Anastasia Robinson

Anastasia Robinson ( – April 1755), later known as Anastasia, Countess of Peterborough, was an English soprano, later contralto, of the Baroque era. As a performer, she is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang. She created roles in the world premieres of several of Handel's operas, including Zenobia in Radamisto (1720), Irene in Muzio Scevola (1721), Elmira in Floridante (1721), Matilda in Ottone (1723), Teodata in Flavio (1723), and Cornelia in Giulio Cesare (1724). Robinson's late career was overshadowed by a scandal in February 1724 involving the Italian castrato Senesino and Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough. Having secretly married the Earl in c. 1722-1723, Robinson was widely believed to be the Earl's mistress at the time of the scandal when she was in fact his wife. The scandal involved an altercation between Robinson and Senesino in which she accused the castrato of being too sexual in his acting towards her in their scenes together, and a subsequent altercation between the Earl and Senesino in which he defended the singer's honor. This event became the subject of gossip among the English public after the event was written about by the satirist Jonathan Swift. Swift's writing inspired a number of widely circulated misogynistic, sexually provocative and subversive epistles written about Robinson, Senesino, the Earl, and the castrato Farinelli between 1724 and 1736. These epistles have become the subject of study in the field of Restoration literature. Early life and initial career Robinson was the eldest daughter of Thomas Robinson, a portrait painter who worked for a time in Italy (where she is thought to have been born). Initially her musical talent was privately trained, and her first performances were at private society concerts at Golden Square, where her father owned a property. At these concerts she both sang and accompanied herself on the harpsichord. In the early 1710s her father's eyesight began to fail and Robinson, forced to earn a living for herself and her family, turned professional. Professional career Her association with Handel can be dated to 1714, when he wrote the solo soprano role in the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne for her. She joined his company early that year, making her debut in Creso, a pasticcio.