ABSTRACT
Teaching is often viewed as a secondary activity (second to performance and composition) in the life of a successful musician, but in Venanzio Rauzzini’s case teaching took a more prominent role in his overall career. Rauzzini could boast success in a variety of lucrative musical activities, such as attaining the high status of primo uomo, a leading man of the Italian opera at London’s King’s Theatre, composing several operas, and becoming the leader of the Bath subscription concert series. However, his influential role as a singing master has received little attention, despite the fact he taught many successful British opera singers performing in the latter half of the eighteenth century and he was hailed by the Bath Chronicle in 1792 as ‘the first master for singing in the universe’. Though teaching brought Rauzzini acclaim, enabling him to establish his legacy, his success was down to his ability to negotiate a variety of complex cultural, national and social issues. The introduction considers how new insights into these topics are revealed by focussing in on the relationship between Rauzzini and his students.
