Girolamo Crescentini
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Girolamo Crescentini (February 2, 1766–April 24, 1846) was a noted Italian male castrato mezzo-soprano.
Crescentini was one of the last of the great castrati and sang in the chief cities of Europe. He was born in Urbania near Urbino in Italy and began singing opera in 1782. A notable performance was in the role of Romeo in the debut performance of Romeo e Giulietta by Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli at La Scala in Milan in 1796. In 1805, when performing in Vienna, he was recognized by Napoléon Bonaparte and awarded the Order of the Iron Crown of Lombardy. He moved to Paris the next year and became a teacher and performer for the imperial court.
Crescenti was called "the Italian Orpheus".
After retiring from the opera in 1812, he taught in Bologna and at the Royal Conservatory in Naples.
[edit] Sources
- Barbier, Patrick. The World of the Castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Operatic Phenomenon. Trans. Margaret Crosland. Suffolk: Souvenir Press, 1996.
- Richard Somerset-Ward. Angels and Monsters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
