The Hasses were on cordial terms with the Bachs and visited them, in turn, in Leipzig on a number of occasions, so it's likely that Faustina also sang with Bach's Collegium musicum. He's known to have said to his son Wilhelm Friedemann, who lived in Dresden, "Let's go hear the lovely Dresden songstress again!" One year later, she sang at the triumphant premiere of Hasse's opera "Cleofide." Faustina Bordoni-Hasse (1697-1781) Image: Bachhaus Eisenachīach was in the audience - and not for the last time. In 1730, she married the composer Johann Adolf Hasse and followed him to the opera company at the court of King Augustus the Strong in Dresden. Coming from Italy, mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni was celebrated across the continent. George Frideric Handel tailor-made the star role in five of his operas for Europe's best-paid female singer. Ziegler tirelessly rallied against that situation all her life, writing, "If a woman, from youth on, dedicates herself to the same scholarship, why should she not reap the rewards of it, like the male of the species does?" She's expected to be careful, to keep still in the community. Ziegler's bitter response: "A woman is not allowed to show her wit. The proper place for women was a matter of dispute even Bach is said to have written the melody to a song ridiculing female students. In those days, a female poet was certainly an anomaly. Ziegler wrote the texts to nine of Bach's church cantatas. In Leipzig, Christiane Mariane von Ziegler founded one of Germany's first literary-musical salons, a "meeting place for citizens, scholars and artists." Christiane Mariane von Ziegler (1695-1760) Image: Bachhaus Eisenachīach and his wife were presumably seen there often. She wrote religious verse and witty, spirited essays - and had musical training as well. The daughter of a Leipzig mayor became a poet of imperial recognition. To play them, she also must have been proficient on the harpsichord. Generations of piano students are familiar with the "Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach," a collection of easy to difficult pieces for keyboard instruments. But it's believed that she sung with Bach's amateur orchestra, the Collegium musicum, made up mainly of students.Īfter Bach's death, four of his sons were famous and enjoyed some degree of prosperity, but all four neglected their mother or stepmother: Anna Magdalena Bach died in poverty. She was not allowed to perform in church in Leipzig - that was the privilege of men and boys. She also copied music for her husband - although when she would have found time for that remains a mystery. Anna Magdalena Bach (1701-1760) Image: Bachhaus Eisenach At age 20, she abandoned her own career to bear him 13 children, organize a busy household filled with students and a constant stream of visitors and otherwise free him from all sorts of petty tasks. Yet when he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, she was an independent, well-paid chamber singer. That also goes for Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena. During Johann Sebastian Bach's lifetime (1685-1750), women in Baroque Europe were often seen as simply being their husbands' helpers.
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