Giulia Frasi

She had a younger brother named Giovanni who, like her, settled in England and died there in 1795 at 65, after having worked extensively as a tailor-embroiderer for the then Prince of Wales, George IV.

[5][3] Her actual London début took place on 2 November 1742 at the King's Theatre as Mahobeth in the pasticcio Gianguir with music by Lampugnani, Hasse and Brivio.

This was followed straight away by a period of intense artistic activity on the London stage, still at the King's Theater, singing works by Lampugnani, Hasse, Porpora, Galuppi.

[3][2] However, just a couple of years after her arrival in the British capital, shortly after the première of the pasticcio L'incostanza delusa, all theatres in London were closed because of the political turmoil caused by the Stuart rising.

Charles Burney thus recalls the events: The great Opera-house being shut up this year [1745] on account of the rebellion, and popular prejudice against the performers, who being foreigners, were chiefly Roman Catholics; an opera was attempted April 7th, at the little theatre in the Hay-market, under the direction of Geminiani.

[7]When the political situation improved fully-fledged theatrical activities recommenced with a première of Gluck's opera La caduta de' giganti (The Fall of the Giants) on 17 January 1746.

La caduta de' giganti, a command from Lord Middlesex, with a libretto by Vanneschi, glorified the hero of the battle of Culloden, the Duke of Cumberland.

[3][2] In addition, her association with the annual charity concerts in aid of the Fund for Decay'd – known today as the Royal Society of Musicians – started as early as 1743.

The earliest documented occasion (a fundraiser event) on which she performed English-language airs, including some by Handel, in public was as early as March 1746.

For example, in Theodora (premièred in 1750 with Frasi being once again the principal soprano in a title role written specifically for her by Handel), act 2, scene 2 opens with "a plaintive symphony for flutes and strings establish[ing] the lonely despair of the character, and [then] her dread for the violation of her chastity is sublimely expressed in 'With Darkness deep as is my Woe' – in the extraordinary key of F-sharp minor; [...with] pathos-generating rolling strings and almost unbearable uses of silence between phrases.

[3] Great Pulteney Street had just been laid out during the area's redevelopment in the early eighteenth century (Many of the houses built at this time still survive today).

Yet there was a large brewery and there were famous musical instrument makers as well: notably Kirkman's, which had been established there in 1739 and remained until 1750, and, from 1742 to 1774, the harpsichord-maker Burkat Shudi, founder of the firm now known as Broadwood & Sons.

[2] In his General History of Music (1789), Charles Burney remembers her at the beginning of her career as "[being...] young, and interesting in person, with a sweet and clear voice, and a smooth and chaste style of singing, which, though, cold and unimpassioned, pleased natural ears, and escaped the censure of critics.

[1][2]Although she did reprise some castrati roles in revivals (for example in Artaxerxes) and that arias written specifically for her do occasionally include fiery – if short – coloraturas.

Burney also recorded that the 1742 London pasticcio, entitled Meraspe o L’Olimpiade, based on Pergolesi’s L'Olimpiade, was so successful that its virtuoso aria "Tremende oscuri atroci", was sung at concerts by Frasi for ten years, at least, after the run of the opera was over.

[4][7][16] This aria, written for the castrato Angelo Monticelli, is "ferociously difficult ... with virtuosic text-painting in the vocal line, rapid passagework and repeated notes that would have required honed technique and a soprano of light agility".

The wonderful series of oratorio parts Handel composed for her, including the two Queens in Solomon, the title roles in Susanna and Theodora, and Iphis in Jephtha, are an indication of his regard for her expressive powers, though they are not technically arduous; their extreme compass is B3 to A5.

[2] Following in Handel's steps, Smith's Paradise Lost required Frasi to express innocence, culpability, pious sorrow and penitence when Eve faces the consequences of her new and inevitable mortality.

On a different note, Burney highlights that "having come to this country at an early period of her life, she pronounced our language in singing in a more articulate and intelligible manner than the natives".

"[4] Many of Handel's oratorios had numerous revivals with her, including in provincial cities: Oxford in 1754, 1756, 1759, Salisbury in 1758, 1761, 1765, Ranelagh in 1751, 1752, and for nine consecutive years at the Three Choirs Festival (1756–64).

On Wednesday the 3rd, Thursday the 4th and Friday the 5th of July, being the three Days following the Commemoration of Founders and Benefactors to the University, L'Allegro, il Penseroso, &c. Judas Macchabæus, and Messiah will be performed in the Theatre.

[3][4] Finally, in 1770 – after having been "confined for some Time by a bad State of Health" – she appeared again at the Little Theatre on 4 May for a charity concert to her own benefit singing Judas Maccabaeus.

[3][4] For this concert she gathers musical London luminaries such as Giardini, playing first violin and solos, her singer colleague Gaetano Guadagni, and cellist Jean-Pierre Duport.

"[4][60] Three years later she appeared in a few concerts, making a new "come-back" about which The Morning Post and Daily Advertiser wrote sarcastically: "Signora Frazi, who may be said, with respect to the musical world, to have been long since dead and buried, is expected to rise again in Lent[.]"

She was Handel's last prima donna, but she also sang Gluck, the Venetian heritage style of Galuppi, the Neapolitans like Porpora, Pergolesi, Lampugnani, Hasse, Cocchi, and English composers, among which Boyce, Smith, Hayes and Arne.

Her accumulated debts due to her expensive and extravagant lifestyle reduced her to poverty, so much so that, in her latest years, after her last documented concert at Hickford's Room on 16 May 1774, she allegedly found herself forced to flee to Calais where she died destitute.

Giulia Frasi (source unknown)
Milan in the 18th century, Palazzo Mannati
The King's Theatre in Haymarket in the 18th-century
Aria sung by Frasi in Gluck's Artamene , published in The favourite songs in the opera call'd Artemene by Sigr. Gluck in 1746 [ 6 ]
"Farewell, ye limpid springs" (from Jephtha ). To show off Frasi's expressiveness, in this aria, Handel uses rests between phrases (sighs), compound time and simple lines (tender tunes), broken lines and minor key (plaint and sorrows), echos etc. ("It was ...[a] scene tailor-made for Frasi, who would sing it at her last appearance in aid of the Fund for Decay'd Musicians or Their Families [in 1761]." [ 4 ] )
Georgian houses in Great Pulteney St. in today's London
Former Westminster Penny Post offices at 39 Gerrard St.
The first two pages of "Gracious Heav'n, O hear me!", aria composed by Thomas Arne for Frasi and added to act 2, scene 2 of The Masque of Alfred for the 1753 revival of the work. The text at the top of the first page reads: "Sung by Signora [Ms] Frasi"
Twelve-bar coloratura from "Amid a thousand racking woes", written for Tenducci , in Arne's Artaxerxes (act 1, scene 2). The passaggi battuti, cantar di sbalzo, mordenti, arpeggi etc. are hallmarks of castrato arias. (In the 1769 revival of Arne's opera, Frasi would have sung this aria.)
First part of the emotional act 2I, scene 2 from Theodora , written by Handel for Frasi
"At the [Foundling] Hospital. For the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted children in Lambs Conduit Fields, on [x] day of [x] 17 [xx] at [x] o'clock there will be, performed in the chapel of the said hospital, a sacred oratorio called [x] composed by George Frederick Handel, Esq. The gentlemen are desired to come without swords and the ladies without hoops. NB; there will be no collection. Tickets may be had of the steward at the Hospital, at Arthur's Chocolate House in St. James's Street, at Batson's Coffee House in Cornhill & at Tom's Coffee House in Devereux Court at half a Guinea each."
London's Foundling Hospital
Regina Mingotti, 1745