Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rauzzini, Venanzio
RAUZZINI, VENANZIO (1747–1810), singer, musical composer, and teacher, was born in 1747 at Rome, where he studied music under a member of the papal choir. At the age of eighteen he made his operatic début at the Teatro della Valle in Rome, in a female part, women being at that time prohibited from acting on the Roman stage. In 1767 he appeared in Vienna, and subsequently was engaged for the elector of Bavaria's Italian opera at Munich, where he remained seven years, and produced four operas. He left owing to the discovery of an intrigue with a lady of the court (Kelly, Reminiscences, i. 10). Coming to England, he appeared in November 1774 in Corri's opera, ‘Alessandro nell' Indie.’ After three years' highly successful operatic career, Rauzzini retired in order to devote himself to teaching. In 1787 he produced his opera, ‘La Vestale,’ at the King's Theatre, London, but its total failure led him to quit London and settle in Bath, where he passed the remainder of his days, teaching and conducting concerts. He died in Bath, 8 April 1810, and was buried in the abbey church, Braham being a chief mourner. In 1811 Selina Storace and Braham erected a tablet to his memory in Bath Abbey.
Burney declares Rauzzini to have been an excellent musician, both as singer and composer. His voice (tenor) was sweet, clear, flexible, and extensive; he played the harpsichord neatly. His ‘taste, fancy, and delicacy, together with his beautiful person and spirited and intelligent manner of acting, gained him general approbation’ (cf. Burney, History, iv. 501, 527). Among his pupils were Braham and Incledon.
Rauzzini's operas were: ‘Piramo e Tisbe’ (1769), in which he took Piramo, ‘L'Ali d'Amore’ (1770), ‘L'Eroe cinese’ (1770), ‘Astarto’ (1772), all played at Munich; ‘La Regina di Golconda’ (1775), ‘Armida’ (1778), ‘Creusa in Delfo’ (1782), ‘La Vestale’ (1787), produced in London. Besides he wrote a pianoforte quartett, op. 1 (Offenbach, n.d.); string quartetts opp. 2, 5, 7 (London); sonatas for violin and pianoforte; a requiem mass; and Italian and English songs, arias, exercises, and solfeggi.
Matteo Rauzzini (1754–1791), brother of the foregoing, was also a singer. He was born in Rome in 1754, and came to England with Venanzio. He settled in Dublin as a professor of singing, and produced there an opera, ‘Il Re pastore,’ in 1784. He died in Dublin, 1791.
[Hogarth's Memoirs of the Music Drama, ii. 174; Harmonicon, 1831–2, pp. 132, 147; Parke's Musical Memoirs, i. 245–6, 306; Kelly's Reminiscences, i. 9, ii. 106; Burney's Journal of a Tour through Germany, &c.; Gent. Mag. 1810, ii. 397, 490; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, passim (in iv. 191 is an account of Haydn's composition of a round on the death of ‘Turk,’ Rauzzini's dog, at Rauzzini's house in Bath); Pohl's Haydn in London, p. 276.]