Giovanni Ansani

Giovanni Ansani (11 February 1744 – 15 July 1826) was an Italian tenor and composer.

In 1770, he was singing at Copenhagen. About 1780 he came to London, where he at once took the first place; but, being of a most quarrelsome temper, he threw up his engagement on account of squabbles with soprano castrato Francesco Roncaglia. He returned the next year with his wife, Maccherini, who was not successful. He sang at Florence in 1784, at Rome the autumn of the same year, and elsewhere in Italy; and finally retired to Naples at the age of 50, where he devoted himself to teaching singing.

He was a spirited actor, and had a full, finely-toned, and commanding voice. According to Charles Burney, his voice was one of the sweetest yet most powerful tenors he ever heard; to which, according to Carlo Gervasoni, he added a very rare truth of intonation, great power of expression, and the most perfect method, both of producing the voice and of vocalisation. His wife had as bad a temper as himself, and they were, therefore, a most inharmonious couple. It is said that, when singing together in Italy, if one were more applauded than the other, the unsuccessful one would hire persons to hiss the more fortunate rival.

Ansani was known also as a composer of duets and trios for soprano and bass, with a basso continuo. Ernst Ludwig Gerber reported that an opera of his composition, called ''La Vendetta di Minos'', was performed at Florence in 1791.

Operatic roles to 1780

*Massimo in ''Ezio'' by Niccolò Jommelli (Bologna, 1768)
*Fenicio in ''Demetrio'' by Antonio Pampani (Venice, 1768)
*Decebalo in ''Eurione'' by Ferdinando Bertoni (Udine, 1770)
*Demofoonte in ''Demofoonte'' by Giuseppe Sarti (Copenhagen, 1771)
*Dioneo in ''Uranio e Erasitea'' by Giuseppe Colla (Parma, 1773)
*Rodoaldo in ''Ricimero'' by Luigi Borghi (Venice, 1773)
*Tito Vespasiano in ''La clemenza di Tito'' by Josef Mysliveček (Venice, 1774)
*Danao in ''Ipermestra'' by Johann Gottlieb Naumann (Venice, 1774)
*Lucio Silla in ''Lucio Silla'' by Pasquale Anfossi (Venice, 1774)
*Alessandro in ''Alessandro nell'Indie'' by Carlo Monza (Milan, 1775)
*Medonte in ''Medonte re di Epiro'' by Luigi Alessandri (Milan, 1775)
*Niso in ''Aurora'' by Gaetano Vagnani (Turin, 1775)
*Ubaldo in ''Rinaldo'' by Antonio Tozzi (Venice, 1775)
*Creonte in ''Antigona' by Ferdinando Bertoni ( Alessandria, 1775)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by Giovanni Paisiello (Rome, 1776)
*Lucio Vero in ''Vologeso'' by Giovanni Masi (Rome, 1776)
*Osroa in ''Adriano in Siria'' by Josef Mysliveček (Florence, 1776)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by Giovanni Paisiello (Florence, 1776)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by Giovanni Paisiello (Livorno, 1777)
*Rodoaldo in ''Ricimero'' by Pietro Guglielmi (Naples, 1777)
*Dario in ''La disfatta di Dario'' by Giovanni Paisiello (Naples, 1777)
*Catone in ''Catone in Utica'' by Bernardino Ottani (Naples, 1777)
*Ariobate in ''Bellerofonte'' by Ignazio Platania (Naples, 1778)
*Agricano in '' La Calliroe'' by Josef Mysliveček (Naples, 1778)
*Clistene in ''L'Olimpiade'' by Josef Mysliveček (Naples, 1778)
*Alessandro in ''Il re pastore'' by Ignazio Platania (Naples, 1778)
*Agamennone in ''Ifigenia in Aulide'' by Vicente Martín y Soler (Naples, 1779)
*Agricano in '' La Calliroe'' by Josef Mysliveček (Pisa, 1779)
*Cajo Mario in ''Cajo Mario'' (Pisa, 1779)
*Sabino in ''L'Epponina'' by Giuseppe Giordani (Florence, 1779)
*Timante in ''Demofoonte'' by Felice Alessandri (Padua, 1783)
*Cajo Mario in ''Cajo Mario'' by Domenico Cimarosa (Rome, 1780)
*Emirena in ''Tito nelle Gallie'' Pasquale Anfossi (Rome, 1780)
*Lucio Vero in ''Vologeso'' by Giacomo Rust (Rome, 1780)
*Antigono in ''Antigono'' by Josef Mysliveček (Rome, 1780)Source of roles: Sartori 1992–94, singer appendix.

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansani, Giovanni
Italian operatic tenors
1744 births
1826 deaths
18th-century Italian male opera singers