow. Well, it was called fish angle street, but the pub on it was called handles everything. Right. It was called handle. Imagine, waking up and reading in the papers that you were going to be beheaded for killing the husband. You'd be like, Holy. That's a lot in one go. And his children's dead and you did it now. You will die all in one headline.
Speaker 3:Exactly. That's really funny. That's one of the only modes of, uh, of communication as well. So it's not like your, you know, everybody's reading the paper,
Speaker 2:Everybody. That's really funny. There's no TV, no radio, no. Hey, guess what I'm doing this evening. I'm going to go make some friends. So I know the friend. I know, but you're not even in this country with me, turns out as an adult. I actually have to go and actively make some friends because I live near a beach. There's not any opera houses around here. Uh, cause that's typically where I go to make friends and then you're hanging out in the opera house. Well, I'll process what I've done. It's my found you. Um, so, so I have to go and actually make an effort to meet people. I, that is, it is it's super sad. No, because once you've got friends, I remember stalking you actually actually, no, sorry. I remember going back or making a plan to talk you and then you text me first. Yay. Yeah. So that was great. Anyway, real to you. And so that was class, the old story of friend Jessica for Jessica, Tony, Tony, Tony. I need to start pronounce people's names properly. I sound like an idiot and don't give in. They should have better names. Yes. So if you enjoyed this podcast, uh, please tune in again and give, gives a five star rating and we will see you hopefully next week again. Thanks guys.
Speaker 1:[inaudible][inaudible][inaudible][inaudible].