One of these, Francesca Cuzzoni, a native of Parma, had created such a
furore on her first appearance, three years earlier, that the opera
directors who had engaged her for the season at two thousand guineas
were encouraged to charge four guineas for admission, and her costumes
were adopted by fashionable youth and beauty. Although ugly and
ill-made, she had a sweet, clear dramatic contralto with unrivalled high
notes, intonations so fixed it seemed impossible for her to sing out of
tune, and a native flexibility that left unimpeded her creative fancy.
Handel, in whose operas she sang, composed airs calculated to display
her charms, but she, confident of her supremacy, rewarded him with
conduct so capricious that, finding her at last intolerable, he sent to
Italy for the noble Venetian lady, Faustina Bordoni. She was elegant in
figure, handsome of face, had an amiable disposition, a ringing
mezzo-soprano, with a compass from B-flat to G in altissimo, and was
renowned for her brilliant execution, distinct enunciation, beautiful
shake, happy memory for embellishments and fine expression.
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