Giuseppina Strepponi

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Giuseppina Strepponi at the piano, painting 1845

Giuseppina Strepponi , actually Clelia Maria Josepha Strepponi (born September 8, 1815 in Lodi , †  November 14, 1897 in Sant'Agata di Villanova sull'Arda near Busseto ) was an Italian opera singer . Since 1847 she was Giuseppe Verdi's partner and since 1859 the second wife of Giuseppe Verdi .

Life

education

Giuseppina (also called "Peppina" ) was the daughter of Feliciano Strepponi (1797–1832), a composer and conductor who had been assistant director at the Teatro Grande in Trieste since 1827 ; her mother was Rosa Cornalba. She was the oldest of five siblings. She received her first musical training, including piano lessons, from her father, who however died of encephalitis in 1832 when she was 17 years old .

When she was admitted to the Milan Conservatory , she won over with her voice and was admitted to study. In 1834 she finished her studies with the first price for Belcanto .

Career as an opera singer

Giuseppina Strepponi began her stage career on Boxing Day 1834 at the Teatro Orfeo in Adria with a performance of Luigi Ricci's opera Chiara di Rosemberg . She then received an engagement at the Teatro Grande in Trieste , where she appeared in January 1835 as the prima donna in Rossini's Matilde di Shabran and in Donizetti's Anna Bolena . At the beginning of her career, in the opinion of the critics, she was considered an outstanding singer and convincing performer.

In spring 1835 she had an engagement at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna , where she a. a. as prima donna appeared in Donizetti's Il Furioso nell'isola di San Domingo ; in Bellini's Norma she sang Adalgisa and in La sonnambula Lisa.

Giuseppina Strepponi, presumably as Lucia di Lammermoor

In the spring of 1836 she sang the leading female roles in La Cenerentola and La gazza ladra by Rossini at La Fenice in Venice, as well as Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani , which was one of her most popular roles until 1841. In May she was in Rome to sing the Imogene in Bellini's Il pirata . Through the mediation of the impresario Alessandro Lanari, she soon appeared at other leading Italian opera houses such as Verona and Florence . Her operatic career also took her to Mantua , Piacenza , Cremona , Trieste , Bologna , Faenza , Lodi, Turin , Senigallia , Lucca , Ancona and Bergamo . In 1838 alone, she took on demanding prima donna roles in eleven different operas, including Norma and Lucia di Lammermoor , as well as four other operas by Bellini and three more by Donizetti. She often performed with the famous baritone Giorgio Ronconi or the tenor Napoleone Moriani .

As a well-paid opera singer, she not only supported her widowed mother, but also took care of the education of two of her sisters and enabled her brother David to study medicine in Pavia .

In the spring of 1839 she was at La Scala in Milan for the first time , where she again embodied Lucia, as well as the leading female roles in Bellini's I puritani , and in Donizetti's love potion and Pia de 'Tolomei . At that time, Strepponi and Giuseppe Verdi probably met while preparing for his opera Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio , but the performance was canceled for various reasons.

In the autumn of 1839, Strepponi was at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, where she sang two of her brilliant roles with Donizetti's Maria di Rudenz and Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda , in which she would appear several times, as well as in Belisario and Marin Faliero , as well as in Mercadantes Il giuramento and Le due illustri rivali .

Temistocle Solera wrote about Giuseppina Strepponi in 1840:

“Vienna, Firenze, Venezia [...] e nella trascorsa primavera la colta Milano, ammirarono in questa giovane i più at doni di natura, resi grandi da un continuo studio; e sì nel genere serio, come nel giocoso, fece dimenticare molte celebri cantanti che l'avean preceduta. Dotata di un'anima estremamente sensitiva, sa insinuarsi e col canto e con l'espressione nel cuore degli spettatori. "

“Vienna, Florence, Venice (...), and last spring also fine Milan, admired in this young lady the most beautiful gifts of nature, which she has increased through constant study; and whether in the serious or the comic genre, it made forgotten many famous singers who had preceded it. Gifted with an extremely sensitive soul, she knows how to ingratiate herself into the hearts of the audience with song and expression. "

- Temistocle Solera : Strenna teatrale europea , 1840

During her engagement at the Teatro Apollo in Rome in 1841 , she also met Donizetti, who dedicated his opera Adelia to her. However, the premiere on February 11th went down in opera history as a scandal. Since more tickets had been sold on the black market than there were seats, the performance had to be stopped after the tumult. The theater director was arrested, but was released the next day, also at the instigation of Giuseppina Strepponi.

During her engagements, Giuseppina Strepponi had several affairs and gave birth to three illegitimate children, on January 14th 1838 the son Camillo (Camillino), on February 9th 1839 the daughter Sinforosa and on November 4th 1841 in Trieste the daughter Adelina, whom she a foster family and who died of dysentery on October 4, 1842. Although the impresario Camillo Cirelli legitimized the first two children, it remains uncertain whether he was the father.

The first documented encounter with Verdi took place in Milan in December 1841, when the composer went through the roles of Nabucco, which was about to be premiered, with her and Giorgio Ronconi .

End of career

Verdi around 1844, unknown photographer

Her frequent occurrences (up to six times a week) and her pregnancies ruined her voice early on. Only a few months after the birth of her third child, she appeared in Genoa in January and February 1842 in Giovanni Pacini's Saffo and Mercadante's Il giuramento , and at Scala in Donizetti's Belisario . In the subsequent premiere of Verdi's Nabucco on March 9, 1842, she had - not for the first time - vocal and health problems. Nevertheless, her friendship with Verdi began with Nabucco , whom she subsequently advised on theater issues.

After a one-year break and a recreational stay in Recoare, she returned to the stage on April 17, 1843 in Parma for the first performance of Nabucco as Abigaille. Verdi only conducted the first two performances, but stayed in Parma. She also sang the Abigaille in the autumn of the same year in Bologna, in January 1844 in Verona and in October 1845 in Alessandria . Verdi often accompanied her, and by then the love affair between the two could have started. The Strepponi and Verdi also worked together in performances of Ernani in Bergamo in 1844.

Her engagement in Palermo from October 1844 to March 1845 was again marked by voice problems, and after the premiere of Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix , one critic wrote of a “fading star” and a “poor performance”. Nevertheless, she was able to celebrate triumphs again in her subsequent engagements in Alessandria and Modena .

After a last performance of Nabucco on January 11, 1846 in Modena, she finally resigned from the stage to open a singing school in Paris , also on Verdi's recommendation. After two concerts, even the composer and music critic Hector Berlioz expressed himself positively about her great voice and the warmth she put into her singing.

Verdi's partner

Giuseppina Strepponi in a portrait by Karoly Gyurkovich

A reunion with Verdi took place in June 1847 when he traveled to London via Paris to prepare the premiere of his opera I masnadieri . After the premiere and the first repetition, he returned to Giuseppina in Paris, where he stayed until the summer of 1849, with two interruptions, when I Lombardi transformed into the Grand opéra Jérusalem , completed the opera Il corsaro and the Risorgimento opera on the battle of Legnano composed. At that time he was often to be found in the Strepponi house, and she was instrumental in bringing about the operas. Verdi dedicated a song composition to her in 1848, "L'Abandonnée" (The Forsaken).

In the revolutionary year of 1848 Giuseppina Strepponi lost many singing students. After Verdi returned to Italy in July 1849 and rented the Palazzo Dordoni-Cavalli in Busseto , she followed him in September of the same year. The singer had a hard time in Busseto. She was cut and the pew next to her was empty. There was also an argument with Verdi's father. After further hostilities, Verdi and Giuseppina withdrew to the Sant'Agata estate, bought in 1848, in the spring of 1851. The couple spent the winter of 1851/52 in Paris, where they, among others, The Lady of Camellias by Alexandre Dumas the Elder J. , who saw the literary model for La traviata on stage.

Giuseppina Strepponi continued to play a key role in creating Verdi's operas. She translated the literary models by Il trovatore , Simon Boccanegra and later Aida and accompanied the composition process in an advisory capacity. In addition, she was the one who largely dealt with the correspondence with publishers, theater managers and singers.

From the time when Verdi was in Rome without her company in 1853 and rehearsing the troubadour there , Giuseppina Strepponi's love letters have survived in which she once regretted that she could not have children with Verdi. Verdi returned at the end of January to work on La traviata with the librettist Piave , but left her on February 21 to rehearse for La traviata in Venice. In October 1853 she traveled to Paris with Verdi to prepare the world premiere of the opera Les vêpres siciliennes , which is planned for the world exhibition . Both returned to Italy at the end of December 1855. In 1858, at the time the masked ball was being composed , she once complained in a letter that Verdi was more interested in building a bridge and planting trees than in composition. He probably hasn't written a note in months, but at least he's starting to scowl at the score paper. Verdi had previously admitted the same: "Peppina reads, writes, works: I do nothing."

Marriage to Verdi

A letter from Giuseppina Strepponi from 1859

On August 29, 1859, at the end of the Second Italian War of Independence, Verdi and Giuseppina Strepponi legitimized their relationship with a church wedding in Collonges-sous-Salève ( Savoy ) near Geneva. The Verdis then returned to Sant'Agata to remodel their villa. Due to Verdi's membership in parliament, he was often absent from 1861 onwards. In the summer of 1861, the librettist Piave visited several times to work with Verdi on the libretto of the opera La forza del destino planned for Saint Petersburg . The next time was filled with travel. The Verdis set out for Russia on November 24, but returned to Paris in March, as the premiere was delayed due to the prima donna's illness. After a stopover in Paris, where the composition of the Hymn of the Nations was written, Giuseppina Verdi first traveled alone to London, where she quickly learned English and conducted the negotiations. Verdi followed her in April. In the next winter the couple traveled again to Russia and then to Paris, where Verdi was supposed to rehearse Les vêpres siciliennes . However, Verdi was outraged by the sloppiness and returned to Italy.

In 1865 Verdi resigned as a member of parliament. The marriage had been in crisis since 1866 at the latest. At this time Giuseppina Verdi complained several times in letters and in diary notes about her husband's bad mood and the cooled relationship. The relationship improved somewhat when Verdi adopted little Maria Filomena, the daughter of a niece. In early 1868, in her diary notes, written in French, she again complained about Verdi's dissatisfaction and marital disputes.

There was a serious marital crisis, not least because of the singer Teresa Stolz , who Verdi had met at the latest in 1869 during the rehearsals for the Italian premiere of the revised version of La forza del destino and who would soon play a decisive role in his life and several times in Sant ' Agata was visiting. In the Italian premiere, Teresa Stolz sang the Aida , the soprano part in the Messa da Requiem and all the main roles in Verdi's works after 1850. It is doubtful whether it remained a platonic love . It was only between 1878 and 1884, when Arrigo Boito was able to persuade Verdi to compose Otello , that the couple fully reconciled.

Giuseppina Verdi 1897

Verdi and his wife traveled to Paris for the last time in 1894. The Hungarian writer Dezső Szomori judged on an encounter with the Verdis that Verdi was a gentleman with small eyes and next to him Giuseppina looked like an old bird, but continued to write: “A beautiful and charming couple who grew old together in the world of music are."

Giuseppina Verdi suffered from stomach problems and arthritis in her old age and was barely able to move in the last year of her life. Verdi also suffered from age-related complaints. In the autumn of 1897, the now 82-year-old was still preparing the traditional winter change of residence to Genoa, but was then bedridden. After a long illness, she died of pneumonia on November 14, 1897 in Sant'Agata near Busseto and was initially buried in Milan. Verdi, who passed away in Milan on January 27, 1901, had expressed the wish in 1899 that he would later be buried next to his wife in the house chapel of the old people's home he founded for impoverished musicians ( Casa di Riposo ) . Verdi was initially buried next to her in a Milan cemetery, but on February 26, 1901, both bodies were exhumed and transferred to the oratory in the courtyard of Casa di Riposo, where they found their final resting place. A choir of 900 singers led by Arturo Toscanini sang the prisoner's choir Va pensiero from Nabucco.

Aftermath

Giuseppina Strepponi was remembered primarily as Verdi's partner and later wife. She has been the subject of several biographies. Her numerous letters with publishers and agents attest to her active role in Verdi's life.

The life of Giuseppina Strepponi and her relationship with Verdi are the subject of the opera Verdi and the Lady with Sheet Music by Mathias Husmann , which premiered on September 8, 2015 at the Hamburg Chamber Opera under the musical direction of Florian Csizmadia.

Opera roles (world premieres)

The following parts were composed specifically for the voice of Giuseppina Strepponi. Other important roles from her repertoire are not listed here, but can be found in the text above.

  • 1835: Malvina in Elena e Malvina by Egisto Vignozzi (December 1, 1835, Teatro San Benedetto in Venice)
  • 1838: Title role in Alisia di Rieux by Giuseppe Lillo (spring 1838, Teatro Argentina in Rome)
  • 1838: Caterina di Cleves in Caterina di Guisa by Fabio Campana (summer 1838, Teatro degli Accademici Avvalorati in Livorno)
  • 1840: Title role in Rosmunda by Giulio Alary (June 10, 1840, Teatro della Pergola in Florence)
  • 1841: Title role in Gaetano Donizetti's Adelia , which the composer specifically dedicated to her (February 11, Teatro Valle in Rome),
  • 1841: Eleonora in Luigi Rolla by Federico Ricci (March 30, Teatro della Pergola in Florence)
  • 1842: Abigaille in Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi (March 9, La Scala in Milan )

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Francesco Regli (ed.): 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 from 1800 al 1860 . E. Dalmazzo, Turin 1860.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Dino Rizzo: Strepponi, Giuseppina (Clelia Maria Josepha) , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 94, 2019. Online at “Treccani” (Italian; accessed on June 16, 2020)
  3. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 16.
  4. ↑ a b Tobben 2003, p. 17.
  5. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 34.
  6. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 9; P. 35f.
  7. ↑ Fischer 2002, p. 145.
  8. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 36ff; Fischer 2002, p. 145.
  9. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 54.
  10. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 57.
  11. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 58.
  12. ↑ Fischer 2002, p. 144, and Tobben 2003, p. 59f.
  13. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 60.
  14. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 66ff; Verdi Handbook, time table p. 603.
  15. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 72ff.
  16. ↑ Fischer 2002, p. 146.
  17. ↑ Tobben 2003, pp. 84f.
  18. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 99.
  19. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 116.
  20. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 129ff.
  21. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 133.
  22. ↑ Gerhard, Schweikert, Verdi Handbuch , p. 680, and Tobben 2003, p. 164.
  23. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 189.
  24. ↑ Verdi's letter of September 1899, quoted in Tobben 2003, p. 183.
  25. ↑ Tobben 2003, p. 193.
  26. ^ Hamburg: Bravo for "Verdi" world premiere. Performance report by Focus . Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  27. ^ Elena e Malvina (Egisto Vignozzi) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  28. ^ Alisia di Rieux (Giuseppe Lillo) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  29. ^ Caterina di Guisa (Fabio Campana) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
  30. ^ Rosmunda (Giulio Eugenio Abramo Alari) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
personal data
SURNAME Strepponi, Giuseppina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Verdi, Giuseppina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian soprano
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Lodi
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1897
Place of death Sant'Agata di Villanova sull'Arda near Busseto