Giuseppina Grassini

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Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun : Giuseppina Grassini in her role as Zaïra (1805)

Giuseppina Maria Camilla Grassini , also Giuseppa Grassini , Josephina Grassini and Joséphine Grassini (born April 8, 1773 in Varese , † January 3, 1850 in Milan ), was an Italian opera singer with an alto voice . Around 1800 she was one of the greatest interpreters in the serious subject and celebrated successes in Milan, Venice, Paris and London. The artist, admired for her beauty, impressed not only with her well-trained, flexible voice, but also with her great acting talent. She went to relationshipsNapoleon Bonaparte and his enemy, the Duke of Wellington .

Life

First years

Giuseppina Grassini grew up in modest, but not poor, circumstances as the youngest of 18 children. Her father Antonio Grassini worked as an accountant in the monastery of Madonna del Sacro Monte; her mother Isabella allegedly descended directly from the well-known Leonardo student Bernardino Luini . The mother, an amateur violinist, and the organist Domenico Zucchinetti, who works in Varese, provided Giuseppina's first musical education. She continued her studies in Milan with the young composer Antonio Secchi, who later worked as a professor at the city's conservatory .

At the age of 16 Giuseppina Grassini made her debut in Parma in 1789 as Donna Florida in Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi's La pastorella nobile . Shortly thereafter, performances at La Scala in Milan followed in comic operas by Giovanni Paisiello , Antonio Salieri and again Guglielmi. However, these appearances were not to the satisfaction of the ambitious singer, which is why she decided to refine her training and switch to the serious subject of opera seria .

Success in Italy

Giuseppina Grassini in Gli Orazi ei Curiazi (1796)

After trips to Vicenza and Venice , among others , Giuseppina Grassini returned to Scala in the winter of 1793/94, where she triumphantly won the audience's favor in Zingarellis Artaserse (at the side of the famous Luigi Marchesi ) and Portugal's Demofoonte . Further successful world premieres at various opera houses in northern Italy gave her career an additional boost.

A few years later her reputation was so well established that Zingarelli composed the title role of Giulietta in his opera Giulietta e Romeo ( premiere on January 30, 1796) especially for her. Here she sang at the side of the famous castrato soprano and composer Girolamo Crescentini , who at that time also acted as her teacher and had a decisive influence on her further career. In this role, which remained in Giuseppina Grassini's repertoire for decades, she was heard shortly afterwards in Reggio nell'Emilia and at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. Another premiere in the carnival season 1796/97 at La Fenice, Gli Orazi ei Curiazi by Domenico Cimarosa , brought her together again with Crescentini. The composer tailored the opera to suit the superbly harmonious duo.

Napoleon Bonaparte

On the occasion of the wedding of the heir to the throne Francesco di Borbone with the Archduchess Maria Clementine of Austria , Giuseppina Grassini performed for the first time in June 1797 in the famous Teatro San Carlo in Naples . There she sang the title role of Artemisia regina di Caria in Cimarosa's opera of the same name. During her days in Naples, which she later counted among the happiest of her life, she entered into a liaison with the English Prince Augustus Frederick of Sussex . In the meantime, after the Battle of Lodi , French troops under the young General Napoléon Bonaparte had taken Milan. At that time, La Grassini , as she was now called, and Bonaparte had already met for a brief moment . The singer had been asked to go to the general's quarters in Mombello, north of Milan, to give a concert. Bonaparte saw her for the first time in the run-up to the decisive battle against the Austrians at Marengo , when she interpreted the title role in Gaetano Andreozzi's opera La vergine del sole on June 4, 1800 . Bonaparte then invited the artist into his private chambers and a relationship developed. The general, who was honored all over the country as the “liberator of Italy”, took Giuseppina Grassini to Paris - “as one of the most beautiful trophies of his victory”, as the critic Paul Scudo put it. Immediately after her arrival, she performed in the Invalides on July 14, 1800, the anniversary of the Bastille storming .

According to Police Minister Joseph Fouché , Bonaparte furnished them with a house on Rue de Caumartin and a generous income. The singer Pierre-Jean Garat introduced her to the most distinguished circles, where she met the violinist and composer Pierre Rode, among others . A romance was developing between the two musicians in public, also in front of the eyes of the jealous Bonaparte. When Giuseppina Grassini left Paris at the end of 1801, this happened, according to Fouche, under pressure from Bonaparte, who had previously tried in vain to make Grassini compliant by drastically reducing her salary. It is more likely, however, that she emigrated voluntarily, because the strong-willed singer, who also attested Fouché “something masculine” in character, apparently no longer considered Paris the ideal location for her further career. As early as August 1800 - just a few weeks after her arrival in Paris - she proposed to Bonaparte that an Italian Opera be set up in the Rue de la Victoire , which she wanted to lead as artistic director . She had done precise research and estimated the annual rental costs at 40,000 francs - according to her calculations, almost a twelfth of what the Opéra français devoured. Bonaparte did not respond to the request and later allowed Marguerite Montansier, an experienced theater director, to open the Théâtre-Olympique, where Italian operas were performed, at the same location. Giuseppina Grassini, who gave very few concerts in public in Paris - with great success - saw no possibility of appearing regularly in the French capital after the failure of her theater plans.

Accompanied by Rode, Giuseppina Grassini first went on a concert tour to the Netherlands and Germany in the autumn of 1801 , where she made guest appearances in Berlin and Munich with great success . At the turn of the year she could be heard in operas by Andreozzi and Nasolini in Genoa . Performances in Trieste , Bergamo and Padua followed. Rode, who a few years later was to dedicate his Violin Concerto No. 8 to the singer, had meanwhile returned to Paris, where he took up a position as professor at the Conservatory.

London

Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun : Giuseppina Grassini in London (1803)

Like many singers, Grassini decided to move to London in the autumn of 1802, where she saw her former lover Augustus Frederick of Sussex again and also made the acquaintance of the Duke of Wellington . She made her debut at the King's Theater in another production of La vergine del sole , a work she has long been familiar with. Grassini replaced Brigida Banti , who was in the fall of her career. However, she was not immediately granted her usual success, because the London audience thought Elizabeth Billington , who had returned to her native London in 1801 after long journeys, for the more talented singer.

It was not until May 1804 that the tide turned in her favor when she asked Elizabeth Billington to appear with her at her charity performance. Peter von Winter composed the opera Il ratto di Proserpina especially for this occasion . The audience experienced the premiere as a real competition between the singers - contemporary critics spoke of a “battlefield” on stage. In the end, there was no doubt that Grassini had won. She repeated her success in another of Winter's work, Zaira . From then on, performances with Giuseppina Grassini were considered social events that were not to be missed. During this time she became friends with Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun , who was valued as a portrait painter all over Europe and who also made three oil paintings of her.

Paris again

In 1806 Napoléon Bonaparte, who was now emperor and controlled large parts of Europe after the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , called the singer, whom he still admired, back to Paris. Here she is said to have received an “unprecedented” annual salary of 36,000 francs for a series of court concerts, to which bonuses of a further 15,000 francs were added. Napoléon appointed her Première cantatrice de Sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi (First Singer of His Majesty the Emperor and King) and also awarded her the title of Comtesse , so she was not subordinate to any lady-in-waiting . Her old teacher from Italy, Girolamo Crescentini, was now also tied to Napoléon's court. He was also given a handsome salary, but remarkably, at 30,000 francs, he earned a little less money than Giuseppina Grassini. A special clause of their contract prohibited both singers from performing outside the court. The emperor reserved the right to enjoy the talent of the musicians he employed alone or to treat hand-picked guests to the concert in the court's own Théâtre des Tuileries .

In 1806, the year she returned to Paris, Grassini married the Italian officer Cesare Ragani, twelve years his junior, completely unnoticed by the public. Grassini's biographer Arthur Pougin calls her husband "exemplary invisible"; next to nothing is known about marriage. It is guaranteed that Ragani belonged to Napoléon's honor guard and from 1808 took part in the Spanish campaign under General Pino . He also followed Napoléon east to Russia, where he survived the losing battle of the Beresina . The frequent absence of Ragani did not allow them to live together in marriage. But even after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the couple apparently only lived together temporarily, so that the marriage took on a very unconventional character for the time.

In 1808 Giuseppina Grassini appeared in several operas by the composer Ferdinando Paër , whom the Emperor had come to appreciate in Dresden in 1806 and who, against his hesitation, had been posted to Paris. With Grassini in the title role, Cleopatra was premiered. A year later, in 1809, she shone in the premiere of Luigi Cherubini's opera Pimmalione . In the same year she sang her star role of Giulietta in Zingarelli's Giulietta e Romeo, alongside Crescentini . To please Napoléon, she chose another favorite role from her repertoire for a performance on January 18, 1810, when the Emperor was present in person, the Orazia in Cimarosa's Gli Orazi ei Curiazi . A few weeks later, on March 24, 1810, she gave a concert in Compiègne for Napoléon and his second wife Marie-Louise .

Grassini experienced a last great triumph in the Tuileries in 1811 with the performance of another Paër work, Didone abbandonata . After that, Napoléon began to look around for younger singers, which resulted in her hardly performing any more. The end of Crescentini's career and the unexpectedly early death of her colleague Marianna Barilli also affected her. In Ferdinando Paër she had a loyal advocate who could at least occasionally see to it that she was on stage. It was thanks to his intervention that Giuseppina Grassini sang on a public stage in front of a large audience for the first time in many years on November 6, 1813. Paër was responsible for the now firmly established Théâtre-Italy, located in Odéon , which was in financial difficulties at the time. Grassini's acclaimed appearance on this stage (again as Orazia) served both: the singer and the theater. However, the success could not be repeated. When she played Cleopatra at the Odéon three weeks later, the criticism was unusually cool and reserved.

Ferdinando Quaglia : Giuseppina Grassini as Dido in the opera by Paër, (ca.1811; miniature image on ivory)

At the same time, Napoléon had lost his supremacy in Europe after the Battle of Leipzig . The anti-Napoleonic alliance drew closer and took Paris in March 1814. After Napoléon was forced to abdicate and go into exile in Elba , the head of the Bourbon family took over as Louis XVIII. the Tuileries. Giuseppina Grassini left the city during these weeks of upheaval and spent the summer of 1814 in London, where she sang Dido von Paër several times at the King's Theater. She used the stay to deepen her good contacts with the Duke of Wellington, who was already an adversary to Napoleon on the Spanish front and who was to beat the emperor decisively at Waterloo . The gradually close liaison with the Duke, which Grassini by no means hid from the public, continued in Paris. The relationship aroused incredulous amazement and horror in the French capital, but ended when Wellington was called to the Congress of Vienna in January 1815 .

Last years

After the brief interlude from Napoléon's reign of the Hundred Days and his final exile, Giuseppina Grassini temporarily moved to her home country, where she gave two highly regarded concerts at La Scala in Milan in April 1817 . She was accompanied by one of her sisters, a Signora Grassini-Trivulzi, who, according to contemporary judgment, also had a very beautiful singing voice, but only appeared on this one occasion with Giuseppina. Shortly afterwards, the French writer Stendhal , a lover and connoisseur of opera, experienced a concert by Grassini in the Villa dell'Annunciata in her hometown of Varese. He was overwhelmed by the respect that the singer met and also enjoyed her art: “On pleure, et le cœur applaudit” (for example: we cry and our hearts applaud). In 1819 she performed in Brescia and got to know the young, aspiring singer Giuditta Pasta , who she also taught at times and thus contributed to her great career. In Nasolini's La morte di Cleopatra , the two singers sang in a duet . Grassini's other positions in the next few years included Padua and Trieste, before she appeared on stage one last time in Florence in 1823 , again as Cleopatra (in the opera Paërs).

At times she lived in Paris again in the following years, where she was a welcome guest in the salons of the aristocracy. At her old place of work she also worked as a singing teacher for her nieces Giuditta and Giulia Grisi , who became excellent singers themselves. She spent the last part of her life mostly in Milan, where she moved into a rented apartment in the Casa Arese on Largo San Babila. Here she received, among others, the composers Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini for technical discussions . She watched the street fighting in the revolutionary year 1848 from her windows; a carriage in her possession , with which she traveled between Milan and Paris, was used to reinforce the barricades and was finally destroyed. On January 3, 1850, she died in her apartment.

Giuseppina Grassini left an important fortune, most of which she bequeathed to her nieces and other family members. She bequeathed a miniature picture on ivory plate by the painter Ferdinando Quaglia , originally commissioned by Napoléon personally and acquired by the Scala Museum in 1911 for the considerable price of 50,000 francs, to a good friend. 2000 lire went to the needy in Varese while she gave her husband Cesare Ragani an annual pension. She is buried on the Cimitero di San Gregorio in Milan.

Voice and meaning

Andrea Freschi: Giuseppina Grassini in La vergine del sole (year unknown)

Giuseppina Grassini was one of the most important opera singers of the ending 18th and early 19th century (the period immediately before Rossini ) and was called " prima donna seria Europe", ie as a prima donna described the serious times on the European stage. Barely 20 years old, she was already placed alongside great singers like Brigida Banti. At that time, she was already considered by critics to be the “tenth muse”.

Usually categorized as an alto , her grade was more in the lower mezzo-soprano range and had a strong timbre, great sonority and flexibility. The composer Sophie de Bawr described Grassini's voice as "a splendid alto, to which a tireless diligence had added some very beautiful high notes". François-Joseph Fétis wrote similarly : “Her voice, a powerful alto with great expressiveness, did not lack expansion into the higher tonal spheres, and her vocalization had a lightness, a very rare quality in strongly timbred voices.” The music connoisseur, on the other hand, maintained Richard Edgcumbe - perhaps a not entirely impartial partisan of the soprano Elizabeth Billington - Grassini's vocal range would have been reduced to little more than an octave during her time in London .

Grassini's voice was repeatedly described as being excellently developed in the bel canto sense . According to Fétis, it was “even and pure over the entire range”, and he praised “its beautiful and free tonal emission” and “its great style of phrasing”. Sophie de Bawr emphasized the breadth of her tone quality, the purity of her pronunciation and her expressive declamation in the recitatives , as they corresponded to the stylistic ideals of a former "école grandiose" (large school), which she received in particular from her teacher and stage partner Crescentini.

She combined her singing technique with a great stage presence and expressiveness, whereby the physical beauty, which she admired again and again, and the natural grace of her movements suited her very well. Edgcumbe, a witness of the London match between Elizabeth Billington and Giuseppina Grassini, wrote that Billington had her voice superior, but the audience preferred Grassini because of her acting. Other contemporaries like Charles Bell also judged that Giuseppina Grassini drew her unique strength from the union of music and dramatic play: "She died on stage without ever being ridiculous."

Stendhal saw in Giuditta Pasta the natural successor to Giuseppina Grassini. Pasta was no longer able to hear great singers like Todi , Marchesi or Crescentini, but Grassini was able to convey this great era to her young colleague during their time together in Brescia. For Stendhal, the two exceptional singers were the benchmark of his time. In music he could not imagine anything more beautiful than a recitative that is produced “with the Grassini method and the soul of Pasta”.

Premiere roles

This overview is based on the incomplete entries in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna and in L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia. The information was compared with the secondary literature and expanded. Performed are roles that were premiered with Giuseppina Grassini .

composer plant Date of the premiere place theatre role

Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli Artaserse December 26th, 1793 [?] Milan Teatro alla Scala Mandans
Marcos António Portugal Demofoonte February 8, 1794 Milan Teatro alla Scala Dircea
Sebastiano Nasolini Eurilla May 15, 1794 Venice San Benedetto Theater Eurilla
Sebastiano Nasolini Epponina August 1794 Bergamo Riccardi Theater Epponina
Johann Simon Mayr Temira e Aristo May 13, 1795 Venice La Fenice Theater Temira
Giuseppe Maria Curcio La presa di Granata Fall 1795 Livorno Teatro degli Accademici Avvalorati Zulema
Giacomo Tritto Apelle e Campaspe December 26, 1795 Milan Teatro alla Scala Campaspe
Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli Giulietta e Romeo January 30, 1796 Milan Teatro alla Scala Giulietta
Gaetano Marinelli Issipile November 12, 1796 Venice La Fenice Theater Issipile
Cimarosa Domenico Gli Orazi ei Curiazi December 26, 1796 Venice La Fenice Theater Orazia
Johann Simon Mayr Telemaco nell'isola di Calipso January 11, 1797 Venice La Fenice Theater Calipso
Cimarosa Domenico Artemisia, regina di Caria June 12, 1797 Naples San Carlo Theater Artemisia
Giovanni Paisiello Le nozze di Silvio e Clori July 1797 Naples Accademia dei Cavalieri Clori
Marcos António Portugal Alceste December 26, 1798 Venice La Fenice Theater Alceste
Giuseppe Maria Curcio Argea May 31, 1799 Florence Teatro degli Intrepidi Argea
Giuseppe Farinelli La pulcella di Rab May 1802 Trieste Teatro Nuovo Jella
Peter of Winter Il ratto di Proserpina May 3, 1804 London King's Theater Proserpine
Peter of Winter Zaira January 29, 1805 London King's Theater Zaira
Ferdinando Paër Cleopatra January 1, 1808 [?] Paris Théâtre des Tuileries Cleopatra
Ferdinando Paër Diana e Endimione August 1809 Paris Théâtre des Tuileries Diana
Luigi Cherubini Pimmalione November 30, 1809 Paris Théâtre des Tuileries Venus
Ferdinando Paër Didone abbandonata June 9, 1811 Paris Théâtre des Tuileries Dido
Ferdinando Orlandi Fedra June 10, 1820 Padua Teatro Nuovo Fedra

literature

  • Olivier Bara: Grassini, Giuseppina (-Maria-Camilla), Joséphine . In: MGG Online. The music in the past and present , ed. by Laurenz Lütteken. Kassel, Stuttgart, New York 2016 ff., First published in 2002 ( online version from 2016 ).
  • Bruno Belli: Giuseppina Grassini. Del canto più soave e drammatico inimitabile modello . Macchione Editore, Varese 2019, ISBN 978-88-6570-589-6 .
  • Cristina Ciccaglioni Badii:  Grassini, Giuseppa. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 58:  Gonzales-Graziani. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2002.
  • Richard Edgcumbe: Musical Reminiscences, Containing an Account of the Italian Opera in England, From 1773 Continued to the Present Time , Andrews & Wall, 4th ed. London 1834.
  • George T. Ferris: Elisabeth Billington and her Contemporaries . In: Great Singers , Vol. I ("Faustina Bordoni to Henrietta Sontag, First Series"), D. Appleton & Co, New York 1879, pp. 86–132, here: pp. 120–129 ( online version ; accessed 6 April 2020).
  • François-Joseph Fétis : Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique . Deuxième Édition. Vol. 4, Paris 1866, p. 87 ( online version ).
  • Elizabeth Forbes: Grassini, Josephina [Giuseppina] (Maria Camilla) . In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Vol. 7, Oxford 1980, p. 642 ( online version ).
  • André Gavoty: La Grassini I: Une admiratrice de Bonaparte . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Huitième Période , 46, H. 4, 1938, pp. 857-894.
  • André Gavoty: La Grassini II. La prèmiere cantatrice de l'empereur . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Huitième Période , 47, H. 1, 1938, pp. 146-184.
  • André Gavoty: La Grassini . Grasset, Paris 1947.
  • Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Grassini, Giuseppina. In: Large song dictionary . 4th ext. and act. Edition, Munich 2003, Vol. 4, pp. 1813 f.
  • Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice "Amie" de Napoléon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Fischbacher, Paris 1920 ( online version ).
  • Paul Scudo: Joséphine Grassini . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Nouvelle Période , 13, no. 1, 1852, pp. 148-159.
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Grassini, Giuseppina . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 5th part. Typogr.-literar.-artist publishing house. Establishment (L. C. Zamarski & C. Dittmarsch.), Vienna 1859, p. 317 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Giuseppina Grassini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Olivier Bara: Grassini, Giuseppina (-Maria-Camilla), Joséphine . In: MGG Online. The music in the past and present , ed. by Laurenz Lütteken. Kassel, Stuttgart, New York 2016 ff., First published in 2002.
  2. ↑ According to the baptismal certificate of the provost's archives in Varese, Giuseppina Grassini was born on April 8, 1773, not April 18, 1773, as many sources state. Cf. on this Bruno Belli: Giuseppina Grassini. Del canto più soave e drammatico inimitabile modello . Varese 2019, p. 161.
  3. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 9.
  4. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 10 f.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Cristina Ciccaglioni Badii:  Grassini, Giuseppa. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 58:  Gonzales-Graziani. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2002.
  6. ^ Paul Scudo: Joséphine Grassini . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Nouvelle Période , 13, no. 1, 1852, pp. 148–159, here: p. 149 f.
  7. ^ André Gavoty: La Grassini I: Une admiratrice de Bonaparte . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Huitième Période , 46, H. 4, 1938, pp. 857-894, here: pp. 867 f.
  8. ↑ a b c Giuliana Nuvoli: Giuseppina Grassini , milanolacittadelledonne.it (accessed on March 20, 2021).
  9. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 24.
  10. ^ "[...] comme l'un des plus beaux trophées de sa victoire". Paul Scudo: Joséphine Grassini . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Nouvelle Période , 13, no. 1, 1852, pp. 148–159, here: p. 150.
  11. ^ Joseph Fouché: Memories . Translated by Paul Aretz. Berlin 2020, p. 138 f.
  12. ^ Joseph Fouché: Memories . Translated by Paul Aretz. Berlin 2020, p. 139.
  13. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 28 ff.
  14. ^ André Gavoty: La Grassini II. La prèmiere cantatrice de l'empereur . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Huitième Période , 47, H. 1, 1938, pp. 146-184, here: p. 149.
  15. ^ Paul Scudo: Joséphine Grassini . In: Revue des Deux Mondes. Nouvelle Période , 13, no. 1, 1852, pp. 148–159, here: p. 153.
  16. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 35 ff.
  17. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 38 f.
  18. ^ Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens: Grassini, Giuseppina. In: Large song dictionary . 4th ext. and act. Edition, Munich 2003, Vol. 4, p. 1814.
  19. ↑ Sean M. Parr: Vocal Virtuosity. The Origins of the Coloratura Soprano in the Nineteenth Century Opera . Oxford 2021, p. 30.
  20. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 45.
  21. ↑ Cf. Felice Blangini: Souvenirs . Paris 1835, p. 109 f.
  22. ^ Grassini, Giuseppina , Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense (accessed on March 21, 2021).
  23. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 65.
  24. ↑ Militari italiani nella campagna di Russia , www.marieni-saredo.it (accessed on March 21, 2021).
  25. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 42 f.
  26. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 48.
  27. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 52 f.
  28. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 54 f.
  29. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 59.
  30. ^ Stendhal: Rome, Naples et Florence, en 1817 . Paris 1827, p. 324.
  31. ↑ Isabelle Putnam Emerson: Five Centuries of Women Singers , Westport (Conn.) 2005, p. 123.
  32. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 66 f.
  33. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 70.
  34. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 68.
  35. ↑ Cf. on this Bruno Belli: Giuseppina Grassini. Del canto più soave e drammatico inimitabile modello. Varese 2019.
  36. ↑ Dedalo. Rassegna d'arte , 2, no. 2, 1922, p. 550.
  37. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920, p. 69.
  38. ↑ Quoted from Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napoléon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 52 f.
  39. ^ Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 11 ff.
  40. ↑ Salvatore Caruselli (ed.): Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica , 4 vols., Vol. 1, Rome undated [approx. 1980], p. 296.
  41. ^ François-Joseph Fétis: Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique . Deuxième Édition. Vol. 4, Paris 1866, p. 87.
  42. ^ "[...] un magnifique contralto, auquel un travail assidu avait joint quelques cordes hautes fort belles". Cf. Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napoléon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 46 f.
  43. ^ "Sa voix, contralto vigoureux et d'un accent expressif, ne manquait pas d'étendue vers les sons élevés, et sa vocalisation avait de la légèreté, qualité fort rare dans les voix fortement timbrées". Cf. Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napoléon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 63.
  44. ^ Richard Edgcumbe: Musical Reminiscences, Containing an Account of the Italian Opera in England, From 1773 Continued to the Present Time , 4th ed. London 1834, p. 91.
  45. ^ "Sa voix égale et pure dans toute son étendue, sa belle et libre émission du ton, sa grande maniére de phraser, sont encore présentes à ma mémoire". Cf. Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napoléon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 63.
  46. ↑ "Sa méthode était celle qui s'est complètement perdue depuis que l'école grandiose n'existe plus, et que l'on n'enseigne ni à poser largement les sons, ni à prononcer, ni à chanter le récitatif." Cf. Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napoléon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 47.
  47. ↑ Bawr gives an example of the dramatic achievements of Grassini and Crescentini in Romeo e Giulietta . Cf. Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napoléon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 47.
  48. ^ Richard Edgcumbe: Musical Reminiscences, Containing an Account of the Italian Opera in England, From 1773 Continued to the Present Time , 4th ed. London 1834, p. 93.
  49. ↑ Cf. Arthur Pougin: Une Cantatrice 'Amie' de Napolon: Giuseppina Grassini, 1773-1850 . Paris 1920 p. 38
  50. ↑ [...] "avec la méthode de Mme Grassini et l'âme de Mme Pasta". Quotation from the Promenades dans Rome (1829), reproduced here after Suzel Esquier: La musique, “une langue sacrée” . In: Marie-Rose Corredor, Stendhal à Cosmopolis , Grenoble 2007, pp. 131–146, here: p. 131.
  51. ^ Eventi , Corago (accessed April 17, 2021).
  52. ^ Giuseppina Grassini , L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (accessed April 17, 2021).
personal data
SURNAME Grassini, Giuseppina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grassini, Joséphine; Grassini, Giuseppa; Grassini, Josephina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (alto)
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1773
PLACE OF BIRTH Varese
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 1850
PLACE OF DEATH Milan