Rosmunda Pisaroni

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Rosmunda Pisaroni. Engraving by Giovanni Antonio Sasso

Rosmunda Pisaroni , rare: Rosmunda Pesaroni , also Benedetta Rosamunda Pisaroni , Benedetta Maria Rosmunda Pisaroni or Rosmunda Pisaroni Carrara ( May 16, 1793 in Piacenza , - August 6, 1872 in Rivergaro ) was an Italian opera singer. She had an unusually large vocal range and initially appeared as a soprano , but became famous primarily as an alto , especially in works by Gioachino Rossini .

Life

Rosmunda was the daughter of Giambattista Pisaroni and Luigia Prati. She had her first lessons with Vincenzo Colla, and later with Giacomo Carcani. At the age of 12 her father brought her to Milan , where she studied with some famous castrati, first with Moschini, later with Luigi Marchesi , Gasparo Pacchierotti , and Giovanni Battista Velluti .

After her training, she made her debut in Bergamo in 1811 at the age of 18 in the title role (soprano) of Ginevra di Scozia by Simon Mayr , alongside the castrato Angelo Testore as Ariodante; a year later she sang again in Bergamo in Mayr's Adelasia ed Aleramo , this time the trouser role of Aleramo. In the carnival season 1812/13 she embodied the role of Rosminda at the Teatro Comunale of Piacenza in the world premiere (= premiere) of Nicolini's Carlo Magno , alongside Velluti as Vitekindo. It was a triumphant success. Her magnificent voice at that time had a large range of about three octaves, and combined the registers of "soprano, tenor and bass" (C. Lattanzi, Il Corriere delle dame , February 13, 1813).

In June 1813 she married Venanzio Maloberti, against the will of her father, who had his son-in-law, however, contractually guarantee him the exclusive right to the daughter's income for the coming year.

From the summer of 1813 Pisaroni was at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence , where she appeared in Cimarosa's Artemisia, as Lilla in Martín y Soler's Una cosa rara , and in the title role of Alzira by Manfroce (WP).

A well-known anecdote relates that Gioachino Rossini heard the pisaroni in the soprano role of Amenaide in his successful opera Tancredi in January 1814 , and advised her to limit herself to alto parts. In any case, in 1814 at the Teatro Nuovo in Padua she sang the part of Arsace in Rossini's Aureliano in Palmira , originally written for Velluti ; in this role she was very successful, and sang it in the same year in Brescia, and in 1817 in Treviso and Bassano.

After the year of paternal privilege passed, her husband began to worry about her career; but when he followed her to Bologna, he fell ill and died in March 1815. The young widow was inconsolable and canceled all obligations until the 1816 carnival season. Tragically, however, she fell ill with smallpox a short time later, from which she recovered, but which ruined her face, so that from now on she was considered ugly; the disease also hit her eyes, making her half-blind.

Nevertheless, Rosmunda Pisaroni returned to the opera stage and became one of the most important interpreters of trouser roles and alto roles in Rossini's operas: from 1816 she sang the role of the protagonist in Tancredi in Parma (Teatro Ducale) and in Vicenza (Teatro Eretenio); also from 1816 the title role in Ciro in Babilonia : first in Venice (Teatro San Luca), later also in Ferrara and Modena; In 1817 Rossini's Demetrio e Polibio followed in Venice (Teatro San Benedetto). In the Carnival of 1817 she also sang the leading role of Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri (Venice, Teatro San Moisè).

In July 1817 in Padua, Giacomo Meyerbeer wrote for her the part of Romilda in his first Italian opera Romilda e Costanza . Meyerbeer himself wrote in a letter that “the prima donna” had fallen so much in love with him that she wanted to marry him on the spot, but since he did not reply, she had ensured that the orchestra played wrongly in the first performance sabotage the opera; Meyerbeer did not mention a name, but everything indicates that the unfortunate, rejected prima donna was the Pisaroni.

Nonetheless, only a few months later, in October 1817, she married for the second time: the handsome Giuseppe Santi Carrara from Padua, former first flutist at La Fenice in Venice. According to "old biographers" of the Pisaroni, Carrara is said to have been "... the first among their supporters and the greatest waster of their wealth".

Between 1818 and 1820 the singer had a contract at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, where Rossini composed three parts for her: the surprisingly small role of Zomira in Ricciardo e Zoraide (premiere on December 3, 1818), the much more interesting and expressive Andromaca in Ermione (premiere on March 27, 1819), and the brilliant trouser role of Malcolm in La donna del lago (premiere on September 24, 1819). In the latter role she was particularly successful and embodied it in Padua, Bologna, Rome, Florence and Milan.

From 1821–1822 she performed at the Real Teatro Carolino in Palermo, and later in Parma, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Venice and Turin. In 1821 she sang in Costantino von Hartmann Stunz alongside Nicola Tacchinardi.

The Pisaroni made her debut at La Scala in Milan in 1822 , where she once again worked with Meyerbeer, who wrote the role of Almanzor for her in his opera L'esule di Granata (premiered March 12, 1822); the cast also included soprano Adelaide Tosi and bass Luigi Lablache . The Gazzetta di Milano wrote three days after the premiere in a somewhat nostalgic comparison of Pisaroni with the singing of the great castrato:

“The Pisaroni has no rivals in her singing style except in our memory of those sopranos who brought such sweetness to those who heard her, and she continues here (in her duet with Lablache), as in her arias, to us to prepare a pleasure with the balance of her voice and with delicate inflections, which stronger organs and more engaging (facial) features often fail to inspire. "

- Gazzetta di Milano : on the premiere of Meyerbeer's L'esule di Granata , March 15, 1822

At the end of the year the Pisaroni performed for the first time at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, in Michele Carafa's Eufemio di Messina (UA). In 1823 she was at the Teatro del Giglio in Lucca , where she a. a. sang the first serse in Pacini's Il Temistocle alongside Nicola Tacchinardi . In this role she also shone in Livorno, Genoa, Milan, and in 1833 in Piacenza. First, however, she appeared in Lucca in Mercadantes Didone abbandonata as Enea in autumn 1823 . Shortly afterwards she worked with Mercadante at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, where she started the role of Argiro in his Gli amici di Siracusa (February 7, 1824), and also sang Abenamet in Donizetti's Zoraide di Granata . In 1824 and 1825 the Pisaroni also returned to La Scala, where she sang Adolfo again in Pacinis Temistocle and in the world premiere of Carafas Il sonnambulo .

In 1827 Rosmunda Pisaroni made her debut at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris, where Rossini wanted her as Arsace for his Semiramide ; she had sung this role several times in Italy before, a. a. 1826 in Florence and Rome. An anecdote relates that the Pisaroni began the Cavatina des Arsace, "Eccomi alfine in Babilonia", with their backs to the audience so that people could not see their pockmarked faces; but her song and the power of her wonderful voice won her a tumultuous applause. The French capital's newspaper, letter and memoir writers worked hard to describe the sensational performance of the Pisaroni. Comtesse Harriet Granville paints a picture almost like a premonition of Victor Hugo's bell ringer of Notre Dame :

«Magnifica, sublime, entraînante la Pisaroni. Ripugnante, storpia, deforme, nana la Pisaroni. Ha una testa enormous e un viso davvero gross. Quando ride o canta, la sua bocca si torce verso un orecchio, e ha l'aria d'una persona stravolta dal dolore. … Eppure, non aveva ancora cantato per dieci minuti che il pubblico parigino era in estasi »

“Great, sublime, gorgeous, the Pisaroni. Repulsive, crippled, deformed, a dwarf, the Pisaroni. She has an enormous head and a really ugly face. When she laughs or sings, her mouth adorns itself up to her ear and looks like it was twisted with pain ... And yet she had sung for less than ten minutes and the Parisian audience was in a frenzy. "

- Harriet Granville : Letters of Harriet I, 1894, p. 410

The music critic Castil-Blaze fortunately concentrated on the virtuoso's musical and artistic qualities:

«Uno stile d'esecuzione nobile, elegant, grandioso, pomposo; un sentimento profondo della musica; un'espressione che seduce e trascina; una conoscenza perfetta degli effetti della melodia e del partito che se ne può trarre combinandoli destramente con gli effetti della scena »

“A noble, elegant, grandiose, pompous style of execution; a deep feeling for the music; an expression that seduces and carries away; a perfect knowledge of the effects of the melody and the score, resolved and skillfully combined with the effects of the scene. "

- Castil-Blaze : Journal des débats , May 28, 1827

From Paris, Rosmunda Pisaroni went on a five-month tour to London in early 1829, where she only sang Rossini at the King's Theater , a. a. at the side of Maria Malibran . In the summer of 1830 she returned to Italy. In Trieste she sang Romeo in Vaccais Giulietta e Romeo , and in 1831 she returned to La Scala, a. a. as Falliero in Rossini's Bianca e Falliero .

The last operas she sang on stage included Rossini's La donna del Lago in Florence in 1832, and Pacini's Temistocle in her native Piacenza in 1833. She then withdrew from the stage in 1833. In February 1833 she gave another concert in Piacenza and sang for the last time in 1848 during a patriotic manifestation.

Rosmunda Pisaroni owned the seventeenth-century Palazzo Rota in her hometown of Piacenza and a rural villa in Colonese di Rivergaro , in the Piacenza area. There she died at the age of 79 on August 6, 1872. She left a good part of her fortune to the poor in Piacenza. Her tomb in the city cemetery is adorned with a marble bust.

Roles (selection)

The following small selection gives only a few important roles that were composed for the voice of the Pisaroni.

  • Romilda in Romilda e Costanza by Meyerbeer (July 19, 1817, Padua)
  • Zomira in Ricciardo e Zoraide by Rossini (December 3, 1818, Naples, Teatro San Carlo,)
  • Andromaca in Ermione by Rossini (March 27, 1819, Naples, San Carlo,)
  • Dejanira in L'apoteosi d'Ercole by Mercadante (August 19, 1819, Naples, San Carlo,)
  • Malcolm Groeme in La donna del lago by Rossini (October 24, 1819, Naples, San Carlo,)
  • Almanzor in L'esule di Granata by Meyerbeer (March 12, 1822, Milan)
  • Lotario in Eufemio di Messina by Carafa (December 26, 1822, Rome)
  • Serse in Temistocle by Pacini (23 August 1823, Lucca)
  • Argiro in Gli amici di Siracusa by Mercadante (7 February 1824, Rome, Teatro Argentina)
  • Adolfo in Il Sonnambulo by Carafa (November 13, 1824, Milan)

swell

  • Giorgio Appolonia: Le voci di Rossini , EDA, Turin, 1992.
  • Marco Beghelli:  Pisaroni, Benedetta Maria Rosmunda. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 84:  Pio VI – Ponzo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2015.
  • Jeremy Commons & Don White: “Giacomo Meyerbeer: Romilda e Costanza”, booklet text on the CD box: A Hundred Years of Italian Opera 1810–1820 , Opera Rara ORCH 103, pp. 152–164, here: pp. 157–158.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ “del soprano, del tenore e del basso a un tempo”.
  2. ↑ According to Corago, there is no evidence that the Pisaroni performed in Genoa as an amenaide, or was it just an audition?
  3. ↑ The disease and its consequences are also mentioned by: Jeremy Commons & Don White: "Giacomo Meyerbeer: Romilda e Costanza", booklet text for the CD box: A Hundred Years of Italian Opera 1810-1820 , Opera Rara ORCH 103, p. 157 -158.
  4. ↑ This is very obvious in that the other (main) actress in Costanza, the soprano Caterina Lipparini, had a well-known affair with a Count Giacomo Negri.
  5. ^ "... secondo gli antichi biografi, fu il primo tra i suoi sostenitori e il maggior sperperatore del suo patrimonio".
  6. ↑ Corago erroneously writes Rosmunda “Pesaroni” here.
  7. ↑ d. H. the castrati (translator's note).
  8. ↑ (Note from the translator)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Marco Beghelli:  Pisaroni, Benedetta Maria Rosmunda. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 84:  Pio VI – Ponzo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2015.
  2. ^ Giovanni Simone Mayr: Ginevra di Scozia , Bergamo 1811 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  3. ^ Giovanni Simone Mayr: Adelasia ed Aleramo , Bergamo 1812 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  4. ↑ Nicolini: Carlo Magno , Piacenza, February 1813 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ Cimarosa: Artemisia , Florenz, summer 1813 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  6. ↑ Martín y Soler: Una cosa rara , Florence, autumn 1813 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  7. ↑ Manfroce: Alzira , Florenz, autumn 1813 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  8. ↑ Rossini: Aureliano in Palmira , Padua 1814 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Performances with Rosmunda Pisaroni in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  10. ^ Rossini: Tancredi , Vicenza, Carnival 1816 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  11. ↑ Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia , Venice, Lent season 1816 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  12. ^ Rossini: Demetrio e Polibio , Venice, spring 1817 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  13. ^ Rossini: L'italiana in Algeri , Venice, Carnival 1817 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  14. ^ Meyerbeer: Romilda e Costanza , Padua, July 1817 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  15. ↑ Jeremy Commons & Don White: "Giacomo Meyerbeer: Romilda e Costanza", booklet text for the CD box: A Hundred Years of Italian Opera 1810–1820 , Opera Rara ORCH 103, pp. 157–158.
  16. ↑ Rossini: La donna del lago , Naples, September 1819 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  17. ^ Meyerbeer: L'esule di Granata , Milan, March 1822 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  18. ↑ Jeremy Commons & Don White: "Giacomo Meyerbeer: L'esule di Granata", booklet text on the CD box: A Hundred Years of Italian Opera 1820–1830, Opera Rara ORCH 104, pp. 55–66, here: p. 58 -59.
  19. ↑ Michele Carafa: Eufemio di Messina , Rome, 1822–1823 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  20. ↑ Pacini: Il Temistocle , Lucca, autumn 1823 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  21. ↑ Mercadante: Didone abbandonata , Lucca, autumn 1823 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  22. ↑ Mercadante: Gli amici di Siracusa , Rome, February 1824 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  23. ↑ Donizetti: Zoraide di Granata , Rome, January 1824 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  24. ↑ Pacini: Temistocle , Milan, September 1824 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  25. ^ Carafa: Il sonnambulo , Milan, November 1824 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 25, 2017.
  26. ↑ Mongrédien, 2008, VII, p. 142.
  27. ^ Vaccai: Giulietta e Romeo , Triest, autumn 1830 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  28. ^ Rossini: Bianca e Falliero , Milan, Carnival 1831 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  29. ↑ Rossini: La donna del Lago , Florence, autumn 1832 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
  30. ↑ Pacini: Temistocle , Piacenza, Carnival 1833 in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 26, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Pisaroni, Rosmunda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pesaroni, Rosmunda; Pisaroni, Benedetta Rosamunda; Pisaroni, Benedetta Maria Rosmunda (full name); Pisaroni Carrara, Rosmunda (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Piacenza
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1872
Place of death Rivergaro