Senesino (Francesco Bernardi) (October 31, 1686–November 27, 1758) was a celebrated Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel.
Senesino was the son of a barber from Siena (hence his stage-name). He joined the cathedral choir there in 1695 and was castrated at the comparatively late age of thirteen. His debut was at Venice in 1707, and during the next decade he acq...
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Senesino (Francesco Bernardi) (October 31, 1686–November 27, 1758) was a celebrated Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel.
Senesino was the son of a barber from Siena (hence his stage-name). He joined the cathedral choir there in 1695 and was castrated at the comparatively late age of thirteen. His debut was at Venice in 1707, and during the next decade he acquired a European reputation and, by the time he sang in Lotti's Giove in Argo in 1717 at Dresden, a commensurately enormous salary.
As with many castrati, reports of Senesino's acting were not always positive, to say the least. The impresario Count Francesco Zambeccari wrote of his performance in Naples in 1715: "Senesino continues to comport himself badly enough; he stands like a statue, and when occasionally he does make a gesture, he makes one directly the opposite of what is wanted". Of the singer's vocal abilities, however, there was no...
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