Word: cuzzoni
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...life, Handel (who became an English subject) turned out 39 Italianate operas, which shaped English operatic style for a generation, and almost singlehanded gave a new, dramatic shape to oratorio style. A shrewd businessman, he combed Italy for singers, scored such a success with famed Soprano Francesca Cuzzoni -described by one listener as having "a nest of nightingales in her belly"-that she sold out a benefit performance of his Ottone at a top of ?50 a seat...
...time, Londoners were far more interested in the caperings of Handel's two leading prima donnas, Faustina and Cuzzoni, than in his music. Almost nightly at the opera house, heads were bashed, windows smashed. The cheers & jeers drowned out Handel's arias, while the two "fighting cats" scratched at each other's eyes and pulled at each other's hair...
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