Christina Maria Avoglio

Christina Maria Avoglio, née Croumann or Graumann, was a German soprano active between 1727 and 1746. Her place of birth is not known with certainty; some sources place it in Mainz or Frankfurt. Her career is reconstructed mainly from librettos, letters and records of performances. She worked at courts and theatres in Central Europe, Russia, London and Ireland, and her name is linked to some of the most important composers of her time.

She made her debut in Brussels with Peruzzi's company between 1727 and 1728. In 1729 she sang in Hamburg, where she performed Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare and Rodelinda in Telemann's Flavius Bertaridus. That same year she was engaged by Fortunato Chelleri for the court at Kassel. The librettos of her two appearances at the Sporck Theatre in Prague, during the 1730-1731 season, show that she was still associated with the court of Frederick I of Sweden and Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. It is unclear, however, whether she or her husband, Giuseppe Avoglio, also a musician at Kassel, accompanied the chapel to Stockholm. In 1731 she moved with her husband to Russia, where she sang in the opera of Empress Anna Ivanovna in Moscow and St Petersburg until 1738.

Around 1740, after the failure of G. B. Pescetti's opera venture in London, she became closely associated with Handel. A letter from him, dated 29 December 1741 in Dublin, mentions her as a singer who had accompanied him from London and who was extraordinarily well liked. She was the leading soprano of the Irish season and sang the principal soprano part at the premiere of Messiah on 13 April 1742. She later joined his company for the oratorio seasons at Covent Garden in 1743 and 1744, where she created the role of the Israelite woman in Samson and took part in the premiere of Semele. In 1744 she created the role of Hecate in Samuel Howard's The Amorous Goddess at Drury Lane.

Her legacy rests above all on her role in the first performances of Handel's works. The parts he wrote for her in 1742-1743 call for a moderate tessitura, from D3 to A5, but also for considerable vocal flexibility.