A Fish out of Water: The Success of Caterina Galli’s Early London Career

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Caterina Ruini Galli was an Italian mezzo-soprano who rose to fame during the period between 1742 and 1754, which we can consider as her early London career. Little is known of her previous life before her operatic debut on the London Stage as the first record of her was from 1742, but after arriving in England she rose to be one of the most successful female singers in Handel’s employ. Her most active years are between 1747 and 1754 during Handel’s Covent garden season.

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Within this essay, I am going to attempt to explore her early career, and include personal and historical context and a potential explanation to give a picture of what her life would have been like as part of the operatic community in the mid-eighteenth century.

According to information found in records of her death, (Dean, 2001) Galli was born in Cremona in 1723, and was most likely taught by Guiseppe Ferdinando Brivio. (Duncan and Mateer, 2007) In the same year that Handel’s Messiah premiered in Dublin, in 1742 Caterina Galli left Bergamo and arrived on the London Operatic Scene.

After some performances in Italy, she moved to London at the age of nineteen and joined the company of the Earl of Middlesex. (Duncan and Mateer, 2011, p. 496).

The decision to move to England in this period would have been a frightening one for nineteen-year-old Galli, London for the first time had a larger population than Paris and a growing economy which was indulging more in the material pleasures of life. This lead to London becoming a more cosmopolitan city, however, as the economy advanced so did the rate of crime.

More and more crimes were being punishable by death and drinking, gambling, fights and prostitution were all present within the culture (Britain in the mid-1700s, n.d.). Not only would Galli have to struggle for success in her professional life, her personal life would also have to adapt to London culture. She was written of in the diaries of Augustus Harvey, who described her being more like an object to possess rather than a young woman.

“Being young and much about it was not surprising I got hold of some things; the Galli and the Campioni, both famous in their way on the stage, admitted my attentions.” (Duncan and Mateer, 2011, p.497). Financial strains, personal relationships and public reception all played a part in Galli’s Early London Career which spanned twelve years. After the period of time between 1742 and 1754, she left London to return to Italy. During this period she performed in several cities in northern Italy before travelling to Naples, Prague and finally back to England where she had continued success. She enjoyed a long career up until 1797, seven years before she died in Chelsea in 1804.

Galli arrived in London when the public’s interest in Italian opera was declining. The first reference to her arrival to England was her performance as Idrenus in Mandane on the 4th December 1742 at the King’s theatre. She was employed by the Earl of Middlesex, Charles Sackville who was the director of Italian opera at The King’s Theatre and she was employed for one year by the Earl before she was replaced by Signora Caselli. During this time she was described as “less feminine” than some of her peers and having “something spirited and interested in her manner.” This is perhaps the reason why she was only given secondary trouser roles in this section of her career.

These included Idreno from Brivio’s Mandane, Fernando and Astarbo in Galuppi’s Enrico and Sirbace, Lisimaco in Porpora’s Temistocle. After this, however, she was not reemployed by the Earl the next year. Although during her success while employed by Handel the Earl reemployed her between 1747 to 1748 during which she played the roles of Handel’s “Vologeso in Lucio Vero and Alessandro in Rossane and Fernando in a revival of Galuppi’s Enrico, and Araspe and Mirteo respectively in Hasse’s Didone and La Semiramide riconosciuta.” (Duncan and Mateer. 2007).

However, there was a gap in her employment between 1743-44, which she might have had to fill with private concerts. There is evidence in the Burney Newspaper collection of her hosting and performing in benefit concerts, which included for ‘the benefit and increase of a fund established for the support of decayed musicians’ and for herself and other working musicians.

Within these articles we can also find details of Galli’s personal life. These can give an accurate representation of how she was perceived as well as what she was experiencing alongside her professional career. It is evident that not only did she advertise for benefit concerts but also for her lost dog. From this advert we can glean some information such as that she lived which was on Berry Street, St. James and that she owned a ‘Rough-Fac’d little Spaniel Dog that answers to the name of Faw.’ This small article opens up an interesting aspect of her personal life that we would not otherwise see.

From these newspapers there is also anecdotal evidence that there was a death at one of her benefit concerts. In article bellow we can see not only the tragedy but also who attended the opera, and the perks of being a ‘Shifter’. Although it is generally recognised that paying to see the opera was very expensive, we can understand from this that the backstage workers were able to take people to the ‘Flyes’ to watch the show including children. Unfortunately, the wife of the shifter became over curious and fell onto the stage, she was helped by a Surgeon and Physician which shows the type of people that attended Galli’s concerts. One can only imagine the effect this particular incident must have had on Galli. However, although this tragedy was publicised it seems not to have affected her career as she then continued to be employed by Handel.

The next production that Galli participated in was the pastoral opera of L’icostanza Delusa at the New Haymarket Theatre. The Earl of Shaftesbury was cited (Duncan, 2013, p.401) to have said, “Geminiani’s opera [...] went off I hear most wretchedly last Saturday, and people don’t seem inclined to favour it at all”. Another source said, “Geminiani’s new opera had but bad success, there being a thin house on Saturday last”. The music included new songs by the Count of Saint Germain and arias by Brivio from his opera “L’icostanza Delusa” which was written almost ten years previously. Not only was the opera not received very well but Germainiani also filed a lawsuit against one of his sopranos in L’icostanza Delusa.

Galli was one of three female singers, the others were Frasi and another was Mrs Frederica. They performed a concert for the benefit of Mrs Frederica in which Galli played the part of Filandro, the lead male and Frasi played the leading lady, Corina. Mrs Frederica played the role of Orsinda which was the only other female role in the pasticcio. This information was discovered within a collection of arias from The Favourite Songs from the Opera Called “L’Incostanza Delusa”. (Duncan, 2013, p.401) Apparently Geminiani and Mrs. Frederica “fell out over the agreement they had struck regarding the terms of her benefit, and he took her to court. In the theatre his retribution was swift; a newspaper advertisement for the next and (as it happened) final performance of L’Incostanza on 20 April announced that:

“Signora Frederica’s Part will be perform’d by Mrs. Arne”. In court, on the other hand, the legal proceedings were considerably more protracted and much less decisive.” (Duncan, 2013, p.402) As we can see from this information, it demonstrates the reliance singers have on gaining work and how one disagreement can take a person back to square one. Galli might have felt this pressure especially as she had only been working in London for a few years by this point.

After becoming more acquainted with the London Operatic scene she became one of Handel’s earliest students. Transitioning away from opera, her first oratorio role that she sang of Handel’s was Phanor in Joseph and His Brethren in Covent Garden on the 2nd March 1744. This was well received and Handel made £250 for himself at the time. Her next success, however, was at the premiere of Judas Maccabaeus as Israelite Man and Second Israelite woman. She also sang the role of the Priest in April 1747.

She was particularly acclaimed for her rendition of ‘Tis Liberty alone’, Duncan and Mateer reference Burney who said ‘she was not only encored in it every night, but became an important personage, among singers, for a considerable time afterwards.’ Possibly due to the success of Judas Maccabaeus, Handel began writing roles for Galli including “Joshua (Othniel, 1748), Alexander Balus (title role, 1748), Susanna (Joacim, 1749), Solomon (title role, 1749), Theodora (Irene, 1750), Jephtha (Storgè, 1752) and probably The Choice of Hercules (Virtue, 1751).”

The number of roles that Handel wrote for Galli over this period it clearly demonstrates the importance of Galli as a performer. In fact, there was also a rumour that Galli had died which supports this idea. Countess of Salisbury stated, “I am afraid Handel will be under some difficul- ties if it is true that Galli is dead[,] which we have heard from a lady who lives in the same street and opposite to her lodgings in town.” (Duncan and Mateer, 2007).

Not only did Caterina Galli have a flourishing operatic and oratorio career but she also had some other professional interests. She taught singing to one student, Lady Caroline Russell, who created the only portrait of Galli. From this we can see that she was very elegantly dressed, which may represent that she enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and accompanying income or contrastingly that she spent the majority of her income on her appearance in order to fit in with the social class she mingled with.

Social status and perceived social status was incredibly important in the mid-eighteenth century. Association with a Duke’s daughter would have allowed Galli to be in contact with higher class people and allow her to potentially gain popularity both personally and professionally through association. Around the same time, Galli also wrote a song that she premiered herself in a benefit concert. It was called ‘When first I saw thee graceful Move’. It was sung at the Public Gardens and at a Benefit concert. It’s a simple strophic song written for two voices, two ‘German Flutes’ which doubles the vocal line and continuo with two stanzas of text.

As is evident from the information stated above, Galli by no means had an easy career. After arriving to London as a teenager, with little knowledge of the language an probably little knowledge of the culture she attempted to start her career. After being employed for a year she didn’t regain employment but had to support herself through benefit concerts until she finally had her ‘big break’ by being employed as one of Handel’s first students. Throughout the pressures of maintaining her professional life her personal life would have been difficult as well, especially during the first half of the 1740s: losing her dog, navigating the musical and social circles of London, and encountering death and deception. Despite the socio-political climate, she made a huge success of this portion of her career.