Beginnings

Venanzio Rauzzini was born in Camerino on December 18, 1746, and baptized the following day. Camerino is about about forty miles from Ancona in the Roman Apennines, and was then subject to the Roman pontiff. There are few surviving details of Rauzzini's early life, although he may have come from a musical family. His younger brother, Matteo (1754–91), was also given a musical education which permitted him to pursue a career as singer, composer, and teacher. Whether or not Matteo was also a castrato has not been proven. If he was, it demonstrates that the operation alone did not ensure success as a singer. That said, this region had produced many great castrato singers. Marco Beghelli notes that Carestini, Rauzzini, and Velluti were amongst some two hundred professional singers to have emerged from the area.

There has been much speculation over Venanzio Rauzzini's early musical education. Mollie Sands writes that his early musical studies were undertaken with a member of the papal choir, and that he was a fellow-pupil of Domenico Corri and Muzio Clementi. If true, it is possible that this teacher from the Papal Choir was Giuseppe Santarelli, who was himself a castrato singer. A conflicting view can be found in John Britton's History and Antiquities of Bath Abbey Church, where it is stated that Rauzzini's first teacher was a friar in Rome who, although not a singer himself, had a profound knowledge of music theory and was a good teacher. Biographies given in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers & Other Stage Personnel in London: 1660–1800 repeat the assumption that Rauzzini studied subsequently with Niccolò Popora in Naples, a circumstance that may account for the young Rauzzini's rapid progress to an international career as a singer. Porpora was not only a talented composer, but he had previously trained the famous castrati Farinelli (the stage name of Carlo Broschi, 1705–82) and Caffarelli (Gaetano Majorano, 1710–83). Rauzzini's early training must have been of the highest quality, and not limited solely to the development of his voice, since his general musicianship and ability to read music at sight were much praised.