Born in the parish of
San Pantalon in Venice, Tarquini had her first known performance in 1685, aged 14, at the
Teatro San Angelo there. According to Beth Glixon, she was probably the victim of a rape that same year because Vittoria's father brought a charge of rape a few months later before the three chiefs of the
Council of Ten; it is not known what ultimately became of the case. In 1688, her career reached a first peak when she sang the role of Giulia in the premiere of the opera
Orazio on 24 January 1688 in Venice at the
Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, which was probably composed by
Giuseppe Felice Tosi. Around the same time she met
Ferdinando de' Medici (1663–1713), who would later become very important in her life. The music-loving Ferdinando was often a guest at the palace of
Vincenzo Grimani, and accompanied Tarquini himself at a private concert on
harpsichord or
spinet. Already at this time he is said to have shown an inclination for Vittoria, to whom he gave a ring worth 20 (
doubloons). However, it is not certain whether Vittoria is also identical with the
brava cantatrice (outstanding singer) to whom Ferdinando gave a diamond worth more than 100
scudi after a concert at Grimani. On 14 February 1688, also at San Giovanni Grisostomo, she sang the role of Angelica in
Domenico Gabrielli's
Carlo il Grande. On 30 January 1689 she appeared in the premiere of
Agostino Steffani's
Henrico Leone, together with the tenor Antonio Borosini, Giuseppe Galloni "Nicolini". On 8 January 1689, three weeks before the premiere of
Henrico Leone, she married ,
Kapellmeister (or first violinist) of
Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, in
St. Clement's Basilica, Hanover. She probably stayed in Germany and with her husband for a few more years and also appeared in Steffani's ''La lotta d'Ercole ed Acheloo'' (1689), but this has not yet been proven. Around 1691–92, she gave birth to her only son, Giorgio Luigi Farinelli, possibly already in Venice, having left her husband. In 1693, she was in
Ferrara at the Teatro Bonacossi and sang in a performance of
Bernardo Pasquini's
Lisimaco alongside the famous castrato called
il Cortona; she was announced with the Italianized surname of her husband as Vittoria Farinelli. She was in Florence by March 1698, in the service of Ferdinando de' Medici, whom she had met in Venice ten years previously. During her Florentine years, she also had a very friendly relationship with
Cardinal Francesco Maria de' Medici. and that they may have had an affair, despite the relatively large 15-year age difference (and despite their alleged relationship with Ferdinando de' Medici). After her career, Tarquini lived in Venice in her house in the parish of
Santa Maria Formosa that she had bought in 1705. Her husband Jean Baptiste Farinelli, from whom she was separated for more than 20 years, came to Venice in 1714 and lived with her again until his death in 1725. In 1744, Vittoria Tarquini made her will, making her son Luigi her main heir. She died in Venice in 1746. == References ==