benefit, in 1733, the pit was filled at four o'clock, and the stage was covered with beauty and fashion; scenery was therefore dispensed with, the gilt leather hangings used at ridottos being substituted. Many of the songs in the opera were new; and that which preceded the chorus, being composed by Farinelli, was vehemently encored, though the chorus was over, and the musicians had quitted the orchestra.
In October, 1734, Handel changed to Lincoln's Inn Fields, while the opposition came to the Haymarket, and inaugurated the season with the opera of Artaxerxes, cast in a most powerful manner, Arbaces being performed by Farinelli, Artabanes by Senesino, Mandane by Cuzzoni. Until Farinelli arrived in England, Senesino had never had an opportunity of hearing him, and on the first occasion on which they sang together, Senesino filled the part of a furious tyrant, and Farinelli that of an unfortunate hero in chains; but in the course of the very first song, the latter so softened the heart of the enraged despot, that Senesino, forgetting his assumed character, ran to Farinelli and embraced him. According to Dibdin, Farinelli, now about thirty years old, was "as tall as a giant and as thin as a shadow; therefore, if he had grace, it could be only of a sort to be envied by a penguin or a spider." At the end of this season, Senesino, probably irritated at being thrown into the shade by the splendor of Farinelli's celebrity, retired to Sienna, his native place; and, having acquired a sum of £15,000, built a house, which he afterward bequeathed, with his fortune, to his relations.
After lingering some time, the rival Operas, from various causes, were broken up, and the singers were dispersed. Cuzzoni went again on the Continent.[1] In the London Daily Post of September 7, 1741, there appeared a startling piece of intelligence: "We hear from Italy that the famous singer, Mrs. C-z-ni, is under sentence of death, to be beheaded for poisoning her husband." The sentence, if ever pronounced, was never put into execution. Seven years after this, in 1749, she appeared for the third and last time in England, when she took a benefit concert, on the 18th of May, at the little theatre in the Haymarket, at which Felice Giardini, who afterward became manager of the Opera, made his first appearance in this
- ↑ It is not quite certain whether it was during her first or second visit that she married Sandoni.
