Venanzio Rauzzini (19 December 1746 - 8 April 1810)[1] was an Italian castrato, composer, pianist and singing teacher. As a boy he was a member of the Sistine Chapel Choir and was a pupil of Domenico Corri and Muzio Clementi. He also studied with Giuseppe Santarelli in Rome and Nicola Porpora in Naples.[2]
Rauzzini was born at Camerino. He made his professional opera debut in 1765 at the Teatro Valle in Rome portraying one of the female characters in Niccolò Piccinni's opera Il finto astrologo.[3] He sang at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice in 1766, after which he performed at the Münich Hofoper in 1766-1767.[2] Rauzzini had to leave the Munich court because of his many affairs with married women.[4] He next sang at the court at Vienna in 1767 where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "reacted with delight when he heard Rauzzini singing and offered him the role of primo uomo in his Lucio Silla (1772), in Milan, before composing the motet Exsultate Jubilate (1773) especially for him."[5]
Rauzzini returned for performances in Venice and Munich during the early 1770s and also had a very successful run in London, England[6] from 1774 until his retirement from the stage in 1778.[7] After his opera career ended he worked as a singing and piano teacher. Some of his more notable pupils included John Braham and Stephen Storace. He also composed a number of operas and directed the concerts in Bath beginning in 1781.[2] Before dying he published vocal exercises and a treatise on his ideas on singing.[8] He died in Bath.