Giuseppina Strepponi in Paris (With a Review by Berlioz) Marcello Conati
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Verdi Forum Number 6 Article 3 3-1-1979 Giuseppina Strepponi in Paris (with a review by Berlioz) Marcello Conati Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf Part of the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation Conati, Marcello (1979) "Giuseppina Strepponi in Paris (with a review by Berlioz)," Verdi Newsletter: No. 6, Article 3. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Verdi Forum by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Giuseppina Strepponi in Paris (with a review by Berlioz) Keywords Giuseppina Strepponi Verdi, Giuseppe Verdi, Hector Berlioz, Paris This article is available in Verdi Forum: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss6/3 Giuseppina Strepponi in Paris with a review by Berlioz by Marcello Conati Verdi's biographers have not told us much And he mentions the announcement of two about the last period of Giuseppina Strep concerts, on November 3 and 5, which she poni's artistic career, which was spent, as is was to give in the Salle Herz. Walker re well known, in Paris, from the autumn of marks: 'Giuseppina seems to have settled 1846 to 1848. Even Frank Walker, who so down comfortably in Paris, secured pupils carefully reconstructed both the artistic and and won friends. Verdi had given her a letter the emotional career of the singer before her of introduction to the Escudier brothers.' meeting with Verdi (some of his conclusions, And that is just about all we have been told however, have now been thrown into ques about Strepponi's Parisian activity as singer tion by the researches of Mary Jane Matz), and teacher (barring a few items that can be produced only an announcement from La dug from the Verdi correspondence), during France Musicale (the magazine of the Es the period when she joined her life to Verdi's. cudier brothers, Verdi's French publishers) However, the accounts that appeared in of 15 November 1846, about the course of La France Musicale about Strepponi's pub singing lessons that Strepponi proposed to lic activity in Paris are far more numerous. give. Ut is reproduced at the end of this arti Many of them were reprinted in the Italian cle.] Walker preceded this by quoting some theatre magazines of the period, such as La of an article in La France Musicale of 18 Gazzetta Musicale di Milano, published by October which announced her arrival in the Ricordi, L'ltalia Musicale, published by city and described her career: Lucca, the Milan Bazar, the Bologna Teatri Arte ed Letteratura, and above all the Milan Moda and Pirata, edited respectively by La Strepponi is know in Italy not only as a G. B. Lampugnani and F. Regli, both of them great singer but still more as a woman of men on good terms with Verdj. In La Moda much wit and spirit. She has always been for 15 November 1846, for example, we can greatly sought qfter by the world of the no read, in the original French, a review of one bility, who, qfter having applauded her on of the two concerts mentioned above, put on the stage, loved to applaud and admire her at by La France Musicale (i.e. by the Escudier their most brilliant gatherings. brothers): 7 Mme Strepponi, there is a consummate art Strepponi has become one ofthe most ardent ist, one ofthose superior singing beings who champions ofthe new school, one ofthe most bring honor to Italy. Now let them tell us that cogent interpreters of dramatic singing. Italy has no more singers, that the Italian Giuseppe Verdi wrote Nabuccofor her. The theatres are dying for lack of performers, music of the new school is not as easy as that the royal musical line of that country is some people would make out: the style is dying out. Not so: beyond the Alps there is fervent, powerful, and demands above all the still enough to supply all the theatres of the utmost intelligence. This music is.filled with world with music and with voices. At Strep contrasts and unexpected effects. With bad poni's first notes, there was a deep silence. interpreters, the impassioned and graceful Soon the admiration broke out. Three melodies would pass unremarked; but when thousand hands were clapping at once, and they are sung as the composer conceived yet the artist had onlyjust begun the cavatina them, then they change their aspect and ofVerdi's Emani. Gradually the enthusiasm rouse enthusiasm. I have named Strepponi: grew. At the end of the piece, the applause this singer, who is giving lessons, will explain and the bravos were universal. A triumph! better than I can the difference between the Rarely have we seen admiration mount to so old and the new methods ofsinging. And thus high a pitch. In the Elisir duet with Botelli, Strepponi can be credited with having taken and in Verdi's original song Le Ramoneur, the first steps to revolutionize singing--<l Strepponi set out to show that her nightin revolution whose fruits will soon be appar gale organ could tackle light music and dra ent. matic music with equal felicity. To appreciate the full force of that af Foreign celebrities are always ap firmation, we must remember that a few proached with some suspicion, and it often weeks later Verdi's first French opera, happens that an artist lauded to the skies in Jerusalem, the reworking of / lombardi, was London, Germany, and Italy comes to grief to be mounted at the Opera. Its heroine, Ju in Paris. But this timefame spoke true. Strep lian Van-Gelder, was, as we shall see, work poni is a model of taste. Formed in the new ing with Strepponi at the time. The affirma Italian school, she has taken art to the high tion should give pause to those who insist so est pitch, and one can affirm that perhaps much on the prevailingly Bellinian and never has a more appealing voice been Donizettian characteristics of the early united with so fine an intelligence. Verdi's vocal writing. Perhaps "revolution" Strepponi is an artist, a true artist. Listen is too strong a word. But note the stress, from to her, and you can judge how many hours, the point of view of French vocal tradition, days, months, years it takes to achieve those on the radical change in dramatic singing ef astonishing effects that make the art of fected by Verdi right from Oberto and singing the most beautiful and most intox Nabucco-<iuring the years when not only icating of all the arts. Tadolini, Frezzolini, and Strepponi but also Barbieri-Nini, Fraschini, Varesi, and It is clear that Strepponi from her first Colini-to name only some of the major ex Parisian appearance intended to be a cham ponents of the new Verdian manner-were pion of Verdi's music; it provided two of the coming to the fore. three works on her program. One was the In November 1846, Strepponi, evidently song Lo spazzacamino, one of the Sei to draw Paris's attention to her singing Romanze published by Lucca in 184.S. A course, took part in another concert organ month before the concert, in its issue of 4 ized by La France Musicale, in the 'halls of October 1846, La France Musicale had an M. Orfila'. From II Pirata of 1.5 December nounced the publication of the Sei Romanze 1846 we learn that the singer in French translation; we do not know whether Strepponi sang the song in French or performed only music by Verdi, the com in Italian. poser ofthe day: a duet from Nabucco, with Note the emphasis on the 'new Italian Sig. Torriglioni, and the aria from Attila. school'-the new stylistic direction, toward Ha/ivy, who was present, offered Mme canto d'azione, of which Verdi was deemed Strepponi his liveliest congratulations, and the standard-bearer, but which had begun to also complimented her on her choice of flower in the late works of Donizetti and pieces, which were of uncommon beauty. Mercadante and with singers of powerful temperament such as Tadolini, Frezzolini, But there was an even more famous guest at and Strepponi herself. About a year later, La the concert: Hector Berlioz. His account of France Musicale defined the 'new school' Strepponi's singing (reproduced in the origi more explicitly in a little profile of Strepponi. nal French in the issue of II Pirata mentioned It was reprinted in La Moda of 10 October above) forms the closing section of a long 1847, in Italian translation: feuilleton about recent musical events in 9 Paris, in the Journal des Dibats for 20 Tendaysearlier,initsissueofl5April 1847, November 1846----a document overlooked by Teatri Arte e Letteratura had published the Verdi biographers: following: .... I attended two very interesting con In Paris, Mme Strepponi is now the singer of certs, one offered to its subscribers by La the day: she is to be found on all brilliant France Musicale and the other given by occasions and at the parties ofthe great and M. Michel Livy and the Societi de chant fashionable. Recently she sang at Countess which he directs .... The France Musicale M ... .'s, where she gave indescribable de concert offered different attractions: there light. A few days later, Strepponi was at the one heard four virtuosos two of whom were Chevalier P ... .'s, where the foreign ambas unknown to us. I need not mention the two sadors were gathered: and Mme Strepponi solos performed by Dorus and by Charles had a decisive triumph.