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George Frideric Handel's longest continuous collaboration with a leading singer took place between 1729 and 1737 with Anna Maria Strada del Pò (1703-1775), a soprano who may have sung 'entirely di petto'; that is, with a chest-like vocal production in the head range as well: powerfully and sonorously. The investigation of her peculiar vocal features and career, in connection with the music written for her by Handel and other composers, involved musicological research methods and findings of the historically informed performance practice. The conclusions rest on three main pillars: musical sources; surviving descriptions of her singing; and period treatises, completed with the author's practical experiences as a classical singer.
List of contents
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Prelude
Chapter One: Early Years
Venice
The new singing style
The 1720/1721 season at Sant'Angelo
Finances
Milan, Livorno, and Lucca
Chapter Two: First Maturity
Naples, the operatic capital of Europe
Strada on the stage
Becoming the leading soprano
Chapter Three: Successor to the 'Rival Queens'
First impressions in London
Surpassing the predecessors
Social, political, and financial matters
Chapter Four: In the Midst of Operatic Business
Queen of revivals
Heroine of pasticci
Chapter Five: The Composer's Faithful Soprano
The first original roles
A multi-faceted vocal personality
Reinventing Strada
Chapter Six: The Prima Donna of Oratorios
Esther and Deborah
From Athalia to Bellezza
Chapter Seven: Back to Italy
The first San Carlo season
The last active years
Appendix: Strada's London Season Schedules
Bibliography
About the author
Judit Zsovár gained her doctorate in musicology at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and has been awarded the Handel Institute Research as well as Conference grants, the DAAD-, and the Zoltán Kodály scholarships. She holds publications in four languages about Baroque opera singers as well as the soprano sfogato voice. As a soprano soloist, she appeared, inter alia, at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Handel House in London, and the Helsinki Music Centre.
