Isabella Colbran

Isabella Colbran. Painting by Heinrich Schmidt, Museo del Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Isabella (Angela) Colbran , also Isabel or Isabella Colbrand [pronunciation probable. French: kɔlbʁɑ̃ː ], married Isabella Rossini , (born February 2, 1785 in Madrid , † October 7, 1845 in Bologna ) was a Spanish opera singer and composer . She was one of the most famous singers of her time. Her voice had a very large range, but it is difficult to put into modern voice categories; it is sometimes referred to as a mezzo-soprano , others consider it a soprano sfogato, d. H. a voice that can sing both alto and soprano parts , similar to Maria Malibran and Giuditta Pasta . The parts that Gioachino Rossini wrote for her are in the range of an intermediate soprano or high mezzo-soprano with exceptional coloratura ability and great expressiveness. H. Characteristics of the dramatic coloratura soprano (soprano drammatico d'agilità).

Life

Isabella Colbran was the daughter of Teresa Ortola and Giovanni Colbran, a musician at the court of the King of Spain (according to Fétis). She received her first training from F. Pareja and G. Marinelli. A grant from Queen Maria Luisa of Spain allowed Isabella to go to France to complete her training with the famous castrato soprano Girolamo Crescentini ; In 1801, the 16-year-old sang in a concert in Paris with the famous violinist Pierre Rode . She later went to Sicily, where her father owned some lands. In 1807 the Colbran was in Bologna, where she was accepted into the Accademia Filarmonica because of her singing talents ; in thanks she gave three public concerts. The voice of Colbran was described at this time as “a true miracle of sweetness and strength”, “her technique and style simply perfect” ( perfetto ), she had a range of almost three octaves from the low g to the three-stroke e, the Voice was perfectly balanced in all registers and she was able to let it sound "... with always the same softness and energy".

Isabella Colbran had her real and final breakthrough at La Scala in Milan in the role of Volunnia in Nicolini's Coriolano (premiered on December 26, 1808). There followed numerous appearances at the most important opera houses in Italy: 1809 at the Teatro Comunale of Bologna ( Traiano in Dacia by Nicolini on July 15, and Artemisia by Domenico Cimarosa in August), at La Fenice in Venice and again at Scala ( Ifigenia in Aulide by Federici, and Orcamo by Lavigna ). In the season 1810-1811 she sang in Rome at the Teatro Valle and the Teatro Argentina .

Her career began in Naples in 1811 , where she probably made her debut in May as Nina in Paisiello's opera of the same name at the Teatro del Fondo . At the Teatro San Carlo she appeared for the first time on September 8th as Giulia in the Italian premiere of Spontini's La vestale . This was followed by Mozart's Don Giovanni (autumn 1812) and Le nozze di Figaro (March 1814) at the Teatro del Fondo . Her actual stage, however, was to be the Teatro San Carlo, where she sang the first Zetulbé in Il califfo di Baghdad for Manuel García in 1813 (November 8), and the title role of Johann Simon Mayr's Medea in Corinto (November 28).

Isabella Colbran

In Naples, Colbran rose to primadonna assoluta within a very short time , in an ensemble of virtuosos such as the tenors Manuel García and Andrea Nozzari , the bass Michele Benedetti , and later Giovanni David and the alto Rosmunda Pisaroni . The Colbran was admired not only by the public, but also by the King of Naples. She had an affair with the impresario of the royal theaters, Domenico Barbaja . In 1815 Barbaja engaged the new star composer of the Italian opera Gioachino Rossini, who first wrote the virtuoso title role in Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra for her , and the following year the romantic Desdemona in Otello . In the years to come, up to 1822, the female lead roles in six other Rossini operas followed, in which the virtuoso and acting skills and the outstanding stage presence of Colbran were particularly emphasized: the title role in Armida (1817), Elcía in Mosè in Egitto (1818 ), Zoraide in Ricciardo e Zoraide (1818), the title role in Ermione (1819), Elena in La donna del lago (1819) and Anna in Maometto II (1820).

Rossini and Colbran began a love affair as well as an artistic one; They married in small groups in 1822 in the small sanctuary Vergine del Pilar in Castenaso near Bologna, where the Colbran owned a villa that she had inherited from her father, who had died in 1820. From here they went to Vienna, where Barbaja had organized a Rossini season at the Kärntnertortheater . Colbran sang the star there, alongside Nozzari and David, the title role in Zelmira, composed especially for this tour by Rossini (which, however, had already seen a public rehearsal in Naples on February 16, 1822), and in several other operas by her husband , u. a. in Elisabetta and Ricciardo e Zoraide . After the latter, Rossini, the Colbran and the other singers received "uninterrupted ovations". Although Stendhal claimed that Colbran's voice had already shown the first signs of fatigue around 1815, the librettist Giuseppe Carpani wrote in 1822 after hearing it in Zelmira in Vienna :

«La signora Colbrand-Rossini has a dolcissimo metallo di voce tonda e sonora, massimamente nei tuoni di mezzo e ne 'bassi. Un cantare infinito, puro, insinuante. Non ha slanci di forza, ma bel portamento di voce, intonazione perfetta, e scuola forbitissima. Le Grazie poi vanno spruzzando di nettare ogni sua sillaba, ogni suo fiore, ogni gruppetto, ogni trillo. Cantante di primo rango la mostrano le volate di quasi due ottave per semituoni nice e perlate, e gli altri eletti artifici del suo canto… »

“Signora Colbrand-Rossini has a round and sonorous voice of the sweetest metal, especially in the tones of the middle register and in the low ranges. An infinite, pure, haunting song. She has no bursts of strength, but a beautiful portamento of the voice, perfect intonation , and a brilliant training. The graces sprinkle nectar over each of their syllables, each of their decorations, each gruppetto , each trill . As a first-rate singer, they demonstrate their clear and sparkling volates of almost two octaves through all semitones , and the other arts of their singing ... "

- Giuseppe Carpani : Le Rossiniane ossia Lettere musico-teatrali , Padua 1824, p. 158 f

After the resounding success in Vienna, the Rossini couple went back to Castenaso and later to Venice, where the Colbran in Rossini's Maometto II suffered a failure due to constant indisposition. On February 3, 1823, the world premiere of Semiramide followed , the title role of which was the last role Rossini composed for his wife; the opera was such a great success that it had 28 reruns by March 17.

After stops in Castenaso and Paris, Rossini and Colbran traveled to London in December 1823, where they were invited to "about 60" soirees of high society, where Rossini accompanied his wife's singing on the piano (according to Rossini's own statement). On January 24, 1824, a performance of Zelmira followed at the King's Theater , which was a complete failure. This was the last public appearance of Colbran, who then withdrew and lived with Rossini in Paris from August 1824 to summer 1829. She led a lavish life there, gambling and signing promissory notes; in order to be able to settle this, she gave singing lessons in high society at very high prices. All this secretly and behind Rossini's back, whom she led to believe that she was only participating in a few exercises “out of friendship”.

Isabella Colbran, around 1835. Painting by Johann Baptist Reiter , Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek, Munich

In 1829 they both traveled back to Bologna and Castenaso, where Isabella stayed with Rossini's parents when he returned to Paris in 1830. Isabella's life with her parents-in-law was difficult, and Rossini's father bombarded his son with letters complaining about his daughter-in-law, her “prima donna airs” and extravagance. However, Rossini did not return until November 1836, where the Colbran consented to an official separation, which took place in November 1837; Rossini had a new partner since 1832: the former courtesan Olympe Pélissier. The two women got to know each other at this time and are said to have got along well, but later had no contact.

From then on, Isabella and Rossini also rarely saw each other, and only in public. Only when she became seriously ill in the fall of 1845 did he visit her on September 7th, and is said to have left her sick (and death) room after a long conversation "very disturbed". She died a month later on October 7, 1845. Her grave is on the Cimitero Monumentale della Certosa di Bologna , next to her father Giovanni and Rossini's parents.

Isabella Colbran wrote four collections of songs , which she dedicated to the Russian tsarina, her teacher Girolamo Crescentini, the Spanish queen, and the princess Eugénie de Beauharnais .

Rossini married Olympe Pélissier a few months after Isabella's death. But Isabella Colbran was and remained for him the best singer of all, also in comparison with Maria Malibran and Giuditta Pasta.

roll

This is followed by roles that were composed for Isabella Colbran.

Volunnia in Coriolano by Nicolini (December 26, 1808, Milan, Scala)
Ifigenia in Ifigenia in Aulide by Federici (January 28, 1809, Milan, Scala)
Palmide in I Gauri by Mellara (February 22, 1810, Venice, La Fenice)
Pietà celeste in Il pegno di pace by Caffi (March 11, 1810, Venice, La Fenice)
Soprano in L'oracolo di Delfo by Raimondi (August 15, 1811, Naples, San Carlo)
Beroe in Nitteti by Pavesi (December 26, 1811, Turin, Teatro Regio)
Lidia in Lleichen e Lidia by Farinelli (January 31, 1813, Turin, Teatro Regio)
Title role in Nefte by Fioravanti (April 18, 1813, Naples, San Carlo)
Zetulbè in Il califfo di Baghdad by García (September 30, 1813, Naples, Teatro del Fondo)
Title role in Medea in Corinto von Mayr (November 28, 1813, Naples, San Carlo)
Diana in Diana ed Endimione by García (February 9, 1814, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Partenope by Farinelli (August 15, 1814, Naples, San Carlo)
Caritea in Donna Caritea, regina di Spagna by Farinelli (September 16, 1814, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in La donzella di Raab by García (November 4, 1814, Naples, San Carlo)
Soprano in Arianna in Nasso by Mayr (February 19, 1815, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra by Rossini (October 4, 1815, Naples, San Carlo)
Soprano in Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo by Rossini (April 24, 1816, Naples, Teatro del Fondo)
Title role in Gabriella di Vergy by Carafa (July 3, 1816, Naples, Teatro del Fondo)
Desdemona in Otello by Rossini (December 4, 1816, Naples, Teatro del Fondo)
Virginia in Paolo e Virginia by Guglielmo (January 2, 1817, Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini)
Partenope in Il sogno di Partenope by Mayr (January 12, 1817, Naples, San Carlo)
Zemira in Mennone e Zemira by Mayr (March 22, 1817, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Ifigenia in Tauride by Carafa (June 19, 1817, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Armida by Rossini (November 11, 1817, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Boadicea by Morlacchi (January 13, 1818, Naples, San Carlo)
Elcía in Mosè in Egitto by Rossini (March 5, 1818, Naples, San Carlo)
Fecenia in Ebuzio by Generali (September 9, 1818, Naples, San Carlo)
Zoraide in Ricciardo e Zoraide by Rossini (December 3, 1818, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Ermione by Rossini (March 27, 1819, Naples, San Carlo)
Circe in Ulisse nell'isola di Circe by Perrino (23 June 1819, Naples, San Carlo)
Jole in L'apoteosi d'Ercole by Mercadante (August 19, 1819, Naples, San Carlo)
Elena in La donna del lago by Rossini (October 24, 1819, Naples, San Carlo)
Anna Erisso in Maometto II by Rossini (December 3, 1820, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Zelmira by Rossini (February 16, 1822, Naples, San Carlo)
Title role in Semiramide by Rossini (February 3, 1823, Venice, La Fenice)

literature

Rodolfo Celletti: Rossini. In: History of Belcanto. Bärenreiter, Kassel / Basel 1989, pp. 141–191 (Original: Storia del belcanto , Discanto Edizioni, Fiesole, 1983).
Wilhelm Keitel , Dominik Neuner : Gioachino Rossini. Albrecht Knaus Publishing House, Munich 1992.
Carol Kimball (Ed.): Women Composers. A Heritage of Song. Hal Leonard, Milwaukee WI 2004, ISBN 0-634-07871-2 , p. 50.
Ariella Lanfranchi: Colbran, Isabella Angela. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 26: Cironi-Collegno. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1982.
John Warrack, Ewan West: The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford University Press, Oxford u. a. 1992, ISBN 0-19-869164-5 .

Web links

Commons : Isabella Colbran - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Sheet music and audio files by Isabella Colbran in the International Music Score Library Project

Remarks

↑ For a more detailed description of the Colbran's vocal characteristics, see Rodolfo Celletti: Rossini. In: History of Belcanto. Bärenreiter, Kassel / Basel 1989 (original: Storia del belcanto. Discanto Edizioni, Fiesole 1983), pp. 141–191, here: pp. 166–167.
↑ "L'organo della sua voce è veramente un incanto per soavità, robustezza e per prodigiosa estensione di corde, poiché dal sol basso al mi sopracuto, cioè per quasi tre ottave si fa sentire con una progressione semper uguale in morbidezza ed energia… Perfection è il metodo e lo styles del suo cantare… “. This was reported by the newspaper Il Redattore del Reno (nn. 29 and 32, April 1807: cfr. Radiciotti, I, p. 25).
↑ From Italian volare = to fly, expression for a certain type of "flying up and down" ornament in (Italian) music
↑ What is meant here are chromatically ascending and descending runs of almost two octaves
^ The day of departure of Rossini and Colbran
↑ "… non bastando la sua rendita, contraeva debiti e per soddisfarli dava lezioni di canto in alcune delle case più illustri di Parigi, facendo credere a Rossini, che altro non fossero che esercitazioni alle quali si prestava per amicizia"

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w Ariella Lanfranchi: Colbran, Isabella Angela. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 26: Cironi-Collegno. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1982.
^ Wilhelm Keitel , Dominik Neuner : Gioachino Rossini. Verlag Albrecht Knaus, Munich 1992, p. 125.
^ A. Zanolini: Biografia di Gioacchino Rossini. Bologna 1875, p. 60 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Colbran, Isabella
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Colbrandt, Isabel (maiden name); Rossini, Isabella
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Spanish opera singer (mezzo-soprano) and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	February 2, 1785
PLACE OF BIRTH	Madrid
DATE OF DEATH	October 7, 1845
Place of death	Bologna

[1] For a more detailed description of the Colbran's vocal characteristics, see Rodolfo Celletti: Rossini. In: History of Belcanto. Bärenreiter, Kassel / Basel 1989 (original: Storia del belcanto. Discanto Edizioni, Fiesole 1983), pp. 141–191, here: pp. 166–167.

[3] "L'organo della sua voce è veramente un incanto per soavità, robustezza e per prodigiosa estensione di corde, poiché dal sol basso al mi sopracuto, cioè per quasi tre ottave si fa sentire con una progressione semper uguale in morbidezza ed energia… Perfection è il metodo e lo styles del suo cantare… “. This was reported by the newspaper Il Redattore del Reno (nn. 29 and 32, April 1807: cfr. Radiciotti, I, p. 25).

[4] From Italian volare = to fly, expression for a certain type of "flying up and down" ornament in (Italian) music

[5] What is meant here are chromatically ascending and descending runs of almost two octaves

[6] The day of departure of Rossini and Colbran

[8] "… non bastando la sua rendita, contraeva debiti e per soddisfarli dava lezioni di canto in alcune delle case più illustri di Parigi, facendo credere a Rossini, che altro non fossero che esercitazioni alle quali si prestava per amicizia"

[DBI-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w Ariella Lanfranchi: Colbran, Isabella Angela. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 26: Cironi-Collegno. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1982.

[7] Wilhelm Keitel , Dominik Neuner : Gioachino Rossini. Verlag Albrecht Knaus, Munich 1992, p. 125.

[9] A. Zanolini: Biografia di Gioacchino Rossini. Bologna 1875, p. 60 f.