Giusto Fernando Tenducci, sometimes called "il Senesino" (c. 1735 – 25 January 1790), was a soprano (castrato)

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...

singer and composer, who passed his career partly in Italy but chiefly in Britain.

Biography

Born in Siena in about 1735, Tenducci became a

castrato A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due ...

, and he was trained at the Naples Conservatory. Castration was illegal in both Church and civil law, but the Roman Church employed castrati in many churches and in the Vatican until about 1902; and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the public paid large sums of money to listen to the spectacular voices of castrati in the opera houses. In 1753, when he was about seventeen, Tenducci made his professional opera appearance in Venice, as Gasparo in

Ferdinando Bertoni Ferdinando Bertoni (15 August 1725 – 1 December 1813) was an Italian composer and organist. Early years He was born in Salò, and began his music studies in Brescia, not far from his birthplace. Around 1740 he went to Bologna, where he studie ...

's ''Ginevra''. In 1757 and 1758 he was active at the

Teatro di San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent t ...

in Naples. From 1758 he was in London, where he was first heard at the King's Theatre. He sang an aria by the castrato Caffarelli in

Baldassare Galuppi Baldassare Galuppi (18 October 17063 January 1785) was an Italian composer, born on the island of Burano in the Venetian Republic. He belonged to a generation of composers, including Johann Adolph Hasse, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, and C.&nb ...

's ''Attalo''. and the following year he was singing in

Gioacchino Cocchi Gioacchino Cocchi (''circa'' 1712 – 11 September 1796) was a Kingdom of Naples, Neapolitan composer, principally of opera. Cocchi was probably born in Kingdom of Naples, Naples in about 1712, although his place of birth has also been given as ...

's ''Ciro riconosciuto''. He was still singing as "second man" but

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist ...

thought he was the best. He spent eight months in a debtors prison, but by 1764 he was back at the King's Theatre where he befriended

Johann Christian Bach Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era, the eighteenth child of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the youngest of his eleven sons. After living in Italy for several years, Bach mov ...

and he sang the title role in his new opera ''Adriano in Siria'', opposite

Giovanni Manzuoli Giovanni Manzuoli (Giovanni Manzoli) (1720–1782) was an Italian castrato who sang as a soprano at the beginning of his career, and later as a contralto. History Born in Florence, Italy, Manzuoli began singing there in 1731. After performing ...

as the 'primo uomo' (leading male singer). He then sang in Ireland. He was not only singing but also arranging operas for the

Smock Alley Theatre Since the 17th century, there have been numerous theatres in Dublin with the name Smock Alley. The current Smock Alley Theatre () is a 21st-century theatre in Dublin, converted from a 19th-century church building, incorporating structural mat ...

. In 1765 in Dublin he met

Dorothea Maunsell Dorothea Maunsell became Dorothea Kingsman after being Dorothea Tenducci (born 1750) was an Irish singer at the centre of a scandal after she married (and later divorced) an Italian castrato A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a ty ...

, whom he married in 1766. In 1768 he returned to London from Edinburgh, where he remained for almost the rest of his life. He taught singing to

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

in Paris in 1777–1778. Impressed with his teacher's singing abilities, Mozart wrote a concert aria for him which is now lost (K. 315b). He returned to Italy just months before his death in January 1790 in Genoa.

Marriage: 1766–1772

Although a castrato, Tenducci married 15-year-old Dorothea Maunsell secretly in 1766. The marriage was repeated in July 1767 with a license granted by the

Bishop of Waterford and Lismore The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Waterford and town of Lismore in Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1838, and is still used by the Roman Catholic Church. His ...

. In 1772, those marriages was later annulled on the grounds of non-consummation or impotence, which was one of the few grounds that women could use to sue for divorce. However,

Giacomo Casanova Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, (''Story of My Life''), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about the c ...

claimed in his autobiography that Dorothea gave birth to two children. His subsequent biographer Helen Berry was unable to corroborate this claim and suggests that they may have been the children of Dorothea's second husband, Robert Long Kingsman. Two portraits of Tenducci were painted by

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

– one is now in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in the University of Birmingham, the other was sold from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent.

Appearance in literature

In 1766, Tenducci sang the part of Arbaces in Arne's opera ''

Artaxerxes Artaxerxes may refer to: The throne name of several Achaemenid rulers of the 1st Persian Empire: * Artaxerxes I of Persia (died 425 BC), Artaxerxes I Longimanus, ''r.'' 466–425 BC, son and successor of Xerxes I * Artaxerxes II of Persia (436 ...

'' in Dublin, delighting the public by 'his exquisite singing of the air "Water parted from the Sea" '. A group known as the "frolicsome Dublin boys" sang a song about him: "Tenducci was a piper's son/ and he was in love when he was young,/ and all the tunes that he could play/ was Water parted from the say."

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

quoted and parodied that song in ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

'', II.3. Tenducci is mentioned in

Robert Fergusson Robert Fergusson (5 September 1750 – 16 October 1774) was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson led a Bohemianism, bohemian life in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intel ...

’s poem "The Canongate Playhouse in Ruins"; while in Edinburgh, Tenducci sang three songs with lyrics by Fergusson. Further reading: * Helen Berry: ''The Castrato and His Wife'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011 * Dora Tenducci, ''A true and genuine narrative of Mr. and Mrs. Tenducci In a letter to a friend at Bath. Giving a full account, from their marriage in Ireland, to the present time'', London, printed for J. Pridden, 1768 * Patrick Barbier: ''The World of the Castrati'', London, Souvenir Press, 1996 * Angus Heriot, ''The Castrati in opera'', London, Secker and Warburg, 1956 * Franz Habock, ''Die Kastraten und ihre Gesangkunst'', Stuttgart/Leipzig/Berlin, Deutsche Verl.-Anstalt, 1927

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tenducci, Giusto Fernando 1730s births 1790 deaths Year of birth uncertain 18th-century composers 18th-century Italian male musicians 18th-century Italian composers Italian male composers Castrati Italian opera singers People from Siena