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flie utmoft aftonilhment the whole company, who had 
never been accuitomed to hear better performers than 
Fefting, Brown, and Collet. Of his academy, fcholars, 
manner of leading at the opera and oratorio, performance 
in private concerts, compolitions vocal and inftrumental, 
we ihall fay nothing here, left our praife fhould be too 
much for others, and too little for ourfelves.” 
He foon got pofi'eftion of all the polls of honour in this 
country. He was engaged and carefled at moil of the 
private concerts of the principal nobility, gentry, and 
foreign minivers ; at the Caftle and King’s-Arms con¬ 
cert in the city; and in 1754 he was placed at the head 
of the opera-band ; in which he introduced a new difci- 
pline, and a new ftyle of playing, much fuperior in itfelf, 
and more congenial with the poetry and mufic of Italy, 
than the languid manner of his predeceflor Fefting; who, 
except one or two feafons, when Veracini was at the head 
of the orcheftra, had led the opera-band, from the time 
that Caftrucci was difmified, till the arrival of Mingotti. 
In 1756, on the failure and flight of the impre/ario, or 
undertaker of the opera, the Mingotti and Giardini joined 
their interefts, and acquired for a while the fovereignty 
of the opera kingdom ; by which gratification of their 
ambition, thefe two great performers were foon brought 
to the brink of ruin, as others had been before them. 
In 1762, on Mattei quitting the management of the opera, 
in fpite of former mifcarriages, Giardini and Mingotti again 
refumed the reins of opera-government. But, after ftrug- 
gling two years againft the ftream, during the decline of 
Mingotti’s favour, and after an inaufpicious feafon, at the 
end of 1763, Giardini and his partner again abdicated 
their thrones. From this period, Giardini, always ho¬ 
vering over his former lyric kingdom, without the power 
of invading it, or bringing about a reitoration, was forced 
to content himfelf with teaching ladies of rank and faihion 
to ling, and the produce of a great annual benefit. He 
continued here, unrivalled as a leader, a folo-player, and 
a compofer for his inftrument, ltill augmenting the im¬ 
portance of his inftrument and our national partiality for 
the tafte of his county, till the admirable productions and 
great performers of Germany began to form a Teutonic 
intereil and Germanic body here, which, before Giardini’s 
departure from London, became very formidable rivals to 
him and his Roman legion. At the end of 1784, he went 
to Italy, and refided a confiderable time at Naples, with 
fir Wiiliam Hamilton, or.e of his firft fcholars on the 
violin after his arrival in England. Remaining on the con¬ 
tinent till the l'umrrier of 1789, Giardini returned to this' 
country, bringing with him a female pupil and her whole 
family, and attempted a burletta-opera at the little theatre 
in the Haymarket, while the great opera-houfe, which had 
been burned down, was rebuilding; but, his prirna dovna 
■not being approved, their fpecuiation failed, and he had 
her and her whole family on his hands. During his ab- 
fence, the public had learned to'do without him, and re¬ 
conciled themfelves to his lots. His health, hand, and 
eyes, were impaired; he was dropfical, his legs were of 
an enormous fize, and little of his former fuperiority on 
his inftrument remained, but his fine tone. He compofed 
quartets that pleafed very much, but in which he never 
played any other part in public than the tenor. The ftyle 
of mufic was changed ; he printed many of his old compo- 
fitions which ufed to pleafe; but now could gain neither 
purchafers nor hearers; fo that, about the year 1793, he 
went to Peterfburg with his burletta troop; which fieems 
to have pleafed as little there and at Mofcow as in Lon¬ 
don ; and he -is laid to have died in this lalt city in great 
wretchednefs and poverty ! 
We mull now go back to the year 1750, when a comic 
opera, called II Filojufo di Campagna, compofed by Ga- 
luppi, was exhibited, which furpafl'ed in mufical merit all the 
comic operas performed in England till the BuonaFigliola. 
Signora Paganini acquired fuch fame by the airs allotted 
to her in that piece, that the crowds at her benefit were 
beyond example; caps were loft, gowns torn in pieces, 
S I c. 
and ladies in full drefs, without fervants or carriages, were 
obliged to walk home, amidft the merriment of the fpec- 
tators in the ftreets. 
In 1764, the arrival of Giovanni Manzoli marked a 
fplendid era in the annals of mufical drama, by conferring 
on the ferious opera a degree of importahee to which it 
had feldom arifen fince its eftablilhment in England. 
Manzoli’s voice was the moft powerful and voluminous 
foprano that had been heard fince the time of Farinelli : 
his manner of finging was grand, and full of tafte and 
dignity. At this time Tenducci, who had been in Eng¬ 
land fome time before, and was now returned much im¬ 
proved, performed in the ftation of fecond man to Man¬ 
zoli. 
In 1769, Gaetano Guadagni made a great figure. He 
had been in this country early in life (1748), as ferious 
man in a burletta-troop of fingers. His voice was then 
a full and well-toned counter-tenor; but he fung wildly 
and carelefsly. The excellence of his voice, however, at¬ 
tracted the notice of Handel, who afligned him the parts 
in his oratorios, the Meftiah and Samlon, which had been 
originally compofed for Mrs. Cibber. He quitted London 
for the firft time about 1753. The highell expectations 
of his abilities were raifed by fame before his fecond ar¬ 
rival, at the time of which we treat. As an aCtor he feems 
to have had no equal on any ftage in Europe. His figure 
was uncommonly elegant and noble; his countenance re¬ 
plete with beauty, intelligence, and dignity; his attitudes 
were full of grace and propriety. But, though his man¬ 
ner of finging was perfectly delicate, polilhed, and re¬ 
fined, his voice feemed at firft to difappoint every hearer. 
Thole, who remembered it when he was in England be¬ 
fore, found it now comparatively thin and feeble ; for he 
had changed it to a foprano, and extended its compafs, 
from fix or feven notes, to fourteen or fifteen. Let a fluid 
of fix feet in depth (fays Dr. Burney) be fpread over more 
than double its ufual furface, and it will neceflarily be 
lhallower, though of greater extent. The mufic he fang 
was the moft fimple imaginable ; a few notes with fre¬ 
quent paufes, and opportunities of being liberated from 
the compoler and the band, were all he required. In thefe 
effufions, feemingly extemporaneous, he difplayed the 
native power of melody unaided by harmony or even by 
unifonous accompaniment. The pleafure he communi¬ 
cated proceeded principally from his artful manner of di- 
minilhing the tones of his voice, like the dying notes of 
the iEolian harp. Moft other fingers affeCt a fwell ; but 
Guadagni, after beginning a note with force, attenuated 
it lo delicately that it poliefled all the eft'eCl of extreme 
diltance. During the l’ealbn of 1770 and 1771, Tenducci 
was the immediate fuccelfor of Guadagni. This performer, 
who appeared in England firft only as a finger of the fe- 
cond or third cl aft, was during his refidence in Scotland 
and Ireland fo much improved as to be well received as 
firft man, not only on the ftage of London, but in all the 
great theatres of Italy. 
In the firft opera performed in 1773, appeared Mifs Ce¬ 
cilia Davies, known in Italy by the name of I'IngleJina. 
Mils Davies had the honour of being the firft Englilh wo¬ 
man who had ever been thought worthy of finging on any 
ftage in Italy. She even performed with eclat the princi¬ 
pal female characters on many of the great theatres of that 
country. Gabrieili only on the continent was laid to fur- 
pafs her. Her voice, though not of great volume, was 
clear and perfeftly in tune ; her lhake was open and dif- 
tinCt, without the fluggilhnefs of the French cadence. 
The flexibility of heythroat tendered her execution equal 
to the moft rapid divifions. 
Next feafon introduced Venanzio Ravygini, a beautiful 
and animated young man ; a compofer as well as a finger. 
His voice was fweet, clear, flexible; in compafs more 
than two oCtaves. 
The feafon of 1775 and 76 was rendered memorable by 
the arrival of the celebrated Caterina Gabrieili, ftyled early 
in life La Cuochetijia, being the daughter of a cardinal’s 
cook 
