Carlo Scalzi (c. 1700–after 1738) was an Italian castrato who had an active performance career in major

opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...

s in Italy from 1718-1738. He was also heard in London in 1733–1734 where he notably created the role of Alceste in the world premiere of George Frideric Handel's '' Arianna in Creta''. The librettist

Pietro Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Met ...

described Scalzi as a "very unique singer" and likened his voice to that of the famous castrato Farinelli.

Life and career

Nothing is known of Scalzi's early life and the exact year of his birth is unknown. The first definite account of the singer was in 1718–1719 for a series of performances in

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

s by Alessandro Scarlatti in Rome. From 1719–1722 he was heard in Venice in operas by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini,

Carlo Francesco Pollarolo Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (ca. 1653 – 7 February 1723) was an Italian composer, organist, and music director. Known chiefly for his operas, he wrote a total of 85 of them as well as 13 oratorios. His compositional style was initially indebted t ...

, and

Giovanni Porta Giovanni Porta (c. 1677 – 21 June 1755) was an Italian opera composer. His opera '' Argippo'', to a libretto by Domenico Lalli, was premiered in Venice in 1717.Freeman, Daniel E. (1992)''The Opera Theater of Count Franz Anton Von Sporck i ...

. He also performed in Reggio Emilia and Modena in 1720. In 1722 Scalzi was once again heard in Rome and in 1722–1723 he performed in Genoa. He then sang in Florence (1723 and 1729), Milan (1724), Venice (1724–1725), and Parma (1725). He had great success in Naples in 1726–1727 and 1730 in the operas of

Johann Adolf Hasse Johann Adolph Hasse (baptised 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783) was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a co ...

Nicola Porpora Nicola (or Niccolò) Antonio Porpora (17 August 16863 March 1768) was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque music, Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli (castrato), Caffarel ...

, and

Leonardo Vinci Leonardo Vinci (1690 – 27 May 1730) was an Italian composer known chiefly for his 40 or so operas; comparatively little of his work in other genres survives. A central proponent of the Neapolitan School of opera, his influence on subsequ ...

. He created roles in two world premieres at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in 1726: Sesostrate in Hasse's ''Miride e Damari'' on 13 May 1726 and Ricimero in Vinci's ''L'Ernelinda'' on 4 November 1726. In 1728–1729 and 1731–1732 he was again in Rome where he performed in the premieres of Vinci's ''La Semiramide riconosciuta'' (6 February 1729, role of Mirteo) and Vinci's ''Artaserse'' (4 February 1730, role of Megacle). In 1733 he returned to Genoa for performances. In 1733–1734 Scalzi was committed to George Frideric Handel's opera company at the King's Theatre in London. Handel changed and extended arias from some of his previous operas for Scalzi: including for revivals of ''

Ottone ''Ottone, re di Germania'' ("Otto, King of Germany", HWV 15) is an opera by George Frideric Handel, to an Italian–language libretto adapted by Nicola Francesco Haym from the libretto by Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino for Antonio Lotti's opera ...

'' (November 1733, Adalberto), '' Sosarme'' (April 1734, Argone), '' Acis and Galatea'' (May 1734, Dorindo), and ''

Il pastor fido ''Il pastor fido'' (''The Faithfull Shepherd'' in Richard Fanshawe's 1647 English translation) is a pastoral tragicomedy set in Arcadia by Giovanni Battista Guarini, first published in 1590 in Venice. Plot summary To redress an ancient wron ...

'' (May 1734, Silvio). On 26 January 1734 he created the role of Alceste in the world premiere of George Frideric Handel's '' Arianna in Creta''. On 13 March 1734 he sang the role of Orpheus in the premiere of Handel's

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...

''Parnasso in festa'' for the wedding of

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of K ...

and

William IV, Prince of Orange William IV (Willem Karel Hendrik Friso; 1 September 1711 – 22 October 1751) was Prince of Orange from birth and the first hereditary stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands from 1747 until his death in 1751. During his whole ...

. While Handel greatly admired Scalzi's talents, the English public did not respond to Scalzi with the same enthusiasm that he enjoyed in Italy. In 1734 Scalzi returned to Italy. His last known performances were in operas by Hasse and Porpora in Venice in 1737–1738. After that, his whereabouts and activities are unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scalzi, Carlo Castrati Italian opera singers 18th-century Italian people Year of birth uncertain