Maria Landini ( 1668 – 22 June 1722) was an Italian

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

who began her career as a singer at the court of Queen Christina in Rome but was primarily active at the imperial court in Vienna from 1711 until her death. She created numerous soprano roles in operas and oratorios by Fux, Caldara, and her second husband, Francesco Bartolomeo Conti and was reputedly the highest paid musician in Vienna at the time.Sadie, Julie Anne (1998)
''Companion to Baroque Music''
p. 250. University of California Press. ''

Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon The ''Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon'Oesterreichisch'' with ''Oe'' is the spelling of the print and online output. (, ) is a five-volume music encyclopedia founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Commission for Music Research. It was offic ...

'' (2016)
"Landini-Contini (Landini-Conti, La Conti, La Contini, La Landina, di Chateauneuf, detta Landini, di Castelnuovo), Maria"
Retrieved 18 July 2016 .

Life and career

Landini's mother, Francesca Portui, was the maid of Queen Christina of Sweden and married to Francesco Landini, the captain of Christina's guards. However, Francesco Landini was not her real father. Maria was born from a relationship between her mother and the marquise Orazio Del Monte, Christina's chamberlain. According to 17th-century sources, she was born in Hamburg where Christina's court periodically sojourned, although the date of her birth has variously been given as 1667, 1668, and 1670. Maria spent her entire childhood and youth at the court of Queen Christina where she was trained as a singer and was known by the diminutive "Mariuccia". By the late 1680s there are records of her regularly performing in private musical evenings at Queen Christina's court in Rome. She often sang together with another favourite singer of the queen, Angela Voglia (known as "La Giorgina").Zilli, Anna (2014
"Christina of Sweden queen of music in Rome and the women singers at her service"
''Il Ganassi, Bollettino della Fondazione Italiana per la Musica Antica''. Anno 17, Numero 14, pp. 2–3. Retrieved 19 July 2016. After Queen Christina's death in 1689, Landini entered the service of

Sophia Charlotte of Hanover Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (30 October 1668 – 1 February 1705) was the first Queen consort in Prussia as the wife of King Frederick I. She was the only daughter of Elector Ernest Augustus of Hanover and Sophia of the Palatinate. Her eldes ...

in Germany. She married an actor named "Chateauneuf" in Hannover in 1695 and sometimes appeared under the name "Landini di Chateauneuf" or its Italian version "Castelnovo". According to Francesco Conti's biographer Hermine Williams, Castelnovo was from an aristocratic family and his full name was Mallo di Castelnuovo. Their marriage would produce three children: Ferdinando, Francesca, and Caterina. Landini was active in the opera houses of Italy from 1698 when she was in the service of the

Duke of Mantua During its Timeline of Mantua, history as independent entity, Mantua had different rulers who governed on the city and the lands of Mantua from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. From 970 to 1115, the Counts of Mantua were members of ...

. Her earliest appearance in Mantua was in 1698 in

Giovanni Bononcini Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini) (18 July 1670 – 9 July 1747) (sometimes cited also as Giovanni Battista Bononcini) was an Italian Baroque composer, cellist, singer and teacher, one of a family of string players and composers. He was a rival ...

's '' Camilla''. She also appeared in Venice, Genoa,

Casale Monferrato Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy, northwestern Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po River, Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montfe ...

, Livorno, Modena, and Bologna before moving to Vienna in 1710 where she became the ''

prima donna In opera or ''commedia dell'arte'', a prima donna (; Italian for 'first lady'; : ''prime donne'') is the leading female singer in the company, the person to whom the ''prime'' roles would be given. ''Prime donne'' often had grand off-stage pe ...

'' of Emperior Charles VI's court theatre. In 1714, following the death of her first husband, Landini married Francesco Bartolomeo Conti in Vienna's Schottenkirche. In her will, written in the year prior to her death, she asked, if she should die in Vienna, to be buried in the Schottenkirche next to her first husband. But she eventually was not buried there, because she died outside of Vienna. In 1725 Conti married Anna Maria Lorenzani who had succeeded Landini as the ''prima donna'' at the imperial court.Williams, Hermine Weigel (1999). ''Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: His Life and Music'', pp. 43; 50; 58; 66. Ashgate.

Roles created

Roles created by Maria Landini include: *Clori in

Johann Joseph Fux Johann Joseph Fux (; – 13 February 1741) was an Austrian composer, music theorist and pedagogue of the late Baroque era. His most enduring work is not a musical composition but his treatise on counterpoint, '' Gradus ad Parnassum'', which ha ...

's ''La decima fatica di Ercole'', Habsburg court theatre, Vienna, 1710 Köchel, Ludwig (1872)
''Johann Josef Fux, Hofcompositor und Hofkapellmeister der Kaiser Leopold I., Josef I. und Karl VI. von 1698 bis 1740''
(Beilage X. Thematisches Verzeichniss der Compositionen von J. J. Fux pp. 131–137). A. Hölder *Merope in

Francesco Gasparini Francesco Gasparini (19 March 1661 – 22 March 1727) was an Italian Baroque composer and teacher whose works were performed throughout Italy, and also on occasion in Germany and England. Biography Born in Camaiore, near Lucca, he studied ...

's ''Merope'',

Teatro San Cassiano The Teatro San Cassiano (or Teatro di San Cassiano and other variants) was the world's first public opera house, inaugurated as such in 1637 in Venice. The first mention of its construction dates back to 1581. The name with which it is best known co ...

, Venice, 26 December 1711 *Dafne in Johann Joseph Fux's '' Dafne in lauro'', Habsburg court theatre, Vienna, 1714 *Euridice in Johann Joseph Fux's ''Orfeo ed Euridice'', Habsburg court theatre, Vienna, 1715 *Angelica in Johann Joseph Fux's ''Angelica, vincitrice di Alcina'', Habsburg court theatre, Vienna, 1716 *Ifigenia in Johann Joseph Fux's ''Diana plaeata'', Habsburg court theatre, Vienna, 1717 *Lucinda in Francesco Bartolomeo Conti's '' Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena'', Habsburg court theatre, Vienna, 6 February 1719Fallows, David (October 1987)
"Buxton"
''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...

'', Vol. 128, No. 1736, p. 580. Retrieved 17 July 2016 .

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landini, Maria 17th-century births 1722 deaths Italian operatic sopranos 18th-century Italian women opera singers Court of Christina, Queen of Sweden