Senesino
Sign in to savethumb|Senesino c. 1720 right|thumb|Senesino in 1735, by Van Haecken after Hudson thumb|Portrait of the contralto castrato Francesco Bernardi, better known under his stage name Senesino; at the same time a parody of the castrati and their singing – and the wealth they earned with it. The lines beneath the portrait read, in Italian and English: "Renown'd Sienna gave him birth and name / Kind Heaven his Voice and Harmony his Fame / While here the Great and Fair their Tribute bring / The Deaf may wonder whence his Merits spring / But all think Fortune just, that hear him sing".
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1686-10-31
- Died
- 1759?
- Works
- 1
Top works
- Il Vespasiano
- Il Faramondo
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 1
- Total plays
- 1
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Senesino">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Key dates
- Born
- 31 October 1686
- Died
- 27 November 1758
via Wikidata · CC0
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Francesco
- Family name
- Bernardi
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Grand Duchy of Tuscany
- Place of birth
- Siena
- Place of death
- Siena
- Occupation
- stage actor
- Languages spoken
- Italian
- Genre
- opera
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Early life and career
- Senesino and Handel
- Senesino and scandal with Anastasia Robinson
- Return to Italy and retirement
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|Senesino c. 1720 right|thumb|Senesino in 1735, by Van Haecken after Hudson thumb|Portrait of the contralto castrato Francesco Bernardi, better known under his stage name Senesino; at the same time a parody of the castrati and their singing – and the wealth they earned with it. The lines beneath the portrait read, in Italian and English: "Renown'd Sienna gave him birth and name / Kind Heaven his Voice and Harmony his Fame / While here the Great and Fair their Tribute bring / The Deaf may wonder whence his Merits spring / But all think Fortune just, that hear him sing".
Francesco Bernardi (; 31 October 1686 – 27 November 1758), known as Senesino ( or traditionally ), was an Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel. He was also involved in a public scandal with the soprano Anastasia Robinson in 1724, which was circulated widely by the satirist Jonathan Swift, and inspired a number of anonymously-written obscene, misogynistic, and at times sexually subversive epistles written between 1724 and 1736 which have become a topic of study among scholars of Restoration literature.