Anna Maria Strada, Prima Donna of G. F. Handel

G. F. Handel’s longest continuous collaboration with a leading singer took place with Anna Maria Strada, who may have sung with a chest-like vocal production in the head range as well. Conclusions rest on three main pillars: the musical sources; surviving descriptions and period treatises; completed with the author’s experiences as a singer.

Judit Zsovár gained her doctorate in musicology at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest and has been awarded the Handel Institute Research as well as Conference grants, the DAAD, and Zoltán Kodály scholarships. As a soprano, she appeared at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Handel House in London, and the Helsinki Music Centre.