Virginia Pozzi-Branzati

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Virginia Pozzi-Branzati ( May 11, 1833 in Faenza - April 2, 1909 in Milan ) was an Italian opera singer with a soprano voice . Her family name occasionally appears as Pozzi-Branzanti .

life and work

Pozzi-Branzati was one of the leading sopranos of her time in Italy. Following an old tradition, she mastered both the coloratura subject and the design of dramatic roles. She took on numerous tragic roles, such as the title role in Gaetano Donizetti's Gemma di Vergy (1860 in Piacenza), a woman who cannot have children, is cast out and finally has her beloved man murdered, or as Schiller's and Verdi's Luisa Miller (1869 in Teatro Argentina in Rome), who dies of poison with her lover. But she was also represented in Melodramma serio , for example as Leonora in the opera La Contessa d'Amalfi by Errico Petrella (1867 in Rimini and in Rome, 1871 in Ascoli Piceno), and could both in the Semiseria (the semi-serious opera), as convince even in the comic subject. As Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix (1857 in the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genoa, 1862 in Parma) she played a peasant girl who went mad for a short time when the marriage with the beloved count threatened to fail, but which was quickly cured by his affectionate expression. As Norina in Don Pasquale and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, she turned older gentlemen's heads, got her way, and finally married the handsome and young tenor.

Pozzi-Branzati's first known appearance dates from 1853 - the title role in Carlo Pedrotti's Florida at the Teatro Grande in Brescia. This composer, now completely forgotten, was very popular at the time and the singer also appeared in three more of his operas - as Vittoria in Tutte in maschere (in Turin, 1861 in Trieste and Milan, 1862 in Nice, 1866 in Bucharest), as Isabella d'Aragon (1860 in Piacenza) and as Angelica in the world premiere of Guerra in Quattro (1861 in Milan, 1862 in Parma). Her list of roles also includes a number of other composers who are unknown today, such as Serafino De Ferraris , whose Rigoletta in Pipelè she sang in Bologna in 1857, or Giuseppe Apolloni , whose Leila in L'Ebreo she embodied in Catania and Bucharest. She interpreted two important roles by the German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer , the master of the French grand opéra : the Inez in L'Africaine (1868 in Turin, 1870 at La Scala in Milan ) and the Valentine in Les Huguenots (1870 in Parma).

The last role recorded is Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor , also a woman who went mad, a woman who, however, committed a murder herself and could not be saved. She sang this role in Reggio nell'Emilia in 1877 and in the Teatro Dante Alighieri in Ravenna in 1879 . Between the beginning and the end of her career there were 26 years in the service of Belcanto and many trips throughout Italy, but also beyond the borders. Already in 1853 and 1854 she made guest appearances in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, in 1862 and 1867 in Nice, 1865 and 1966 in Bucharest and her guest performances in Russia were so successful that she was praised as "la Frezzolini della Newa". Erminia Frezzolini was an Italian prima donna who dominated the opera scene from 1838 to 1860.

After the end of her career, she spent the evening of her life in the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti , a retirement home for former musicians in Milan. This is also called Casa Verdi because it was donated by Giuseppe Verdi (and because both the maestro and his second wife, Giuseppina Strepponi , were buried in the crypt there). Pozzi-Branzati had sung leading roles in at least four Verdi operas: In addition to Luisa Miller , she also played Lucrezia in I due Foscari (1856 in Modena), Gisela in I Lombardi (1867 in Nice) and Leonore in La forza del destino (1870 at the Teatro Apollo in Rome).

Roles in world premieres (selection)

source

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It is not possible to read from the source whether it was Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia (1782) or Rossini's opera of the same name (1816).
  2. ^ Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon , Volume 4., p. 5245.
  3. ^ Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon , Volume 4., p. 5191.
personal data
SURNAME Pozzi-Branzati, Virginia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pozzi-Branzanti, Virginia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer with a soprano voice
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Faenza
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1909
Place of death Milan