Alessandro Scarlatti, Giulia Zuffi, and the donnesca voce in La Psiche

This essay draws our attention to Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Psiche, the second opera produced in Naples with Scarlatti’s music during the tenure of the opera-loving Spanish viceroy, Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, VII marquis del Carpio. Fresh archival research allows us to understand the opera’s preparation and delayed premiere, and identify the extant arias. A critique that exposes long-standing assumptions concerning Giulia Francesca Zuffi, the singer for whom the title role was composed, may inform our understanding of Scarlatti’s compositional choices and dramaturgy. The concept of donnesca voce proves useful in sketching a preliminary vocal portrait of Zuffi drawn from her surviving arias, previous roles, and scenes from the De Totis libretto for La Psiche.