ABSTRACT
In the first half of the nineteenth century, leading opera singers became a fixture of the British musical festival – to attract larger audiences. This led to tension between divas and festival organizers. The best and most famous singers – such as Angelica Catalani – could demand lavish salaries, but they also frequently attempted to dictate both musical and aesthetic terms. Normally, British festivals were organized by a group of gentleman amateurs for the sake of a local charity. However, in 1824, Catalani threatened to upend decades of festival tradition. That year, she sang only in self-produced speculation festivals. In a speculation festival, money would go to the organizer instead of a charity. In doing so, Catalani placed herself in the position of musical instigator and ultimate arbiter of programming and taste. The hyperbolic reaction against Catalani’s festivals is investigated through contemporary press accounts, illustrations, and poetry and fiction written about festivals. These sources reveal a wide-ranging and public battle over the image of the opera singer (and of opera), in the 1820s, outside the opera house, where critics posited that the presence of divas cheapened the festival’s religious and public tradition and damaged the expanding audience’s nascent understanding of musical taste.
