Caterina Gabrielli

The excellence of her vocal artistry is reflected in the fact that she was able to secure long-term engagements in three of the most prestigious operatic centers in her day outside of Italy (Vienna, St. Petersburg, and London).

With the support of the prince, she studied with García and Porpora and at the L'Ospedaletto conservatory in Venice, and as a sign of gratitude she decided to assume her patron's surname as her stage name.

Her humble roots were remembered by audiences in her nickname La cochetta ("little cook"), which was actually recorded in the librettos published for her early appearances at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice during the 1754–55 operatic season.

She was then hired by the imperial court of Vienna and sang in a series of dramatic works of various types written by Christoph Willibald von Gluck: La danza (1755), Le cinesi (1755), L'innocenza giustificata (1755), and Il re pastore (1756).

In 1760 Gabrielli returned to Vienna to appears in Gluck's Tetide, Giuseppe Scarlatti's Issipile, and Johann Adolf Hasse's Alciade al Bivio.

In 1767, she created the role of Argene in Josef Mysliveček's opera Il Bellerofonte at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, thereby helping the composer break through to the upper echelon of operatic masters in Italy.