Brigida Banti

Her performances in the premières of Piramo e Tisbe by Francesco Bianchi (who was to become her favourite composer), and Attalo, re di Bitinia by Giuseppe Sarti, as well as in a revival of Bertoni's Orfeo ed Euridice [it] were very successful by all accounts, raising enthusiasm in a listener out of the ordinary, such as the Irish tenor Michael Kelly.

In 1789 Banti returned to Venice's Teatro San Benedetto where she was the first protagonist of Anfossi's Zenobia in Palmira, which became one of her favourite roles, as well as Semiramide, a character she created in Bianchi's La vendetta di Nino, at the end of the following year.

In June 1792 she took part in the inauguration of the new theatre La Fenice in Venice, opposite the castrato Gaspare Pacchierotti (who exerted a strong artistic influence upon her throughout her career), in the first performance of Paisiello's I giuochi d'Agrigento.

Her contemporaries, from the mentioned tenor Kelly, to the painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, to the great connoisseur of singing, Lord Mount Edgcumbe,[10] agreed in praising her qualities.

Her singing style, according to sharpest comment by Vigée Le Brun, was very similar to the castrato Pacchiarotti's (alongside whom, in fact, Banti happened to be on stage in numberless occasions); which meant she was able to excel at expressive intensity.

[12] In spite of her basic theoretical ignorance and her vulgar manners, Banti, owing to her natural talent, succeeded in growing a highly refined cantatrice and was able to shrink from outward appearance, from superficiality, and, in a word, from the decay of vocal taste which marked the 18th century's second half.