Prints of actors and singers were much in demand because of the level of fame that the greatest could achieve, and one of Freeman's earliest engravings was of the actor David Garrick after a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This print was made by the London based engraver Samuel Freeman (1773-1857) who specialised in stipple engraving, a method of printing that could accurately represent the softness and fluidity of crayon drawings. She sang the role of Susanna in the original London production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Pantheon on May 1812, was feted by nobility and royalty, and painted by many artists. She was an overnight sensation and soon became one of the highest-paid opera stars on the English stage, reigning as the prima donna of opera in England until 1813 when she left the King's Theatre having tried unsuccessfully to buy it. The Italian soprano Angelica Catalani (1780-1849) was already an established star in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France before her debut in England at London's King's Theatre in Marco Portogallo's opera Il Morto di Semiramide at the King's Theatre on 15 December 1806.
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