View source for Diana Vico

{{Short description|Italian opera singer}}
[[File:Diana Vico (Ricci).jpg|thumb|Caricature of Diana Vico by [[Antonio Maria Zanetti]]]]
'''Diana Vico''' was an 18th-century Italian [[contralto]] who had an active performance career in Europe from 1707 through 1732.<ref name="BDA">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TGgS9VxWJ0oC&dq=Diana+Vico&pg=PA155|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 |volume=15|page=155|chapter=Vico, Diana|editor1=Philip H. Highfill |editor2=Kalman A. Burnim |editor3=Edward A. Langhans|year=1993|publisher=[[Southern Illinois University Press]]}}</ref> Performing primarily in [[opera]]s, she sang in [[opera house]]s in Italy, Germany, and England.<ref name="Grove"/> She specialized in portraying male characters on stage, and appeared in the world premieres of operas by prominent composers of the [[Baroque music|Baroque period]], including works by [[Antonio Vivaldi]] and [[George Frideric Handel]] among others.<ref name="BDA"/>
==Life and career==
Born in Venice sometime in the latter part of the 17th century, the years of Diana Vico's birth and death are not known.<ref name="BDA"/><ref name="Grove">{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Dean|first1=Winton|title=Vico, Diana |entry=Vico, Diana|encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]]|year=2001|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.29296}}</ref> She began performing professionally as an opera singer in Venice in 1707; making her debut in {{ill|Girolamo Polani|ca}}’s ''Vindice la pazzia della vendetta''.<ref name="BDA"/><ref name="Grove"/> She performed in operas periodically in her native city for the next 19 years, and by 1726 had performed 26 roles on the Venetian opera stage in works by such composers as [[Francesco Gasparini]], [[Antonio Lotti]], [[Giuseppe Maria Orlandini]], [[Carlo Francesco Pollarolo]], [[Antonio Pollarolo]], and [[Giovanni Porta]].<ref name="BDA"/><ref name="Grove"/> Her final opera performance in Venice was in [[Nicola Porpora]]’s ''Meride e Selinunte''.<ref name="Grove"/>
Other Italian cities in which Vico appeared in operas included [[Verona]](1708), [[Ferrara]] (1711), [[Padua]] (1712 and 1718), [[Mantua]] (1714), [[Bologna]] (1718 and 1721), [[Genoa]] (1718 and 1724), [[Florence]] (1718–19), [[Turin]] (1719), [[Reggio nell’Emilia]] (1718–20), [[Modena]] (1720) and [[Milan]] (1720, 1722, 1726, 1729 and 1732).<ref name="Grove"/> She notably created the title role of [[Otho|Ottone]] in the world premiere of [[Antonio Vivaldi]]’s ''[[Ottone in villa]]'' at the Teatro delle Grazie in Vicenza on 17 May 1713.<ref>{{cite book|last=Strohm|first=Reinhard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qw8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA141|title=Essays on Handel and Italian opera|publisher=Cambridge University Press Archive|year=1985|isbn=0-521-26428-6|page=141}}</ref> From 1724 through 1726, she was primarily active as an opera singer in [[Naples]]; appearing in nine operas.<ref name="BDA"/><ref name="Grove"/>
Outside of Italy, Vico was a resident artist of the [[Her Majesty's Theatre|King's Theatre]] in London from 1714 to 1716.<ref name="Grove"/> She made her debut there in the [[pastiche]] ''Ernelinda''. She had success in several operas by [[George Frideric Handel]], including portraying the title role in a revival of ''[[Rinaldo (opera)|Rinaldo]]'' (1714) and creating the role of Dardano in the world premiere of ''[[Amadigi di Gaula]]'' (1715).<ref name="BDA"/><ref name="Grove"/> Her penchant for crossing and challenging gender lines both on and off stage, led the London impresario [[Owen Swiny]] to dismiss her as "some He-she-thing or other".<ref name="Grove"/> She was engaged by [[Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria]] for performances at the Bavarian court in 1720, and returned frequently to Munich over the next decade.<ref name="Grove"/>
After performances in Milan in 1732, there is no further known record of her activities and whereabouts.<ref name="Grove"/>
==References==
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[[Category:17th-century births]]
[[Category:18th-century deaths]]
[[Category:Italian operatic contraltos]]