“Figaro’s” Travesty Singer: Dorotea Bussani

Here is another lady whom history has not treated very kindly.  Bussani was hired to sing the “pants role” of Cherubino in “Le Nozze di Figaro” by her own husband, the stage manager and contractor Francesco Bussani. She was reportedly very pretty and possessed of a lovely voice, and was evidently quite willing to appear onstage in pantaloons.

Da Ponte wrote that he could not stand her, saying she was “vulgar and of little merit.” Stories surface about her inability to memorize her part and to improvise any embellishments in her second aria, “Voi, che sapete.” I don’t know how true these stories are, since Bussani was performing in an important city in an Imperial Theater with a hand-picked troupe of superstars who would not have tolerated such amateurish behavior.

In my book, “The Murder of Figaro,” I cut la Bussani a little break. Da Ponte has a serious crush on her. She shyly asks Mozart if she can add embellishments to her aria, and the composer encourages her not only to improvise at will, but to confess all sorts of things to him concerning the intrigues and murders and denunciations that are threatening to ruin his immortal opera. She has a lot to say.

“The Murder of Figaro” version of Bussani’s doings is as likely to have some truth in it as the official historic version. I chose to believe them, so I wrote them into the book.