Verdi Forum
Number 6 Article 3
3-1-1979 Giuseppina Strepponi in Paris (with a review by Berlioz) Marcello Conati
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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-- 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. She sang the Dancla: those two virtuosos merit the cavatinafrom Verdi's opera Emani, written praises that are invariably their due. Mme for her. Clary was heard in an aria from Giovanna d'Arco; she has an incisive voice of wide range which needs to be suppled and steadied The first Odabella in Attila was Sophia by study. But Mme Strepponi, who followed Loewe. On stage, Strepponi sang in only two heron the bill, is a magnificent prima donna. Verdi operas, Nabucco (in Milan, Parma, She sings broadly and nobly, with an ex Verona, Alessandria, and Modena) and Er ceptionally powerful voice, a good style, and nani (in Bergamo and Palermo). As David irresistible warmth. This is the great Italian Lawton and David Rosen have established school in all the splendor of its array [dans IAtti del IIIo Congresso, 206-8], Verdi wrote tout son luxe un peu empanache ]. only two alternative arias for Attila, both for tenor-one for Ivanov (at Rossini's special A distinctly favorable review from a critic as request) and the other for Moriani. This severe, sometimes cutting, as Berlioz, and mention of an Attila cavatina composed for one that reveals a certain sympathy for the Strepponi has all the air of being a French new school of dramatic singing of which journalist's muddle, taken up by the Bolo Strepponi was becoming in France the chief gnese magazine. All the same, it should be exponent. looked into, since Verdian biography brings In the following months, Strepponi took its daily surprises! part in other concerts. In March or April 1847 In June 1847, while Verdi was in London there were two, one given by Vieux temps and mounting I masnadieri, Strepponi took part the other as a benefit for a workhouse. La in an "academy" given at Versailles by Sig. Moda of25 April 1847 reprints the reviews of Torriglioni (who seems to have been a 'dilet La France Musicale. At the first, tante' baritone). La Moda for 15 July reprints a notice from La France Musicale: Mme Strepponi created a great sensation: the famous singer sang the aria from Verdi's Strepponi sang in Sig. Torriglioni's concert Emani and the aria from his Attila. En at Versailles. The famous artist gave a peer thusiastically applauded, she was called less account of the aria from Ernani, the back by all the audience. She has one of Lombardi trio, and the Nabucco duet. The those sympathetic, vibrant voices which applause was unfailingly enthusiastic. carry you away and stir you to the utmost. One may conclude-at any rate for the At the second concert, moment-this brief account of Strepponi's Paris activity with two notices from II Pirata. Mme Strepponi surpassed herself in the Er The first appeared on 22 December 1847: nani cavatina. Never before, not even at the Vieuxtemps concert the day before, had the Strepponi' s singing lessons are all the rage in prima donna shown more power, flexibility, the 'great world'. She has produced distin and purity of voice, or more truth of emo guished pupils. Jullien, who is having a great tional expression. Moreover- 10 Mme Strepponi, who has assumed a leading from 27 July 1847, to be precise-Verdi had position among Paris singing teachers, has, been in Paris. The singer Giuseppina Strep at the request of many f amities, decided to poni was in the process of becoming the Si a"ange lessons to take place in her resi gnora Giuseppina Verdi, realizing her secret dence, from 3 February next. ambition, her dream as a woman: to live be side that Verdi who she revered as a great man even more than as a great artist. In the But Strepponi's days as a singing teacher summer of 1849 Strepponi left Paris, going were drawing to an end. Her life was under first to Florence, and then to Busseto, to join going a radical change. For some months-- her life forever with Verdi's.