Nancy Storace: The Italian Company, 1783–84

This chapter examines the first year of the company’s existence, its makeup of expensive Italian singers and cheaper home-grown German singers, and the operas in which they were cast. The three pillars of the company were the imported singers: the prima donna Nancy Storace, the buffo caricato Francesco Benucci, and the mezzo carattere Stefano Mandini. While the men were indisputably important, the success or failure of an opera depended entirely on Storace, for operas in which she sang became hits and operas in which other women sang the prima-donna role vanished quickly, despite the participation of the men.