{{Short description|Actor, acrobat & theatre manager (1682–1741)}} {{Infobox person | name = Signora Violante | birth_date = 1682 | birth_place = Italy or France | death_date = {{death year and age|1741|1682}} | death_place = Edinburgh, Scotland | other_names = Madam Violante, Signora Larini | occupation = Rope-dancer, acrobat, actress, theatre company director | era = 18th Century | style = Commedia dell'arte | spouse = Senor Violante }} alt=Rope dancing|thumb|Rope dancing '''Signora Violante''' (1682–1741) was a rope-dancer, acrobat, commedia dell'arte actor and theatre company manager.

==Early life== ===Background=== Signora Violante was Italian or French,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004|date=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|others=Ewan, Elizabeth., Innes, Sue., Reynolds, Sian.|isbn=9780748626601|location=Edinburgh|oclc=367680960}}</ref> and was active as a performer from 1720.<ref name=":1">{{Cite ODNB|title=Violante [Larini], Signora (1682–1741), rope-dancer and theatre company manager|volume = 1|last=Read|first=Leslie du S.|date=2004-09-23|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/64361}}</ref> She was married to an Italian, Senor Violante, a rope-slider.<ref name=":2">{{Cite ODNB|title=Violante [Larini], Signor (fl. 1727–1728), ropeslider |date=2006 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-94250|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/94250|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |last1=Life |first1=Page }}</ref> Neither her maiden or married name are known for certain, and she and her husband are also sometimes named as Larini in contemporary newspaper accounts.<ref name=":1" /> She is also known as Madam Violante and Mrs Violante in 18th century sources.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=McArdle|first=Grainne|date=2005|title=Signora Violante and Her Troupe of Dancers 1729-32|journal=Eighteenth-Century Ireland / Iris an Dá Chultúr|volume=20|pages=55–78|doi=10.3828/eci.2005.8 |jstor=30071051}}</ref>

===Family=== Her children were among the performers in her troupe.<ref name=":0" /> Her daughter Rosina Violante, a dancer, later married dancer George Richard Estcourt Luppino, son of dancers George Charles Luppino and Charlotte Mary Estcourt,<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, managers & other stage personnel in London, 1660-1800. Volume 15, Tibbett to M. West|last=HIghfill|first=Philip H.|others=Burnim, Kalman A.,, Langhans, Edward A.|isbn=9780585030333|location=Carbondale|oclc=44960770}}</ref> and forebear of the Lupino family of performers and designers.<ref name=":1" />

==Career== Violante's first appearances in London, in the spring of 1720, were working with De Grimbergue's French company at the King's Theatre and Lincoln's Inn Fields theatres.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Her performances in these shows included rope dancing with flags, sometimes advertised in bills as "The Flourishing of the Colours"; her rope-dancing inspired a poem published in ''Oxoniensis'' on 6 June 1720''.''<ref name=":4" /> Another reported act of Violante's was, while on the slack rope, to dance a minuet, with a child hanging from each ankle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03zqskz|title=Signora Violante, Series 2, Women with a Past - BBC Radio Scotland|website=BBC|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-08-16}}</ref> In 1727 Violante is said to have danced on the tight rope with swords tied to her legs, a child balanced on her shoulders, and two children on her ankles.<ref name=":4" />

Violante returned to London in 1726 to the Haymarket Theatre, where she stayed for a season of 70 nights, performing acrobatics, dancing and pantomime,<ref name=":0" /> between 2 November 1726 and 28 April 1727.<ref name=":1" /> She was in Dublin in 1727,<ref name=":0" /> and returned to London's Haymarket Theatre with a new company to perform regularly from 23 October to 6 May 1728, including a pantomime ''The Rivals'' in which she featured in the role of Colombina.<ref name=":1" /> The company performed ''The Rivals'' in Bristol in the summer of 1728,<ref name=":1" /> where her husband Senor Violante slid on a rope across the River Severn, from St Vincent's Rocks in Clifton, a distance of 550 yards in thirty seconds, before a crowd of spectators.<ref name=":2" />

Violante had a large impact on the Dublin theatre scene of the early 18th century. She worked in Dublin for three theatre seasons, during which time, in 1730, Violante and her principal dancer Lalauze established the Dame Street Booth, a rival to the Theatre Royal, Smock Alley in Dublin.<ref name=":3" />

She then travelled to Edinburgh where she lived in Carruber's Close.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The history of Edinburgh. By Hugo Arnot, Esq; Advocate|last=Arnot|first=Hugo|year=1779|location=Edinburgh|pages=366}}</ref> In Edinburgh, magistrates refused her company permission to perform in their jurisdiction.<ref name=":0" /> after this, her company performed throughout Britain, and it is possible they also performed in Paris.<ref name=":0" /> One show was a pirated version of The Beggar's Opera, the cast of which included Peg Woffington,<ref name=":0" /> whom Violante "discovered" as a child, carrying water to her mother's wash-house, and subsequently coached.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford companion to Shakespeare|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Dobson, Michael, 1960-, Wells, Stanley, 1930-, Sharpe, Will., Sullivan, Erin (Cultural historian)|isbn=9780191788802|edition= Second |location=Oxford|oclc=927443015}}</ref>

In 1735 Signora Violante settled in Edinburgh, where she rented the lower floor of the hall of the Incorporation of Mary's Chapel from 1738<ref>Edinburgh City Archives, Minutes of the Incorporation of Mary's Chapel, 15 July 1738 p. 329.</ref> and continued to perform as a rope-dancer, and ran a dance school.<ref name=":0" />

==Death== Signora Violante died in 1741.<ref>{{Cite news|title=MARRIAGES and BIRTHS|date=1741|work=The Scots Magazine, 1739-1803|page=279}}</ref>{{Authority control}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Violante, Signora}} Category:1741 deaths Category:Italian acrobats Category:French acrobats Category:British acrobats Category:Women acrobats Category:1682 births Category:Immigrants to the Kingdom of Great Britain Category:18th-century actresses Category:18th-century theatre Category:Women theatre managers and producers Category:Commedia dell'arte actors Category:18th-century dancers Category:18th-century circus performers