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INTRODUCTION
THE MUSIC OF MOZART'S OPERAS constitutes an essential part of a voice student's education. Analysis of information regarding the singers for whom Mozart composed can help us better understand Mozart's intentions and better prepare us both to sing and teach this repertoire. This study investigates one particular Mozart singer, Francesco Benucci, the first Figaro.
Francesco Benucci was born in Livorno, Italy in 1745. He started his professional singing career at age twenty-three, but he did not perform steadily until 1777, when he was engaged to sing in Venice, Milan, and other opera houses in Italy.1 In 1783, at age thirty-eight, Benucci was hired to sing in Vienna by Emperor Joseph II of Austria. In Vienna, Benucci performed thirteen roles, including Bartolo in Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Blasio in Salieri's La scuola de' gelosi, Tita in Martin y Soler's Una cosa rara, and Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte. As the primo buffo bass in Vienna during the 1780s, Benucci was influential in the creation of four Mozart opera roles.2 This study examines his role in the creation of Figaro from Le nozze di Figaro.
Daniel Heartz suggests that Benucci was "the greatest basso buffo of his generation . . . if a single resource had to be named as the strength that emboldened Mozart to conceive of writing an opera on the scandalous Figaro play, we suggest it was Benucci."3 Expectations of Benucci's vocal skill were much lower than those of singers who played serious characters. The definition of "basso buffo" in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera reads:
Italian term for a 'comic bass' voice, the type principally used for comic roles in eighteenth century opera. Dr. Bartolo in the Figaro operas of Mozart and Rossini is typical of the continuing tradition, both as character, ridiculous in pretensions and sense of outrage when not satisfied, and in the writing for voice which, while requiring no great skill in bel canto, asks for effective volume and proficiency in patter song. Mozart's Figaro (baritone or bass-baritone) and Leporello are further classic examples.4
Considering the buffo bass was expected to be a singer who possessed a strong voice but had "no great skill in bel canto," it seems reasonable that if we prove Benucci...