Adelaide Tosi

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Adelaide Tosi

Adelaide Tosi (born May 20, 1800 in Cassano d'Adda , † March 15, 1859 in Naples ). was an Italian opera singer ( soprano , soprano sfogato ). By marriage she also belonged to the noble family of the Lucchesi Palli .

Life

Adelaide was the daughter of a lawyer . She studied at the Milan Conservatory and was a student of the famous castrato Girolamo Crescentini , from whom she inherited “perfect taste”.

She made her debut at La Scala in Milan in 1821 as Ippolito in Giovanni Simone Mayr's Fedra . In the same house in 1822 she sang Azema in the world premiere of Meyerbeer's L'esule di Granata . A great career followed and Tosi was soon one of the most sought-after singers of her time. She sang alongside the most important singers, and the greatest belcanto composers used her as prima donna in their operas.

The timbre of her voice is said to have been a bit rough, “dry” or “sparse” at times, “but this deficiency was outweighed by the outstanding and rare qualities of a perfectly correct execution and the purity of her taste.” F. Regli, on the other hand, speaks of her “ extremely gentle, lovely soprano voice ”, which she“ knew how to modulate with expression and soul ”. She is also said to have been a very reliable and conscientious singer who never or seldom dropped out because of illness and had no airs.

The main place of activity of the Tosi was the Teatro San Carlo in Naples . There she was the first interpreter in some of the most successful operas by Giovanni Pacini : she sang the Cleofide in Alessandro nell'Indie (premiere 24 February 1824), the Ottavia in L'ultimo giorno di Pompei (19 November 1825; alongside Giovanni David and Luigi Lablache ) and Damiano's trouser role in I fidanzati, ossia Il Connestabile di Chester (November 23, 1829).

At the opening of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa on April 7, 1828, she also sang the female title role in Bellini's Bianca e Fernando .

At the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Adelaide Tosi also worked with Gaetano Donizetti . He wrote for her the roles of Argelia in L'esule di Roma (January 2, 1828), Neala in Il paria (February 12, 1829) and Queen Elisabeth in Il castello di Kenilworth (February 12, 1829).

Other important roles of Tosi were the Palmide in Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto (including in Florence 1824, Venice 1827), and the Pamira in Rossini's Le siège de Corinthe (October 4, 1828 in San Carlo, Naples).

In addition to Italy, Tosi also performed in other European cities such as Madrid , Vienna and London . In her concerts she is said to have performed a little song Non é la vaga rosa l'immagine di te by her teacher Crescentini with a particularly “exquisite” effect .

In 1830/31 she was in Madrid, where Mercadante conceived the title role of his Francesca da Rimini for the voice of Tosi, but due to various difficulties this opera was never performed during their lifetimes. Not long afterwards, however, Tosi appeared in other premieres of Mercadante: on February 7, 1832 in Turin in I Normanni a Parigi and at La Scala in Milan in Il conte di Essex (March 10, 1833). Shortly before, she had also launched Carlo Coccia's opera Caterina di Guisa at La Scala (premiered on February 14th). On August 24, 1836, she created another title role by Donizetti in his opera buffa Betly at the Neapolitan Teatro Nuovo.

Adelaide Tosi married on May 2, 1823 in Milan a count from the house of Sanseverino , Don Ferdinando Conte Lucchesi-Palli (1784–1847). They had two children together: Clotilde and Febo Edoardo (October 13, 1837 to August 10, 1903).

The latter had a small theater set up in his mother's house, who had meanwhile withdrawn from the stage, the "Teatro Accademico", which experienced its heyday between 1853 and 1857 and where mainly spoken theater works were performed. Edoardo also brought together a valuable theater collection of manuscripts and books, which he bequeathed to the Italian state in 1888 as Biblioteca Lucchesi Palli (with accompanying musical archive ), a branch of the Biblioteca Nazionale of Naples.

literature

  • William Ashbrook: Donizetti and His Operas , Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  • J. Bell: "Memoir of Tosi", in: Belle Assemblée: or Court and Fashionable Magazine; Containing Interesting and Original Literature, and Records of the Beau-monde , Vol.XV, London 1832, p. 274, online at: Google Books (as of July 23, 2019)
  • Elizabeth Forbes, "Tosi, Adelaide," in: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , Vol. 4, Macmillan, 1996, p. 769
  • Giovanni Pacini: Le mie memorie artistiche , Florence 1865, pp. 50–51. Online as a Google Book (Italian; viewed July 23, 2019)
  • Francesco Regli: “Tosi Adelaide”, in: Dizionario biografico: dei più celebri poeti ed artisti melodrammatici, tragici e comici, maestri, concertisti, coreografi, mimi, ballerini, scenografi, giornalisti, impresarii, ecc. ecc. che fiorirono in Italia dal 1800 al 1860 , Turin, E. Dalmazzo, 1860, p. 541 (Italian; online , viewed July 20, 2019)
  • Armin Schuster: The Italian operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer, vol. 1: Il crociato in egitto , Tectum, 2003, p. 182. Excerpts online as Google Books (viewed July 24, 2019)

Web links

Commons : Adelaide Tosi  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Short bio by Adelaide Tosi on operissimo (seen on July 23, 2019)
  • Ancestry of the Costa-Sanseverino family on: Ronald Elward: "The Heirs of Europe" , 2010–2019 (Adelaide Tosi is No. 37; seen on July 23, 2019)
  • Youtube video: "Arias for Adelaide Tosi" by Donizetti, Mercadante, Pacini, Meyerbeer and Coccia (accessed July 24, 2019)

Individual notes

  1. ↑ a b A. Tosi has the no. 37 in the line of ancestors of the Costa-Sanseverino family on: Ronald Elward: "The Heirs of Europe" , 2010-2019 (viewed on July 23, 2019)
  2. ↑ The Grove gives the year of birth around 1800 and the date of death March 27, 1859. See: Elizabeth Forbes: "Tosi, Adelaide," in: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , Vol. 4, Macmillan, 1996, p. 769
  3. ↑ a b c d e Gennaro Alifuoco: "Le arti dello spettacolo in biblioteca: la Lucchesi Palli", in: Il Sole 24 ore.com (viewed on July 23, 2019)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Short bio by Adelaide Tosi on operissimo (seen on July 23, 2019)
  5. ↑ a b c d J. Bell: "Memoir of Tosi", in: Belle Assemblée: or Court and Fashionable Magazine; Containing Interesting and Original Literature, and Records of the Beau-monde , Vol.XV, London 1832, p. 274, online at: Google Books (as of July 23, 2019)
  6. ^ William Ashbrook: Donizetti and His Operas , Cambridge University Press, 1982. p. 612, footnote 149
  7. ↑ Elizabeth Forbes: "Tosi, Adelaide," in: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , Vol. 4, Macmillan, 1996, p. 769
  8. ↑ By “perfect justness” is probably meant that she hit the pitch very precisely, that is, she sang very cleanly and cleanly.
  9. ↑ "A certain harshness of organ -. In some instances a dryness and poverty of voice what remarked, but this defect which redeemed in the estimation of the Neapolitans ... by the superior and rare qualities of perfect justness of execution and purity of taste." See: J. Bell: "Memoir of Tosi", in: Belle Assemblée… ,…, London, p. 174. Online at: Google Books (as of July 23, 2019)
  10. ↑ "Ebbe voce soavissima di soprano, e sapeva modularla con quell'espressione e quell'anima, ...". Francesco Regli: “Tosi Adelaide”, in: Dizionario biografico: dei più celebri poeti ed artisti melodrammatici, tragici e comici, maestri, concertisti, coreografi, mimi, ballerini, scenografi, giornalisti, impresarii, ecc. ecc. che fiorirono in Italia dal 1800 al 1860 , Turin, E. Dalmazzo, 1860, p. 541 (Italian; online , viewed July 20, 2019)
  11. ↑ p. 4 in the original libretto (as of July 23, 2019)
  12. ↑ Giovanni Pacini: Le mie memorie artistiche , Florence 1865, pp. 50–51. Online as a Google Book (Italian; viewed July 23, 2019)
  13. ↑ P. 244 ff in the CD booklet on: A Hundred Years of Italian Opera 1820–1830 , with the Philharmonia Orchestra under David Parry, Opera Rara: ORCH 104
  14. ^ W. Ashbrook: Donizetti and His Operas , ... 1982, p. 544
  15. ^ W. Ashbrook: Donizetti and His Operas ,… 1982, pp. 545 f
  16. ^ W. Ashbrook: Donizetti and His Operas , ... 1982, p. 547
  17. ↑ P. 30–31 in the CD booklet on: Meyerbeer: Il crociato in egitto , with Diana Montague, Ivonne Kenny, Bruce Ford and others. a., Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under David Parry, 1992, Opera Rara: ORC 10
  18. ↑ Armin Schuster: The Italian operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer, vol. 1: Il crociato in egitto , Tectum-Verlag, 2003, p. 182, online as Google Books (seen on July 24, 2019)
  19. ↑ See No. 36 (Don Ferdinando Conte Lucchesi-Palli) and No. 37 (Adelaide Tosi) in the line of ancestors of the Costa-Sanseverino family on: Ronald Elward: "The Heirs of Europe" , 2010–2019 (viewed on July 23 2019)
personal data
SURNAME Tosi, Adelaide
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Cassano d'Adda
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1859
Place of death Naples