Margherita de L'Epine

Margherita de L'Epine (also Francesa Margherita de'Lepine: b circa 1680, d London 8 August 1746) was an Italian soprano of the Baroque era. She was among the most popular and successful of London's female singers in the years just before and after Italian opera became introduced to the city. Today, she is best remembered for her performances in the operas of George Frideric Handel, and her longstanding association with the composer Johann Pepusch, whom it seems she married around 1718.

Early career and work in London

After performing at Venice between 1698–1700, de L'Epine arrived at London in 1702, as the mistress of Jakob Greber,^[1] although rumours of an affair (1703) with Daniel Finch, the Earl of Nottingham, indicate that she did not remain exclusive in her affections for very long. In these early London years she danced as well as sang, performing at Drury Lane from 1704–1708, and then at the Queen's Theatre from 1708-1714. Her repertoire initially consisted of songs and cantatas by such diverse composers as Henry Purcell and Alessandro Scarlatti, but from 1706 she starred in such Italian operas as began to appear on London stages at this time, the most popular being Giovanni Bononcini's Camilla, in which she replaced Catherine Tofts at the fourth performance, singing the role of the heroine.^[2]

Handel and Pepusch

Retirement, occasional appearances, and legacy

Notes

1. ^ Poet laureate Nicholas Rowe satirized her as "base Greber's Peg" - quoted in Grove.
2. ^ Grove

References

• Winton Dean: "de l'Epine, Margherita", Grove Music Online ed L. Macy (Accessed 9 March 2011), grovemusic.com, subscription access.
• Richard Leppert (1986). "Imagery, Musical Confrontation and Cultural Difference in Early 18th-Century London". Early Music (Oxford University press) 14 (3): 323–345. JSTOR 3127106. 
• Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume (1983). "New Light on Handel and Royal Academy of Music in 1720". Theatre Journal (Johns Hopkins University Press) 35 (2): 149–167. JSTOR 3207146. 
• Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume (1993). "Opera Salaries in Eighteenth-Century London". Journal of the American Musicological Society (University of California Press) 46 (1): 26–83. JSTOR 831805. 

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