? - fl 1723–42 - ?

Italian singer and composer.
A singer of Venetian arie di battello (simple strophic songs sung in gondolas), Rosanna Scalfi was taken, according to legend, as a singing pupil by the nobleman Benedetto Marcello in about 1723.
It is said that he was enchanted with her voice, which he heard from his window overlooking the Grand Canal.
On 20 May 1728 the two were secretly wed in a religious ceremony performed by the patriarch of Venice, but because no civil ceremony was ever conducted, the marriage was considered null by the state.
This caused Rosanna, who was named the primary beneficiary of Benedetto’s estate when he died in 1739, to live her later years in destitution.
On 1 February 1742, she filed suit against Benedetto’s brother Alessandro for financial support.
That same year, she appeared as Arbace in Paganelli’s Artaserse at S Salvatore during the Ascension season.
She composed a set of 12 cantatas for alto and basso continuo.
Some of the texts are also credited to her.
They are far simpler than Benedetto Marcello’s numerous cantatas but show a basic mastery of compositional technique.
Some of his dramatic cantatas with marked shifts of register appear to have been written for her.
She is also known to have participated in private performances of Marcello’s psalm settings.

Bibliography:

E. Choron and F.J.M. Fayolle: Dictionnaire historique des musiciens
J. Fétis: Biographie universelle des musiciens
G. Schilling: Encyclopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften, oder Universal-Lexicon der Tonkunst
C. Schmidl: Dizionario universale dei musicisti
E. Selfridge-Field : The Music of Benedetto and Alessandro Marcello: a Thematic Catalogue with Commentary on the Composers, Repertory and Sources (Oxford, 1990)
Grove Music Online: www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Author:

Eleanor Selfridge-Field