Susanna, the Captain and the Castrato

Susanna Burney was by all accounts the sweetest and most 'spirituelle' member of the famous family which enlivened English cultural life in the later 18th century. Though less well-known than her sister, the novelist Fanny Burney, Susanna was the principal attraction of her father's musical salon for the last of the great castrati, Gasparo Pacchierotti, during his triumphant season in London in 1779-80. An unspoken romance between the singer and Susanna dominates her letter-journals to her sister, written during a year which also saw a near invasion of England, the Gordon Riots and the death of Captain Cook on the far side of the world, an event at which both Susanna's brother and her future husband were present. Drawing on these still-unpublished journals, historian Linda Kelly tells a tale of the Pacchierotti affair, the eventful year and the sadly brief life of her charming young heroine with an immediacy that makes it feel almost contemporary.