Catherine Tofts

Catherine Tofts or Katherine Tofts (died 1756) was the first English singer who sang Italian opera in England.[1]

Catherine Tofts (in white), Margherita de l'Épine (with a red muff) and some opera musicians
(Rehearsal of an opera, by Marco Ricci, ca. 1709).

Life

About 1704, the competition between Tofts and Margherita de l'Épine was in earnest. Perhaps to illustrate the famed rivalry, Marco Ricci painted L'Épine with her back to Tofts, in the composition Rehearsal of an opera (c.1709) .[2]

Jonathon Swift has a short poem about Mrs Tofts in his "works" which talks of her beauty. It is thought however that the verse was written by Alexander Pope.[3]

Tofts quit the stage in 1709 and married Joseph Smith, English consul at Venice.[1] They had a son but he died as when still a child and Catherine became mentally ill. She died in 1756 and her husband married again the following year.[4]

References
  1. Grove, George, ed. https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofmusi04grovuoft#page/n145/mode/2up A dictionary of music and musicians (1450-1889) (1900) p. 131, retrieved May 2015
  2. Kuhlman, Erika A. A to Z of Women in World History. "Margherita de L'Epine", pp. 157-159.
  3. The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 17/On Mrs. Tofts
  4. Stuart L. Morrison, ‘Smith, Joseph (1673/4?–1770)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 9 May 2015

See also
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