About Me
I was born Anna Selina Storace on 27 October 1765 to Stefano and Elizabeth Storace (nee Trussler), in London, England. I was the youngest of two children, my older brother being Stephen. Papa, an Italian bass violinist, came to England to play in the London theater orchestras and found that he could make a good living there and stayed. He met my mother, who was the daughter of the proprietor of the Marylebone pleasure gardens, while playing in the orchestra there. Papa greatly admired Leopold Mozart and had read his treatise on the violin, (A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing), and so admired the education of the Mozart children that he decided to pattern my brother's and my educations on theirs.
A view of 18th century London, where I was born and spent most of my life and career.
I demonstrated prodigious talent in music and acting at the age of three, and by the age of eight I was singing publicly. Papa hired a voice teacher for me who was the famous castrato, Rauzzini. In the meantime my brother, Stephen was sent to Italy to study composition at a conservatory in Naples. A few years later, Papa, Mama and I joined him so that I could launch my singing career in Italy. It was during my run in Venice that I was approached by one Count Durazzo on behalf of His Majesty, Emperor Josef II to be hired as the prima buffa of the newly formed Italian Opera Company in Vienna. I was offered an unprecedented salary package including a luxurious apartment and a carriage, and I enthusiastically accepted. So at the tender age of seventeen, I was accompanied by my mother, (Papa had passed away only months earlier), on a trip to the Austrian capital. We arrived in January of 1783 and my first Viennese premiere on the Burgtheater stage was in Antonio Salieri's "La Scuola di Gelosi".
It wasn't long before I became the toast of Vienna and I very quickly caught the eye of the famous prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart was eager to exploit my talents, realizing that I could be a ticket to success with the Viennse public. In 1786, Mozart and the famous librettist, Lorenzo DaPonte collaborated to create a role designed specifically for me. Susanna, from Le Nozze di Fiagro was patterned off of my personality and created to fit me like a glove. On 1 May 1786, Figaro opened at the Burgtheater to rave reviews and became known as one of Mozart's best-known and most-loved operas.
Costume sketch featuring Francesco Benucci as Figaro and me as Susanna believed to have been sketched by Mozart.
Although I had a very successful career, my personal life was filled with ups and downs and many tragedies. In the spring of 1784 I was forced into an arranged marriage to the English violinist and Oxford professor, John Abraham Fisher, who was twenty years my senior. The marriage was arranged by my mother, who believed that it was the best way to assure my return to England. However, her plan backfired as Fisher was extremely cruel and beat me on a regular basis. When Emperor Josef got word of Fisher's brutality, he had Fisher expelled from the city. In October of that same year I announced to the Burgtheater management that I was with child (not Fisher's child as was assumed). In June of 1785, during the Viennese premiere of my brother's opera, Gli sposi malcontenti (The unhappy couple), only a few short weeks before the birth of the child, I collapsed on stage and had to be carried off. I was unable to return for four months. A few weeks after this incident, I gave birth to a daughter, but I was forced to relinquish her to a foundling home by my mother, where the child died only a month later.
Francesco Benucci, the original Figaro
It has been metioned by historians that I had many lovers, among them Francesco Benucci, who was the original Figaro, the composer Martin y'Solier, and even Emperor Josef himself. In truth, the previous two were indeed lovers, however, the Emperor and I had nothing more than a warm regard and respect for one another, he being my employer. There has been much talk over my relationship with Mozart and of a torrid affair that may have taken place on and off over the course of the latter part of 1785 through the beginning of 1787. I shall not venture to comment on that here, leaving it up to the reader to research and form his or her own opinions on the matter.
I left Vienna in February of 1787 to return to England to sing in operas composed by my brother specifically for me. I never returned to the Viennese stage, but instead, made a name for myself on the stages of London at the King's Theater and Drury Lane. My brother, Stephen became known as the father of English operetta and was revered years later by the likes of Gilbert and Sullivan, the famous 19th century theatrical team. Stephen died very tragically in 1795 at the age of 35 and I grieved his loss deeply. There was only one other man in my life who I loved more deeply than Stephen.
Autographed score of the aria "Ch'io mi scordi di te" composed for me by Mozart as a tender farewell gift and performed by Mozart and me at my farewell concert in Vienna, February 1787
Shortly after Stephen's death I took up with a Jewish tenor by the name of John Braham. Braham, who was eleven years my junior, and I embarked upon an extended tour of Europe, performing for the likes of Napoleon and his wife Josephine, as well as various heads of state and nobility. We traveled on to Vienna, Mozart long gone, and where I was virtually forgotten. I was thrilled when I met up with Joseph Haydn, who greeted me warmly and took me to the Viennese premiere of his oratorio, The Seasons, which I had premiered as the soprano soloist in London.
Upon our return to London in 1802 I gave birth to a son, William Spencer Harris Braham, whom we called Spencer. Shortly after Spencer's birth I retired from the stage and built a home in the country, just outside of London in Lambeth, on Herne Hill. The house was designed and built by my good friend, the famous English architect, John Soane, and was considered one of the most beautiful estates in the region at the time.
My commonlaw husband, the tenor, John Braham
It wasn't long after we moved into Herne Hill Cottage that Braham began to lose interest in his plump and aging commonlaw wife and took up with a much younger woman in London. It was in the summer of 1815 that we split up with one another, but not before Braham sued me for half of my estate. The court battle was long and publicly humiliating, and although Braham lost, I felt as if my reputation had been dragged through the sewer and it affected my health adveresely.In the early summer of 1817, while having dinner with my dearest and closest friend and collegue, Michael Kelly, I suffered the first of two strokes. I made a partial recovery, only to suffer a second stroke several weeks later. I died in my home on Herne Hill on 24 August 1817 with my mother, my son Spencer and my dearest friend, Michael Kelly by my side.
Spencer wrote months later to our good friend John Soane of a day just before my second stroke when I asked him to take a worn bundle of parchment letters, letters that I said were written to me by Mozart, and throw them on the fire. My reason for the request was because the words contained within the letters were "for my eyes only".
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Anna "Nancy" Storace
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