Giulia Frasi (also Frassi) was born c. 1730 and died in 1772 or after May 1774. She was an Italian soprano who was primarily active in London. She sang in every one of Handel's English oratorios (with the exception of Semele), including various world premières for which the composer wrote roles specifically for her. Early life and career Italy There is very little biographical information about Giulia Frasi. She was born in or around Milan before 1730. She had a younger brother named Giovanni who, like her, settled in England and died there in 1795 at 65, after having worked extensively as a tailor-embroiderer for the Prince of Wales. In her native Italy Frasi studied singing with Milanese composer Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio. She also performed there for a few years during the early 1740s making her operatic debut at Lodi (1740) and then singing in Alessandria (1740), Bergamo (1741), and Modena (1742). London She moved to London in autumn 1742 – perhaps following Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio – with her friend and fellow singer the contralto Caterina Galli. In England she joined Lord Middlesex's Italian opera company. Lord Middlesex was director of Italian opera at the Haymarket Theatre whose purpose was to challenge Handel's solid hold on London opera goers. She studied under the English educator, musician and historian Charles Burney. Her English career began shortly after her arrival, first performing in comprimario roles at the King's Theatre. Her profile rising gradually within the company, she soon appears in secondary roles, including breeches roles (for example: Taxiles (1743) and Cleon (1747–8), both in Rossane, and the giant Briareus in the première of Gluck's La caduta de' giganti in 1746). Her actual London début took place on 2 November 1742 at the King's Theatre as Mahobeth in the pasticcio Gianguir with music by Giovanni Battista Lampugnani, Johann Adolph Hasse and Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio. The latter's music will also be used in two other pasticcios produced at the King's Theatre during the 1740s: Mandane, premièred on 12 December 1742 (and later, L'incostanza delusa, premièred on 9 February 1745). This was followed straight away by a period of intense artistic activity on the London stage, still at the King's Theater, singing works by Giovanni Battista Lampugnani, Johann Adolph Hasse, Nicola Porpora, Baldassare Galuppi. However, just a couple of years after her arrival in the British capital, shortly after the première of the pasticcio L'incostanza