Lucia Facchinelli

Monday, May 18, 2015

Today, F is for Lucia Facchinelli, an Italian singer who flourished between 1724 and 1739. Very little is known about her; of the major reference works she receives only 11 lines in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera and just a few more in the Großes Sängerlexikon.

The soprano’s first documented performance is in an opera in Venice in 1724. She performed often there and in Milan until retiring after performing at the Spanish court in 1739. In between, she sang in Naples, Vicenza, Milan, Bologna, and Florence. A prima donna, Facchinelli appeared on stage with Nicolini (Nicolò Grimaldi) and Farinelli.

But though Facchinelli’s career stayed mainly in Italy, sources on which her name appear have not. Facchinelli is named nine times in the RISM database. Although they place her in Bologna, Naples, and Venice, the sources themselves are in Italy (Bergamo and Montecassino), Germany, and Great Britain. That they are all operas should come as no surprise. One of the German sources is from the famous Santini Collection, a collection of music manuscripts assembled by the Catholic priest Fortunato Santini (1778 – 1861). The manuscript is an aria from Leonardo Leo’s Siface, an opera represented four times in this small assemblage of Facchinelli manuscripts.

Image: Caricature made by Anton Maria Zanetti (1680-1767) depicting the singer Nicola Grimaldi (called Nicolino) with Lucia Facchinelli, called “La Becheretta”, who played La Salustia. Source: Centro Studi Pergolesi via Wikimedia Commons

Category: RISM A-Z