Tenducci: The castrated singer who spent time in a Cork jail after a secret love affair
Tenducci
The Trials of Tenducci is the intriguing title of a new release by the Irish Baroque Orchestra. Peter Whelan directs and mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught sings the greatest hits of the 18th century singing sensation, Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci. Castrated as a boy in a Tuscan hill town to preserve his beautiful voice, his career flourished in Italy and England before he was attracted to the prosperous and cosmopolitan musical scene in Dublin.
In true rock star fashion, his notoriety was cemented by a sex scandal. The swashbuckling story of his elopement with the teenage daughter of a Limerick barrister, his arrest and trial in Cork has all the elements of a juicy historical novel. It is all grist to the mill of Peter Whelan, director of the IBO who is on a mission to reconnect Irish audiences with the rich heritage of 18th century music-making in Ireland. The recording features orchestral music, songs and arias associated with Tenducci and which were favourites of Irish audiences of that time.
While the strikingly tall Tenducci was a wow (long limbs and an enlarged ribcage were often other effects of the castration), delighting his well-heeled audience in venues like Smock Alley in Dublin and the Assembly Rooms in Cork, he encountered the full gamut of Irish society when he ended up in a Cork prison.
The Maunsells, a powerful gentry family were delighted when the celebrated star was prepared to give their 14-year-old daughter singing lessons in their Dublin townhouse. Thomas surely imagined that his daughter, Dorothea was safe with an Italian eunuch. He was furious when the couple eloped and were secretly married in Cork where Tenducci was to perform at the Theatre Royal, a 2,000-seat theatre built on the site of what is now the city’s GPO.
By coincidence, Thomas Maunsell had court duties in the city at the same period. While Tenducci was on the platform, Dorothea was abducted and dragged home in disgrace. Tenducci was arrested and thrown in Cork gaol. After dramatic plot turns, Dorothea bailed her new husband out with help from music-loving Quakers. The couple left Ireland for London where both continued to perform, although the marriage eventually broke up. In a coda to the remarkable tale, the legendary lothario, Casanova, wrote of his surprise at meeting the happy couple at Covent Garden and learning that they had two children. It isn't revealed how the Cork girl had become pregnant.
Whelan has based his selection on Tenducci’s musical connections and the songs he performed at his Irish concerts. “I came across one of Tenducci’s concert programmes in Susan O Regan’s book, Music and Society in Cork. It is very interesting to see what audiences were listening to at that time. European composers working in Dublin mixed the latest continental music with arrangements of Irish and Scottish traditional melodies.”
The recording opens with a ‘Symphony’ by Pierre van Maldere, a Belgian violinist who Tenducci met in Dublin. “Tommaso Giordano was another well-known composer based in Dublin. His most popular aria, Caro Mio Ben features along with a medley of Irish tunes that includes the Rakes of Mallow.” Another Irish tune, Gramachree Molly turns up as a finale in an oboe concerto by Johann Christian Fischer, who was part of Tenducci’s circle in London. Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian was a close friend.
Mozart wrote a work for Tenducci which unfortunately is lost. Exsultate Jubilate written for another castrato is included as a substitute. “Tenducci was famous for his ability to sing rapid semiquaver passages but Irish audiences responded most to the way he could deliver a simple tune. His lament, ‘Water Parted from the Sea’ from an opera by Thomas Arne was so popular that it was parodied by street urchins in Dublin”, a fact referenced by Joyce in Finnegan’s Wake.
While modern musicians go to considerable lengths in the pursuit of historically informed period performance, the authentic castrato voice is strictly an 18th century phenomenon. The options were to use a countertenor- a singer who develops his falsetto voice- or a mezzo-soprano.
“Neither is perfect. There were high and low castratos. They tended to be long bodied and could hold their breath for much longer. Counter tenors can sound other-worldly- somewhat disconnected. Tanducci was an extremely charismatic personality. Tara is a wonderful singer on every level, but she’s got that X factor. She can connect with an audience and hold them in the palm of her hand. That for me was what Tanducci was mostly about and Tara is a perfect match.”
- The Trials of Tenducci- A Castrato in Ireland is released on March 13
