Ann Turner Robinson

Who is Ann Turner Robinson?

Ann Turner Robinson was an English soprano of the 18th century. She was the youngest daughter of William Turner, a composer and countertenor who was a contemporary of Henry Purcell, and is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.

Her first public performances were in 1718: in the April of that year she sang a cantata by Ariosti at the King's Theatre, and the year after she performed in a private concert, accompanied by Handel, as a replacement for Jane Barbier. The librettist John Hughes commented at the time that

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Evidently the concert did nothing to harm Handel's opinion of her, for in 1720 she performed in the first season of the Royal Academy, where she performed in Porta's Numitore, Domenico Scarlatti's Narciso, and, most famously, created the role of Polissena in Handel's Radamisto, a role that shows Handel's confidence in her abilities: the role calls for a range of e' to a'' and for some virtuosic excellence at a high tessitura.