Diana Vico

Diana Vico was an Italian contralto born in Venice, active in opera during the first third of the eighteenth century, between 1707 and 1732 according to the surviving records. Her career, which extended across much of Italy and to London, reflects the mobility of singers of the period, who moved from one court or theatre to another as demand dictated.

She made her debut in her native city in 1707, in a work by Girolamo Polani, and returned to Venice in several subsequent seasons, taking part in some sixteen operas by composers such as Gasparini, Lotti, Pollarolo and Orlandini. She also performed in Verona, Ferrara, Padua, Vicenza, where she sang in an opera by Vivaldi, and Mantua. Between 1714 and 1716 she was a member of the company at the King's Theatre in London, where she performed roles in works by Handel and Alessandro Scarlatti. In Italy she worked steadily in Bologna, Genoa, Florence, Turin, Milan and Naples, and in 1720 she was engaged for Munich.

She is considered a specialist in male roles, which applied to all of her London roles. Her tessitura in Amadigi was limited, although the richness of the music written for her suggests that Handel valued her qualities. Her dismissal from London in 1726 was discourteous. Today she is remembered above all for documenting, through her career, the role of contraltos in baroque opera, and for a caricature held in the Cini collection in Venice.