Zanetta Farussi

Zanetta Farussi, known as "La Buranella" (27 August 1707, Venice - 29 November 1776, Dresden) was an Italian comedic actress. Her eldest son was the famous adventurer, Giacomo Casanova.

Born Maria Giovanna Farussi, her father, Girolamo, was a shoemaker. In 1724, at the age of seventeen, she married the actor, Gaetano Casanova, ten years her senior, who had just returned to Venice after several years with a touring theatrical troupe to take a position at the Teatro San Samuele. The marriage was strongly opposed by her parents, because they considered acting to be a disreputable activity. Her father Girolamo died shortly after, from grief according to his grandson Giacomo, and her mother, Marcia, was reconciled only when Gaetano promised that he would not allow Zanetta to become an actress.

This promise was soon broken when she began an apprenticeship at Gaetano's theater. While she was there, Giacomo was born and (according to Giacomo's memoirs) Gaetano suspected that Michele Grimani (1697-1775), the theater's proprietor, was actually the father. The following year, they accepted a theatrical engagement in London. It was there they had their second son, Francesco, who became a well-known painter. It was rumored that his father was actually the Prince of Wales (who shortly after became King George II); whether for scurrilous motives or publicity is unclear.

They returned to Venice in 1728 and eventually had four more children; Giovanni, who also became a painter, Faustina Maddalena (1731-1736), Maria Maddalena (1732-1800) and Gaetano Alvise (1734-1783), who became a priest; born two months after his father died of an infected abscess in his ear. The Grimani family, possibly remembering the suspicions surrounding Giacomo's birth, promised to look after Zanetta and her children.

In 1734, she met Carlo Goldoni in Verona and he wrote a short comedy for her, called La Pupilla (The Female Ward); inspired by the jealous infatuation she had aroused in Giuseppe Imer (1700-1758), a famous actor and major theatrical impresario. It was presented as an interlude with his tragicomedy, Belisario. The following year, she accepted an engagement in Saint Petersburg, but it was unsuccessful as few people in Russia knew Italian at that time.

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