Musicologica Austriaca (Jan 2022)
His Voice and Something More: Francesco Borosini’s Cantata Quando miro o stella o fiore for Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Abstract
Eighteenth-century opera singers often engaged in activities that far exceeded their role as mere performers. Not only could they have a decisive impact on a composer’s musical choices; they often functioned as “cultural middlemen,” cultivating contacts to various noblemen. We can observe a prime example for a singer’s “networking abilities” in the tenor Francesco Borosini, who, despite belonging to Italian baroque opera’s “lower league,” was able to have a career that outshone some castrati. Not only did he become the highest paid tenor of the court chapel of Charles VI in Vienna; he also gained more and more influence with respect to his social status. Part of his off-stage success was actually due to his key role as a supplier of music for numerous aristocrats throughout Europe. In Vienna, he became acquainted with Duke Anton Ulrich of Saxe-Meiningen, who aimed to replicate the Habsburg musical library at his residence in Meiningen. Borosini, known to be active as a composer, gifted him with a cantata for soprano voice and basso continuo. This piece represents an occasional work of the singer, whose compositional activity has to date not been brought into focus. However, the piece, as simple as it might seem at first glance, displays a rare virtuoso singing style which differs remarkably from the usual writing for soprano. It contains steep jumps between registers and uncustomary low notes that may cast doubt on the intended voice type. Many possibilities come to mind, as vocal technique in late baroque Italian opera still puzzles scholars today. More importantly, the piece—being the only composition by a singer within Anton Ulrich’s collection—raises questions about the reason for its inclusion alongside works by Vienna’s most prestigious composers. An illustration of Borosini’s role as a networker and connoisseur of “good quality music,” of his peculiar role profile as well as his singing style, underpins why this occasional and unique piece might have been intended as a gift for the duke.
