Senesino

Born Francesco Bernardi in Siena, the singer who would become known as Senesino was a force of nature. His voice, preserved for the stage through the then-accepted practice of castration, was described as powerful, clear, and capable of extraordinary agility. His career, however, was built on more than vocal prowess; he possessed a towering ego and a temper to match, frequently clashing with composers and impresarios. His most fruitful, if fractious, partnership was with George Frideric Handel in London, for whom he created many of the great heroic roles in operas like 'Giulio Cesare' and 'Orlando.' Offstage, his life was equally dramatic, embroiled in a public scandal with soprano Anastasia Robinson that became fodder for satirists and spawned a series of anonymous, salacious poems. Senesino's legacy is that of the original divo, a performer whose artistic brilliance was inseparable from his formidable personality, setting the template for the operatic star system.