This is a past event
A discussion with Dr Brianna Robertson-Kirkland - University of Glasgow
Venanzio Rauzzini (1746-1810) was a castrato singer and teacher who embodied an Italian singing tradition and yet The Monthly Mirror (1807) claimed he was the ‘father of a new style of English singing’. Styles of singing was a hotly debated subject in Georgian Britain with contemporary discourses typically placing the Italian and English singing styles in opposition. Many English singers were dissuaded from adopting too many Italian mannerisms, particularly when singing repertoire from English ballad operas. That was until, many of Rauzzini’s students, including Elizabeth Billington (1765-1818) and John Braham (c.1774-1856) were praised for incorporating an Italianate approach, while also maintaining a character appropriate for English tastes. While Billington and Braham were highly celebrated in Britain, they also achieved success on the continent, a feat quite unusual for English-born singers at this time.
Many of Billington and Braham’s most famous songs are now preserved in the Stationer’s Hall legal deposits, including The Songs Sung by Mrs Billington in Artaxerxes (1800?) and the Duenna (1801?). These song collections, produced by Thomas Busby (1755–1838), included Billington’s sung ornamentation and is one of the only sources that documents her florid vocal stylings. These printed sources provide insight into popular styles of singing, and help to unravel some of the mystery behind Rauzzini’s teaching methods. In this online lecture, we will consider what differentiated the Italian and English styles of singing, if Rauzzini was doing anything distinctive in his teaching to better enable a blending of the Italian and English styles, and why Billington and Braham particularly excelled as national and international opera stars.
Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland is a Lecturer in Historical Musicology at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has a particular interest in the field of historically informed performance and eighteenth-century studies. She is the Music Research Associate for the AHRC-funded project 'The Edited Collection of Allan Ramsay' at the University of Glasgow. She has been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney (2017 & 2019) with her most recent visit culminating in several practice-based, collaborative performances between Scotland’s Concerto Caledonia and Melbourne’s Evergreen Ensemble. Her research has fed into the historically-led album Curious Caledonians. Her forthcoming book Venanzio Rauzzini (1746-1810) ‘The Father of a New Style in English Singing’: Scandalous Lessons is due to be published with Routledge.
This seminar will be held on Microsoft Teams. You don’t need a Teams account to attend, just click on the link below shortly before the advertised start time and follow the instructions:https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Y2EwODBhNmYtOWY3Ni00MDM4LTljNzMtY2I5MzExMjZlYTJj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%228c2b19ad-5f9c-49d4-9077-3ec3cfc52b3f%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2238884336-2214-482a-af18-ab9eedde6b19%22%7d
If you have any questions or technical difficulties, please email jonathan.hicks@abdn.ac.uk
- Venue
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