Nicolo Grimaldi

Who was Nicolo Grimaldi?

Nicola Francesco Leonardo Grimaldi was an Italian mezzo-soprano castrato who is best remembered today for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in two of whose early operas he sang. Grimaldi was usually known by his stage name of Nicolini.

Nicolini was born in Naples, where he made his operatic début in 1685. He also sang sacred music as a soprano in the Cathedral and Royal Chapel. Between 1697 and 1731 he sang many operatic roles at various Italian cities in works by composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Nicola Porpora, Leonardo Vinci, and Johann Adolf Hasse. Other composers who wrote major roles for him included Provenzale, Pollarolo, Ariosti, Lotti, Giovanni and Antonio Maria Bononcini, Caldara, Albinoni, Leo, and Riccardo Broschi. Of more than a hundred productions in which he took part, thirty-six were in Naples, thirty-four in Venice, and fifteen in London.

Nicolini first visited London in 1708, where his fine singing and critically renowned acting were crucial to the success of Italian opera, and, more specifically, opera seria in London.