Maria Gallia (incorrectly called Maria Margherita by Burney), was a British

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Life

Gallia was described by Burney as the sister of

Margherita de l'Epine Margherita is an Italian feminine given name. It also is a surname. As a word, in Italian it means " daisy". Given name As a name, it may refer to: *Margherita Aldobrandini (1588–1646), Duchess consort of Parma *Margherita de' Medici (1612 ...

. L'Epine did have a sister called Maria (Manina) but she did not appear on the London stage as a soloist until 1712. Gallia was the pupil of

Nicola Haym Nicola Francesco Haym (6 July 1678 – 31 July 1729) was an Italian opera librettist, composer, theatre manager and performer, literary editor and numismatist. He is best remembered for adapting texts into libretti for the London operas of Georg ...

. She appeared for the first time at the

Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, ...

, in 1703 when she had "newly arrived". She sang in 1706 and 8 in 'Camilla,' in the libretti of which she is called Joanna Maria. In the former year she also performed the principal rôle in the 'Temple of Love' by Saggione, to whom she was then married. Documents signed by this composer, and by his wife as Maria Gallia Saggione, show that they received respectively £150 and £700 for a season of nine months,—large sums at that early date. Gallia appeared in Clayton's ''

Rosamond Rosamond is a feminine given name, which may refer to: People *Rosamond Carr (1912–2006), American humanitarian and author *Rosamund Clifford (before 1150 – c. 1176), English mistress of King Henry II * Rosamond Langbridge (1880–1964), Irish ...

'' at its production in 1707. She sang songs also at the Haymarket Theatre 'in Italian and English,' to strengthen the attraction. At this time she must have been very young, for we find her singing in 'Alexander Balus,' 'Joshua,' &c. in 1748; unless, indeed, her name is incorrectly put for that of Galli.

References

;Attribution *Marshall, Julian. "Gallia, Maria", ''A Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1900) edited by George Grove {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallia, Maria 18th-century British women opera singers British sopranos