 Born in London, her singing career as a child prodigy began in England by the age of 12.This led to further study in Italy and to a successful singing career there during the late 1770s.While in Monza (or shortly before in Milan) in 1782, she was recruited to form part of Emperor Joseph II's new Italian opera company in Vienna, where the assembled singers who joined her "created in the two years leading up to the premiere of "The Marriage of Figaro", were welded into the finest buffa ensemble anywhere."