Brigida Banti

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Brigida Banti in London in 1797 (portrait by Joseph Singleton after John Hopkins)

Brigida Banti , née Giorgi (also: Brigida Banti Giorgi ; born May 1, 1755 in Monticelli d'Ongina (near Piacenza ); † February 18, 1806 in Bologna ) was a famous Italian opera singer ( soprano ) in the era of classical music .

Life

Beginnings

Brigida Banti came from a very humble background. She was the daughter of Giacomo (or Giuseppe) Giorgi and Antonia Raimondi. Her father was actually a boat driver (or rental company), but also played the mandolin and violin ; Brigida learned to play the mandolin from him. As a child she went to school in Cremona . After the death of a relative who had also supported the family financially, Brigida and her father spent about 2 years as street and hiking musicians through Italy. In Venice , for example, she is said to have sung together with a violinist (her father?) And the double bassist Domenico Dragonetti in the streets and squares. She also passed through parts of Germany and reached Paris in 1775 , where she sang for guests and passers-by in the cafes on the boulevards. By chance she was discovered by the director of the Opéra-Comique , A.-D.-M. de Vismes du Valgay, who had her perform an aria by Antonio Sacchini at an audition . From then on she was allowed to perform in the pauses between acts of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide , where she sang an aria by Niccolò Piccinni and one by Sacchini.

The tenor Pierre Garat wrote about them:

“What an expression! What soul! And above all: what a voice! Its size, its sound are a kind of miracle, it has a charm that cannot be defined. I have heard many female singers in my life, but I have never known anyone who has been given such miraculous gifts by nature. "

When they wanted to let her sing in the opera, other singers rioted to prevent this, although Brigida Giorgi was supported by Queen Marie Antoinette , who is even said to have sung some duets by Sacchini with her in Versailles .

The London Pantheon before 1792

Therefore, the singer went to London in 1779 and sang in a concert with orchestra in the great Pantheon concert hall , where she heard the famous prima donna Lucrezia Aguiari , known as "La Bastardella", and was immediately so convinced of the young singer's talent that it made her a musical one Education made possible and sent to the composer Sacchini; afterwards she received lessons from the tenor Gabriele Mario Piozzi and from Carl Friedrich Abel .

In the same year she met the Venetian dancer Zaccaria Banti, whom she married shortly afterwards in Amsterdam . From then on she appeared under the name Brigida Banti-Giorgi or Banti.

Career in Italy and Warsaw

The couple went back to Venice and was in Vienna in 1780 , where they sang in a few concerts. After another trip to London, the Banti made her debut in Florence in 1782 at the Teatro della Pergola in Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi's opera I due fratelli sciocchi . In Venice, the famous castrato Gaspare Pacchierotti took her under his wing and had her take acting lessons from the tenor Domenico Mombelli , before joining her in the Carnival 1782–83 at the Teatro San Benedetto in the opera series Attalo re di Bitinia by Giuseppe Sarti and Piramo e Tisbe performed by Francesco Bianchi .

A triumphant career followed, which led Banti to the most important opera houses in Italy. In 1783 she sang in Trieste in works by Bianchi and Felice Alessandri and in Florence in Piramo e Tisbe by Giovanni Battista Borghi . 1783-84 she made her debut together with Mombelli in Naples at the Teatro del Fondo in Il sacrificio di Abramo by Ferdinando Robuschi and was in Turin in December 1783 , where she appeared at the Teatro Regio next to the tenor Giacomo David in Bianchis Briseide and in spring 1784 with the famous castrati Girolamo Crescentini sang in the Festa teatrale Bacco e Arianna by Angelo Tarchi .

Engagements in Florence, Trieste, Padua , Livorno and Reggio Emilia followed . She sang again with Pacchierotti in Ferdinando Bertoni's Quinto Fabio , in 1784 at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice and in 1785 in Trieste. In Carnival in 1786 she made her debut at La Scala in Milan in Ipermestra by Salvatore Rispoli and in Ariarate by Tarchi, alongside Girolamo Crescentini.

In the Warsaw National Theater (1790)

From September 1786 to February 1787, at the same time as the violin virtuoso Giovanni Battista Viotti , she gave a guest performance in Warsaw at the personal invitation of the Polish King Stanislaus Poniatowski . At the Warsaw National Theater she appeared in Giuseppe Giordani's La vestale , Tarchis Ariarate and Persichinis Il principe Kolowakandij . It is reported that she was once so annoyed by the noisy audience that she simply broke off a performance; the king himself had to intervene to calm them down. Her first child was born in Warsaw, whom she named in honor of King Stanislao.

In the following years from 1787 to 1789 she was at the important Teatro San Carlo in Naples and sang alongside Crescentini and Giacomo David, among others in Bianchi's Scipione Africano , in Fedra and Catone in Utica by Giovanni Paisiello , Didone abbandonata by Pasquale Anfossi , and in the operas Debora e Sisara and Enea e Lavinia by PA Guglielmi.

In spring 1789 she was the prima donna at the opening of the Teatro Nuovo di Codogno in Milan in Enea e Lavinia and also sang at La Scala. In the summer of '89 she is said to have appeared again in Warsaw in an opera by Paisiello, but was verifiably already in Bologna in September and then at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, with appearances in Aspasia by Giordani and in Zenobia in Palmira by Anfossi (beginning 1790).

At the double wedding of the princesses Maria Theresa and Maria Luisa von Bourbon with the Archdukes Franz and Ferdinand of Austria, celebrated in Naples in 1790, Banti sang in Guglielmi's Aminta , and was again as prima donna at the Teatro San Carlo until 1792, where she performed in Paisiellos Zenobia in Palmira (May 30, 1790) and in Bianchi's La vendetta di Nino, o sia Semiramide sang (November 12, 1790), also in Peter von Winters Antigona (November 4, 1791) and Alessandro nell'Indie von Piccinni (January 12, 1790) 1792). In 1791 she also appeared in Rome , in Guglielmi's oratorio La morte di Oloferne (also in Naples at the Teatro del Fondo). Presumably she heard the painter Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun , who described the Banti as follows:

“She was tiny and not pretty, with such an abundance of hair that her chignon was reminiscent of a horse's mane. But what a voice! There is no comparison for the power and scope of this voice. The hall in all its size was too small for her. ... "

In 1792 the Banti sang in Bologna and Brescia and shortly afterwards at the opening of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in I giuochi d'Agrigento by Paisiello, again alongside Pacchierotti and Giacomo David. The opera itself was unsuccessful despite the exquisite cast, but she sang the leading female roles in Ines de Castro by Giordani, and in Bianchi's operas Alessandro nell'Indie and Tarara, o sia La virtù premiata , at the same theater and with the same partners .

In Spain and England

Together with her husband she went to Spain from 1793-94 , where she appeared in the operas Zenobia di Palmira , Semiramide and Ines de Castro at the Madrid Teatro de Los Caños del Peral . There were unpleasant rivalries with the tenor G. Simonis, even on the open stage. In Spain, Banti also had her third child, whose godmother became the Duchess of Osuna, with whom the singer stayed in correspondence later.

The Italian Opera at Haymarket (Thomas Hosmer Shepherd 1827–28)

On her subsequent trip to England in the spring of 1794 she was almost shipwrecked. For the next few years up to 1802 she was under contract at London's King's Theater and earned 1,400 to 1,500 sterling a year, with a right to lead roles, a performance in her honor each season, an apartment at the expense of the theater management and other allowances. Her debut in Bianchi's La Semiramide was a triumph. This was followed by an appearance in Paisiello's La serva padrona , on the occasion of the celebration of a victory over France on June 1, 1794 off Brest . Brigida Banti also sang a version of God save the King with its own variations and cadences , which was criticized by parts of the audience because of its Italian accent in English, but was later widely distributed through a print.

During her time in London she always sang under the baton of Giambattista Viotti , and Banti's interpretation of a Polacca by Viotti became famous. In 1795 she interpreted the title role in the English premiere of Gluck's Alceste . In the same year Joseph Haydn composed his Scena di Berenice for her . Other operas with the Banti in London included Bianchi's Aci e Galatea (1795), Gluck's Ifigenia in Tauride (1796), and the Italian versions of Grétry's La bella Arsene (1795) and Zemira e Azor (July 1796, translation by Lorenzo da Ponte). In 1797 she played the leading roles in Paisiello's popular opera Nina and in Sartis Ipermestra , in 1798 in Bianchis Cinna and probably in 1800 in Paisiello's La Didone .

Brigida Banti had her last appearance in London in April 1802 in Armida von Bianchi. According to Kutsch-Riemens, from 1801 the favor of the London public flew to Elisabeth Billington , who had returned from Italy , which is why the Banti returned to Italy.

Last years

In the autumn of 1802 she was already on stage in Bologna in Bianchi's Antigona and in 1803 sang in Venice at La Fenice in Nasolini's Mitridate . Her partner was the young tenor Diomiro Tramezzani , with whom she also had a love and who suddenly became famous through performing with her. The aria she sang "Non piangete io vado a morte" from Bianchi's Vonima e Mitridate was published individually and with the note that it was sung by Signora Banti at La Fenice.

In Livorno she contracted yellow fever in 1804 and had to be quarantined , but was already involved in the festivities for Napoleon's coronation as King of Italy in 1805 in La Scala, and also sang in other performances at La Scala, among others. a. in the world premiere of Eraldo ed Emma by Simon Mayr (January 8, 1805).

After that, the Banti appeared in Bologna in the opera I riti di Efeso by Giuseppe Farinelli and traveled to Venice for further appearances in November. Possibly her body was still weakened from the recent illness, in any case she suffered a fever in the cool, damp Venetian winter and possibly pneumonia and died after 3 months of illness on February 18, 1806 in Bologna.

After her death, an autopsy found that she had an unusually large larynx , a particularly voluminous chest , and that her lungs were two-thirds larger than normal, which gave her great advantages in singing and very long breath.

Brigida Banti's funeral was celebrated in the Church of San Tommaso (on Strada Maggiore) and she was buried in the Certosa cemetery in Bologna.

Voice and art

Brigida Banti was one of the most important singers of the late 18th century. Her unusual life, her rise from a poor street musician to one of the greatest prima donnas in Italian opera, has something almost magical about it. In the literature it is often emphasized that she was a rare and extraordinary natural talent who had "almost no serious music lessons". She had a wonderful musical memory and hearing (presumably she did not know how to read music well enough that her parts had to be played for her). The evidence of her voice alone suggests an organ of particular volume, beauty and scope - a vocal wonder. Emperor Joseph II is said to have called her “the most beautiful voice in Europe”. The purity of her intonation , “her wonderful cantabile ” and the “art of representation” are also praised .

The tenor Michael Kelly said that a “more perfect, more passionate and more divine singing” than that of Brigida Banti had “perhaps never been heard before” (“ more perfect, more impassioned, more divine singing, perhaps was never heard ”).

The best-known description of her voice was left by the music connoisseur Richard Lord Mount Edgcumbe , who wrote the title role for Brigida Banti in his opera Zenobia in 1800 (which, however, was a complete failure and only saw one performance):

“Her voice was sweet and beautiful through and through, flawless in every part of its unusually extensive range. Her low notes, which were below the range of an ordinary soprano, were rich and melting; the middle register was full and powerful, and the highest notes had absolutely nothing shrill: The whole thing was even and regular, one of those splendid " voci di petto " that alone can completely satisfy the ear. "

Out of a chorus of admirers, a single voice stands out that didn't leave Brigida Banti a good hair: the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte , who apparently disliked her, even despised her, and paints a strangely negative picture of her in his memoirs . He referred to her as "ignorant, stupid and presumptuous female" and claimed that she was "debauchery and the bottle" and so domineering that she immediately became a "fury" if she did not get her will.

literature

  • Sarah Adams Hoover: Joseph Haydn and Brigida Banti in London: The 1795 Premiere of the Scena Di Berenice , 2008
  • Karl Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Banti-Giorgi, Brigida , in: Großes Sängerlexikon, Vol. 4 , 4th edition, 2003, KG Saur 2003 / Walter de Gruyter 2012, pp. 239–240, online (accessed on January 19 2020)
  • Fiona M. Palmer: Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794–1846): The Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso , Clarendon Press, 1997, p. 10, online as a Google Book , (accessed January 19, 2020)
  • Roberto Staccioli:  Giorgi, Brigida. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 55:  Ginammi – Giovanni da Crema. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000.

Web links

Individual notes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq Roberto Staccioli:  Brigida Banti. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Bruce Carr: Banti, Brigida Giorgi , in: Oxford Music online (English; accessed on January 19, 2020)
  3. ↑ Kutsch-Riemens state the date and place of birth: 1757 in Crema near Milan or 1756 in Monticelli d'Ongina near Cremona. Karl Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Banti-Giorgi, Brigida , in: Großes Sängerlexikon, Vol. 4 , 4th edition, 2003, KG Saur 2003 / Walter de Gruyter 2012, p. 239, online (accessed on January 19, 2020)
  4. ↑ Fiona M. Palmer: Domenico Dragonetti in England (1794-1846): The Career of a Double Bass Virtuoso , Clarendon Press, 1997, p. 10, online as a Google Book , (accessed on January 19, 2020)
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Karl Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Banti-Giorgi, Brigida , in: Großes Sängerlexikon, Vol. 4 , 4th edition, 2003, KG Saur 2003 / Walter de Gruyter 2012, p. 239 , online (accessed January 19, 2020)
  6. ↑ " Source expression! Source âme! et surtout source voix! C'est une étendue, une sonorité qui tiennent du prodige, c'est un charme qu'on ne peut définir. J'ai entendu bien des cantatrices dans ma vie, je n'en connais point pour qui la nature ait été si prodigue ”. See: Brigida Banti , biography online at Quell'Usignolo (French; accessed January 19, 2020)
  7. ↑ Free translation (here from Italian): “ Era di corporatura piccola, minuta e di aspetto non bello, con una tale quantità di capelli che il suo chignon rassomigliava a una criniera di cavallo. Ma che voce! Non si può istituire alcun paragone colla potenza e l'estensione di quella voce. La sala in tutta la sua grandezza non poteva contenerla ”. See: Roberto Staccioli: Giorgi (Banti Giorgi), Brigida , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 55, 2001, online , (Italian; accessed January 19, 2020)
  8. ↑ J. Alfred Novello: The Musical World , Volume V, London 1837, p. 152, online (English; accessed January 19, 2020)
  9. ↑ It was probably the final movement from Viotti's Concerto No. 13 for violin and orchestra; it was later set for piano by Dussek . See website of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France : BNF (French; accessed January 19, 2020)
  10. ↑ Kutsch-Riemens believe that the last appearance was in Sebastiano Nasolini's Merope, in the role of Polifonte alongside Elisabeth Billington in the title role. Karl Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Banti-Giorgi, Brigida , p. 239, online , (accessed on January 19, 2020)
  11. ↑ Website of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France: BNF (French; accessed on January 19, 2020)
  12. ↑ "Quella della Giorgi (= Brigida Banti Giorgi) fu una voce fuori dal comune: i medici che ne effettuarono l'autopsia poterono constatare una laringe di eccezionale grandezza, una cassa toracica particolarmente voluminosa e polmoni di dimensioni di due terzi superiori alla media, il che le permetteva una non comune ampiezza di inspirazione e lunghezza di fiati ”. See: Roberto Staccioli: Giorgi (Banti Giorgi), Brigida , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 55, 2001, online , (Italian; accessed January 19, 2020)
  13. ↑ a b c d e Karl Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Banti-Giorgi, Brigida , p. 240, online , (accessed on January 19, 2020)
  14. ↑ actually "Chest voice", which should not be confused with the chest register.
  15. ^ " Her voice, sweet and beautiful throughout, had not a fault in any part of its unusually extensive compass. Its lower notes, which reached below ordinary sopranos, were rich and mellow; the middle, full and powerful and the very high, totally devoid of shrillness: the whole was even and regular, one of those rich "voci di petto", wich can alone completely satisfy the ear "(p. 78 f). Here after: Roberto Staccioli: Giorgi (Banti Giorgi), Brigida , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 55, 2001, online , (Italian; accessed January 19, 2020)
  16. ↑ Kutsch-Riemens give an apparently heavily shortened version: "... the most delightful singer I ever heard ... Her voice was of most extensive compass, rich and even, and without a fault in its hole range - a true voce di petto throughout ". Karl Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Banti-Giorgi, Brigida , p. 240, online , (accessed on January 19, 2020)
  17. ↑ “ una femminaccia ignorante, sciocca e insolente […] dedita alla crapola, alle dissolutezze e alla bottiglia […], non aveva ritegni; e quando alcuna delle sue passioni era stuzzicata dalle difficoltà […] diventava un aspide, una furia, un demone dell'inferno, che avrebbe bastato a sconvolgere tutto un impero, non che un teatro ”(p. 186). Here after: Roberto Staccioli: Giorgi (Banti Giorgi), Brigida , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 55, 2001, online , (Italian; accessed January 19, 2020)
personal data
SURNAME Banti, Brigida
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Monticelli d'Ongina , Piacenza
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1806
Place of death Bologna