Saporiti (real name, Codecasa), Teresa

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Saporiti (real name, Codecasa), Teresa

Saporiti (real name, Codecasa), Teresa, Italian soprano; b. c. 1763; d. Milan, March 17, 1869. She joined Pasquale Bondini’s Italian company in 1782 and appeared with it in Leipzig, Dresden, and Prague, often being obliged to appear in male costume and take on castrati roles. The success of Bondini’s production of Le nozze di Figaro in Prague in 1786 prompted him to request an opera from Mozart for the following year; the part of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni was written with Saporiti’s voice in mind: the taxing coloratura in her aria in the second act indicates that Mozart had a high opinion of her ability. She then appeared in Venice (1788–89) and at Milan’s La Scala (1789); later in Bologna, Parma, and Modena. By 1795 she was prima buffa assoluta in Gennaro Astarita’s company in St. Petersburg; sang in Astarita’s own comic operas, as well as in revivals of Cimarosa’s Italiana in Londra and Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She then fell into total oblivion. If the dates of her life can be verified, she lived to about the age of 105.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire