ABSTRACT
Giovanni Bononcini’s opera Astianatte, on a libretto by Nicola Haym, was written for the Royal Academy of Music in London. Performed at the peak of hostilities between factions supporting two different sopranos, the opera achieved notoriety during its ninth performance, on 6 June 1727. The sopranos in question were the famous Italian divas Francesca Cuzzoni (1696-1778) and Faustina Bordoni (16971781); the scandal involved audience factions making so much noise that the performance had to be halted in the presence of Princess Caroline. Unfortunately for Astianatte and the performers, it has been the scandal and its unsubstantiated details that caught the imagination of music historians.2 The two sopranos have
1 This chapter is based on Chapter 7 of my Ph.D. dissertation ‘From Alessandro (1726) to Tolomeo (1728): The Final Royal Academy Operas’, University of Cambridge, 2005, pp. 178-207. I am grateful to doctoral research support from: Cambridge Overseas Trust; the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals (Overseas Research Students Award); The British Federation of Women Graduates; Selwyn College, University of Cambridge; Ad futura foundation, Slovenia; and Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge.
