Teresa Saporiti (1763 – 17 March 1869) was an Italian operatic

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 ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

most remembered today for creating the role of Donna Anna in

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's opera ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

''. She was born in Milan and died there at the age of 106. In her later years, she was often referred to by her married name, Teresa Saporiti-Codecasa.

Life and career

Saporiti was born in Milan. Little is known about her early life, but in 1782 she and her elder sister Antonia were engaged by the impresario, , to sing with his Italian opera company in Leipzig. According to ''The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia'' (and several other sources), Theresa and Antonia may have been the sisters of opera singer Caterina Bondini (born as Caterina Saporiti), who was the first Zerlina in ''Don Giovanni'' and Pasquale Bondini's wife. Antonia abandoned her career early on and died in Milan in 1787. Teresa, however, stayed with the company until 1788 and performed with them in Leipzig, Dresden and Prague, most famously as Donna Anna in the 1787 world premiere of ''Don Giovanni''. She was an attractive woman, and several authors have speculated that Don Giovanni's emphatic line in the act 2 dinner scene, "Ah che piatto saporito!" (Ah, what a tasty dish!) is a punning reference to Saporiti. Between 1788 and 1789, she sang in Venice at the Teatro Venier as Mandane in Ferdinando Bertoni's ''Artaserse'' (November 1788); as Selene in the world premiere of

Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi (9 December 1728 – 19 November 1804) was an Italian opera composer of the classical period. Biography Guglielmi was born into the Guglielmi family of musicians in Massa. His father, Jacopo Guglielmi, was a comp ...

's ''Arsace'' (26 December 1788); and as Armida in the world premiere of Guglielmi's ''Rinaldo'' (28 January 1789). She then appeared at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

where on 20 April 1789 she sang the title role in the world premiere of Francesco Bianchi's ''Nitteti''. She went on to perform in Parma,

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, Bologna, Vienna, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg. In Saint Petersburg she was the ''prima buffa assoluta'' in Gennaro Astarita's opera company and sang in operas by Astarita, Giovanni Paisiello, and Domenico Cimarosa. Saporiti also composed two arias, "Dormivo in mezzo al prato" and "Caro mio ben, deh senti", which were published in 1796. In her later years, she was often referred to by her married name, Teresa Saporiti-Codecasa, and lived in Milan where she held

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

concerts in her house. At one of these concerts in 1841, Verdi presented the music for his opera '' Nabucco'' which was to premiere the following year at La Scala. Teresa Saporiti died in Milan on 17 March 1869 at the age of 106. Her daughter, Fulvia, continued corresponding with Verdi for several years afterwards.Phillips-Matz (1993) p. 796

References

Sources

* Cairns, David, ''Mozart and His Operas'', University of California Press, 2006. *Campana, Alessandra, "The performance of opera buffa" in Stefano La Via and Roger Parker (eds.), ''Pensieri per un maestro: studi in onore di Pierluigi Petrobelli'', EDT srl, 2002, pp. 125–134. * * Deutsch, Otto Erich
''Mozart, A Documentary Biography''
(English translation by

Eric Blom Eric Walter Blom (20 August 188811 April 1959) was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, music critic and writer. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1954). Biogr ...

), Stanford University Press, 1965, p. 102. * Keefe, Simon, "Saporiti, Teresa" in

Cliff Eisen Cliff Eisen (born 21 January 1952 in Toronto) is a Canadian musicologist and a Mozart expert. He was based in the Department of Music at King's College London. He studied at the University of Toronto and at Cornell University, and has taught at the ...

and Simon P. Keefe (eds.)
''The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia''
Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 444–445. *

Kelly, Thomas Forrest Thomas Forrest Kelly (born 1943) is an American musicologist, musician, and scholar. He is the Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard University. His most recent books include: ''The Role of the Scroll'' (2019), ''Capturing Music: The Story ...

''First Nights at the Opera''
Yale University Press, 2006, pp. 95–96. *

Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane Mary Jane Phillips-Matz (January 30, 1926 – January 19, 2013) was an American biographer and writer on opera. She is mainly known for her biography of Giuseppe Verdi, a result of 30 years' research and published in 1992 by Oxford University Press ...

, ''Verdi: A Biography'', Oxford University Press, 1933, p. 110 and note 35, p. 794. *

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(ed.), ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music'', Harvard University Press, 1996 p. 785. *

Sadie, Stanley Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

(ed.) '' The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', Macmillan, 1980, Vol. 1, pp. 488–489. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saporiti, Teresa 1763 births 1869 deaths 18th-century Italian women opera singers 19th-century Italian women opera singers Italian operatic sopranos Italian centenarians Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's singers Women centenarians