tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6705638937146105675.post5052880201617172165..comments2024-02-25T13:32:36.366+01:00Comments on Michael Lorenz: The Will of Vittoria Tesi TramontiniMichael Lorenzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04248014539227254368noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6705638937146105675.post-6567129883295491032016-05-11T10:17:47.367+02:002016-05-11T10:17:47.367+02:00Thank you, Dr Lorenz. That was absolutely fascinat...Thank you, Dr Lorenz. That was absolutely fascinating. I have long wondered about Mme Tesi and whether the portrait Ditters painted of her was really accurate. It seemed a bit too pat for me and my impression of the composer was that he was something of a credulous "Schwaetzer" - see his anecdotes about Nicolini and Quadagni. Carl Krebs calls him a "consummate socialite who inwardly cherished life's trivialities" (my translation). Other observers of Mme Tesi were rather less starry-eyed about her than Ditters. A French source from 1773 says she had "une voix ingrate...elle fit souvent verser des larmes. C'est peut-etre la premiere actrice qui ait recite bien en chantant mal".The story about her liaison with Tramontini in what the Germans call a "Josephsehe" (marriage blanc) is also a bit suspect because another of my sources claims she squandered her fortune on a lover called Casnedi. And what was the source of her wealth if, as Ditters claimed, it amounted to 300,000 Gulden? After all, as you yourself have noted, Empress Maria Theresa paid only 400,000 Gulden to purchase Schloss Hof from Prince Eugen's niece.(Although she added enormous value to it). Incidentally, I discussed this price with the guide at Schloss Hof on a recent visit and he reckoned the Empress got an out-and-out bargain! The subsequent information you unearthed about the couple and their properties and subsequent deaths was most interesting and a tribute to your careful and painstaking work among the archives which has enriched us all. I have recently updated Coleridge's 1896 version of Ditters' memoirs, adding the bits he omitted and large parts of chapter 6 so your research has been invaluable. Vielen Dank.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17144835178066907137noreply@blogger.com