Thomas Steavens (c.1718–1759). Angelo Cori (fl. 1720s–1750s)...

Thomas Steavens (c.1718–1759). Angelo Cori (fl. 1720s–1750s) Opera and court life in Frederick the Great's Berlin: ten autograph letters signed, 1748–1750. Ten autograph letters signed "A. Cori" or "Angelo Cori," together 21 manuscript pages, principally written from Berlin upon folded bifolia, several retaining integral address leaves and contemporary dockets. Old folds, occasional toning, spotting and minor marginal splitting; several address leaves with losses caused by opening and seal removal, occasionally substantial, but the principal texts generally well preserved and clearly legible. Berlin, 16 October 1748, pp.2; 19 November 1748, pp.2; 13 December 1748, pp.3; 14 January 1749, pp.2, with integral address leaf; 25 January 1749, pp.3; 18 March 1749, p.1, with integral address leaf; 20 May 1749, pp.3; 28 June 1749, p.1; and two undated letters, [Berlin], pp.2 each, docketed 8 June 1749 and 26 August 1750 respectively. (10) A substantial and highly personal correspondence providing unusually immediate accounts of the operatic and social life surrounding the court of Frederick the Great. Cori reports upon productions of Cinna and Iphigenia, praising the latter's music, scenery and costumes: "I never heard finer musick; the scenes are the most magnificent, and the cloaths the most rich." He describes Hasse's opera as the finest he had ever witnessed and declares that Graun "who composed the musick has excelled all the musick in the world." Further letters record preparations for Orlando Furioso, performances at Potsdam, ridotti and masked balls, including one at the Queen Mother's attended by a gentleman disguised as a Capuchin friar with an exceptionally long beard. Cori also discusses the celebrated singers Amorevoli and Monticelli and lists the principal Venetian theatres then presenting operas and comedies. The letter docketed 26 August 1750 gives an especially vivid account of forthcoming royal festivities. Cori describes operas including Iphigenia and Phaëton, fireworks, ridotti and a grand carousel divided into Roman, Carthaginian, Greek and Persian quadrilles, with elaborate decorations by the theatrical architect Giuseppe Galli Bibiena; he estimates the collective expense at 200,000 dollars. The same letter records Cori's illness and the theft at the Charlottenburg opera house of gold snuffboxes and jewels valued at almost 200 dollars. The correspondence extends beyond theatrical matters to provide an intimate picture of the Anglo-European society through which Steavens travelled. Cori writes of Lyttelton, Legge, Stanhope, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Prince Lobkowitz, Cagnoni and others; reports Lyttelton's hurried return to England for his Worcestershire election; discusses Legge's departure from Berlin and possible diplomatic appointment; and repeatedly expresses concern for Steavens's health and reputation. Two unusually frank letters warn him against reported extravagance, women and the influence of his valet, while other passages concern lost clothing, Brandenburg coins, illness, bereavement and the practical difficulties of Continental travel and correspondence. Angelo Cori (fl. 1720s–1750s) was an Italian poet, librettist and operatic adaptor. Active in London's Italian theatrical world during the 1720s and 1730s, he is credited with nine operatic adaptations produced between 1734 and 1737, including Metastasio's Adriano in Siria for Francesco Maria Veracini. He later settled in Berlin and became closely associated with the Italian opera maintained by Frederick the Great, subsequently versifying Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth's prose conception of Semiramide for its performance at Bayreuth in 1753. The present correspondence provides valuable biographical evidence for this otherwise poorly documented figure and a vivid contemporary account of music, theatre and court society in Frederick's Berlin. (Lowell Lindgren, 'Handel's London: Italian Musicians and Librettists,' in Donald Burrows, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Handel, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 78–91; Steffen Voss, 'Voltaire–Wilhelmine–Tagliazucchi: Zur Genese des Librettos von Carl Heinrich Grauns Dramma per musica Semiramide (Berlin 1754),' in Thomas Betzwieser, ed., Opernkonzeptionen zwischen Berlin und Bayreuth, Würzburg, 2016, pp. 71–87.)

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