Early Career
Cuzzoni was born in Parma. Her father, Angelo, was a professional violinist, and her singing teacher was Francesco Lanzi. She made her debut in her home city in 1714, singing in La virtù coronata, o Il Fernando by an unknown composer. In 1716-17 she sang at Bologna in operas by Bassani, Buini, Gasparini and Giuseppe Maria Orlandini. By the 1717-18 season she had been appointed virtuosa da camera ("chamber soloist") to Violante Beatrice, Grand Princess of Tuscany, performing at Florence, Siena, Genoa, Mantua, and Reggio nell'Emilia in operas by Orlandini and Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, and in Vivaldi's Scanderbeg . She also made her Venetian debut in 1718, singing the role of Dalinda in Pollarolo's Ariodante, in which, for the first time, she appeared on the same stage as Faustina Bordoni, later her great rival. They also sang together in Venice the following year in Michelangelo Gasparini's Il Lamano, and in Il pentimento generoso by Stefano Andrea Fiorè, in which the redoubtable duo were joined by the famous castrato Antonio Maria Bernacchi. Having appeared at Florence and Milan (1719), Bologna, Florence and Turin (1720), and Padua (1721), she returned to Venice for the season of 1721-22, singing in five operas, including Orlandini's Nerone: she sang Poppea, Faustina Octavia, while the fine contralto Diana Vico was Agrippina.
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