Anna Lucia de Amicis : Life and career Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anna Lucia de Amicis

Italian soprano

Anna Lucia de Amicis (c. 1745–1816) was an Italian soprano.^[1]

Life and career

The daughter of tenor Domenico de Amicis and soprano Rosalba Baldacci, Anna Lucia de Amicis was born in Naples, Italy in c.1745. She had her initial vocal training from her parents and later studied with Vittoria Tesi. She made her professional opera debut in Pisa in the Spring of 1754 at the age of nine in Giacomo Cordella’s Il cicisbeo impertinente. She appeared in comic operas with her parents in Florence (1754) and Bologna (1755), and then the family toured in concerts and operas throughout Europe to Lyon (1756–7), Paris (1758), Brussels (1759), Antwerp (1759), Ghent (1760), The Hague (1760), Amsterdam (1761), Dublin (1761–2), and London (1762–3).^[1]

She appeared in J. C. Bach's Orione in London, and went on to sing as prima donna in Dublin,^[2] Innsbruck and Naples. In Innsbruck she sang the female title role in Romolo ed Ersilia, the marriage celebration opera written by Johann Adolf Hasse for the marriage of Leopold of Habsburg and Spanish Infanta Maria Ludovica. For this role she gained a noted reputation. She was a favourite of both W. A. Mozart and his father, Leopold, and created the role of Giunia in Lucio Silla (Milan 1772).^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Saskia Willaert (2001). "De Amicis [De Amicis-Buonsollazzi], Anna Lucia". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07330.
^ T. J. Walsh, Opera in Dublin, 1705–1797: The Social Scene (1973): "The de Amicis family included the father, Domenico, a bass, Maria Anna, his daughter and Gaetano, his son, both of whom sang small roles. The star of the company was a second daughter, Anna Lucia, a soprano, who was born about 1740."
^ The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia, p. 6. Cliff Eisen, Simon P. Keefe - 2006 Mozart wrote to his sister on 29 May 1770 that 'De Amicis sings incomparably' and Leopold Mozart wrote to his wife on 26 December 1772 that 'She sings and acts like an angel'.