‘Sense and Significancy’: perceptions and images of Senesino in London, 1720–1736

Francesco Bernardi (1686–1758) was choirboy at Siena cathedral when he was castrated at the age of thirteen. Nicknamed ‘the little Sienese’, his operatic career took him to Venice, Vicenza, Bologna, Genoa, Naples and Dresden before he was headhunted for the Royal Academy of Music.1 As shown in the calendar of Senesino’s London stage appearances (see Appendix), he was employed in the British capital city for fourteen seasons – all but one of them at the King’s Theatre, and excluding a two-year break between summer 1728 and his return in summer 1730.