Giovanni Carestini was born on 13 December 1700 in
Filottrano. He was the son of Marco Felice Carestini and Vittoria Costantini. He was baptized two days after his birth by Don Nicola Gentiloni, provost of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Filottrano. In that occasion it was given the name Giovanni Maria Bernardino. The godfathers of his baptism were Felice Lancioni and Olimpia Felice Gentiloni, wife of Alessandro Gentiloni, a noble man of Filottrano. Since he was a child he had an exquisite and sweet voice. Carestini's career began in Milan in 1719, patronised at the time by the Cusani family (hence the alternative name
Cusanino). He sang for
Alessandro Scarlatti in
Rome in 1721. The scope of his burgeoning career quickly began to expand; he was at the
Viennese court during 1723, and followed this up with performances in
Naples,
Venice and Rome again, singing in operas by Hasse,
Leonardo Vinci, and
Nicola Porpora. He created the role of Arbace in Vinci and Metastasio's
Artaserse, which is known for its difficult and virtuosic arias. He sang in
Munich in 1731 before coming to
London to sing for Handel in 1733. For Handel he sang the main roles in
Arianna in Creta,
Ariodante, and
Alcina, and also performed in the oratorios
Deborah,
Esther, and
Athalia. While in Naples in 1735, he commanded a fee higher than that of the renowned
Caffarelli.
Charles Burney records an entertaining anecdote from this time: Following this peak, Carestini's career began to wane quickly. A London audience of 1740 was indifferent, and he returned to Italy in the early 1740s (singing in Gluck's
Demofoonte in Milan in 1743), but was an employee of
Maria Theresa by 1744. From 1747 to 1749 he sang for Hasse in
Dresden, and then moved to
Berlin (1750–54), and then
St Petersburg (1754–56). Audiences in Naples were actively displeased by his performances in 1758, and Carestini seems to have died not long after. One of his last appearances was portraying the title role in the world premiere of
Gaetano Latilla's
Ezio at the
Teatro di San Carlo on 10 July 1758. ==Voice and reputation==