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An Innocent Abroad? Caterina Galli's Finances in New Handel Documents.

Cheryll Duncan and David Mateer:

Statement on Co-authorship:

The authors had worked together on searching legal records in The National Archives for some time before the Galli lawsuit was discovered, and because of its significance the decision was taken to publish the findings jointly. They shared the initial workload of transcribing the sources: as Exchequer bills are exceptionally large documents, awkward to handle and impossible to photograph, it is helpful for one person to read while the other records the information. Regarding the distribution of labour then researched and written up, Mateer was responsible for ‘The Legal Proceedings’ (pp. 500-507), a contribution of 25% to the total article, and Duncan for the remainder.

The authors’ discovery of a lawsuit involving one of Handel’s leading oratorio singers, Caterina Galli, led to a trail of sixteen separate documents totalling 33,686 words when transcribed. Galli’s bill of complaint, filed in 1753, sought an injunction to restrain two of her servants from suing her over a dishonoured note for £100; out of this seemingly inconsequential domestic dispute emerges a richly detailed picture of the singer’s lifestyle. Most of this material is entirely new, and therefore represents a substantial expansion of Galli’s biography, casting light on her alleged extravagance and financial difficulties in London, her peripatetic lifestyle, and the probable reason why she returned to the continent in 1754. Galli’s bill and interrogatories mention several significant patrons of the London music scene, and the defence’s case is supported by a series of signed depositions, including one from John Christopher Smith the elder, Handel’s secretary and principal copyist. Perhaps of greatest interest is the schedule to the bill, which lists Galli’s singing engagements for 1744-48 and the payments she received – information that is exceptionally rare for the 1740s. In critically assessing this evidence, the authors suggest that although the fees she claims to have received can be shown to be accurate, many of the engagements cannot. This study provides a clear account of what it was like to be a female singer in eighteenth-century London, particularly one who never quite made it to the top of her profession. In attempting to ingratiate herself with the wealthy élite in the hope of attracting patrons and securing future engagements she soon got into debt and had to flee the country.