Co-stars & Rivals: G I Z Z I E L L OReal name: Gioacchino ContiBorn: Arpino, 28 Feb 1714Died

Co-stars & Rivals: G I Z Z I E L L O

• _{Real name: Gioacchino Conti}
  
• _{Born:Arpino, 28 Feb 1714}
  
• _{Died:Rome, 25 Oct 1761}
  
• _{Voice:soprano}
  
• _{Personality:Conti was one of the greatest of 18th-century singers. He was an exceptionally high soprano with a compass of at least two octaves (c’ to c’“) and the only castrato for whom Handel wrote a top C.His nicknames derived from Domenico Gizzi, who taught him singing. Conti’s début at Rome in Vinci’s Artaserse (1730) was a spectacular success. His subsequent career led him throughout Italy, as well as abroad. In 1736–37 he was in London, where he had been engaged by George Frideric Handel, with whom he would build a profitable collaboration. The press reported that he met with an uncommon Reception; the poet Gray admired him ‘excessively’ in every respect except the shape of his mouth, which ‘when open, made an exact square’. Gizziello sang at many premieres for the best and most famous musicians of his time, including Niccolò Jommelli, Baldassare Galuppi  and Johann Adolf Hasse. In 1749 he was invited by Farinelli to sing at Madrid with Mingotti; and stayed there three years. Conti always remained in good terms with Farinelli, who repeatedly invited him to Spain, terming him "Antiguo amigo” (longtime friend). From 1752 to 1755 he was employed by the Lisbon court theatre and sang in many operas, most of them by Perez; he is said to have narrowly escaped with his life from the Lisbon earthquake (1755), and was impressed with such a religious turn by the tremendous calamity, that he retreated to a monastery, where he ended his days (Burney), but not before he had imparted much sage and practical counsel to Guadagni. His retirement may, however, have been due to ill-health.} 
  
• _{One fact:  In character Conti was the antithesis of Caffarelli, being as gentle as the latter was overbearing. However, a colourful anecdote relates how Caffarelli, rode post-haste to Rome from Naples just to attend incognito Conti’s debut; and full of enthusiasm eventually yelled at him: “Bravo, bravissimo Gizziello, it’s Caffariello who’s telling you!”}
  
• _{One quote: Gizziello was ‘so modest and diffident, that when he first heard Farinelli, at a private rehearsal, he burst into tears, and fainted away with despondency’ (Burney)}
  
• _{One hit:Non sono sempre vane larve (Arminio)}