The great singer, Cuzzoni, refused to sing an air of his the way he wished it. He seized her, and, dragging her to a window, threatened to throw her out, thundering, “I always knew you were a devil, but I’ll show you that I am Beelzebub, the prince of devils.”
Hughes, Rupert (2004) The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, vol. I. Project Guttenburg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10957. Accessed 24 May 2007.
Handel and the soprano
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Elgar on his Violin Concerto
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