Verdi Forum

Number 6 Article 2

3-1-1979 Traces Mary Jane Phillips-Matz

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Recommended Citation Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1979) "Traces," Verdi Newsletter: No. 6, Article 2.

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Keywords Giuseppina Strepponi Verdi, Giuseppe Verdi, biography

This article is available in Verdi Forum: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/vf/vol1/iss6/2 Traces by Mary Jane Phillips Matz

In the issue of Opera News dated.27 January Needing someone in Milan to give him 1979, two phrases in an article about Giusep­ the support and counsel which he regularly pina Strepponi refer to her as 'once the mis­ was fed by his partisans in Busseto, Verdi tress of one of the Bonapartes' and to her son became friendly with Donna Giuseppina Ap­ Camillo as having died 'while training to be­ piani and Donna Emilia Zeltner Morosini; come a doctor'. Behind those two throw­ but these women did not actually work in the away lines lie nearly sixteen years of re­ theatre, while Strepponi did. Thus she be­ search in several dozen archives. came essential to Verdi, and so vocal in her The first reference is to Princess Elisa advocacy of him that by early March 1842, Bonaparte's son-in-law, Count Filippo Cam­ when Nabucco got onstage, Donizetti was erata dei Passionei, whose support of opera driven by jealousy or anger to refer to the in Senigallia and Ancona gave the impresario composer as 'her Verdi'. Alessandro Lanari a pillar of power in two Very well, then: Verdi was 'her Verdi'. cities where he regularly worked. In Pep­ But who was she? The question remains un­ pina's letters in the Carteggi Vari in the Bib­ answered. We can honestly say that Peppina lioteca Nazionale in Florence, Camerata is Strepponi, guided by her instinct for self­ called 'II Con- C' and 'the person· you preservation and by the need to keep her know about in Ancona'. Lanari was Cam­ problems a secret from as many of her col­ erata's close friend; he stayed in the Cam­ leagues as possible, succeeded in covering erata palau.o and counted on his host to her traces so thoroughly that even expert muster local forces in Senigallia and Ancona researchers with access to thousands of doc­ when necessary. As for Peppina Strepponi, uments still have not been able to patch to­ she (encouraged by Lanari) hoped that Cam­ gether an adequate biography of her. erata would bail her out oftinancial and emo­ When Camillo was born, Peppina was tional bankruptcy by supporting her in 1841. 22, and had been singing three years with He did not. scarcely a day between engagements. Yet between the spring of 1837 and November The second reference, to Peppina's son, 1841, she got pregnant four times, because calls attention to our now considerable un­ her full schedule of performances, the use of derstanding of this mother-child relationship. wet-nurses, and the continuing, day-to-day Camillo Luigi Antonio Strepponi was born in intimacy with one or more men cut her off Turin, in the Parish of San Filippo, nextto the fr.om natural, built-in birth-control mecha­ Teatro Carignano, on 14 January 1838. The nisms. Her second child was born dead in King's surgeon delivered this infant, who Florence on 9 February 1839, immediately was so frail that the doctor baptized him at after a performance of II giuramento. A third birth, believing that he would not live. During pregnancy ended early in 1840, as we know that bedside ceremony, he was held by Pep­ from one of her own letters describing her pina's manager, Camillo Cirelli. For the offi­ "forty days" ofrecovery spent in Cremona. cial baptism, two days later, the godparents It is probable that she stayed either with were Luigi Vestri, the greatest actor in Cirelli or with the composer Ruggero Manna, nineteenth-century Italy, and Antonietta Elisa Bonaparte's protege, whom she had Dupin-Donzelli, daughter of a famous known since 1828 or 1829, if not indeed ear­ choreographer and wife of the tenor lier. Domenico Donzelli. Peppina's last child was born in Trieste The purpose of this research is to clarify on 4 November 1841, in the Parish of Santa the exact role Strepponi played in Verdi's Maria Maggiore, and was baptized •Adelina early career. Even a glance at her profes­ Maria Rosa Teresa•. The godmother was the sional and family history reveals this bare mime-soprano Teresa Guerrieri Paradisi, fact: she had the experience in major opera who had sung with Peppina in Bologna, houses and the theatrical 'street-smarts' Turin, and Senigallia. The godfather was which Verdi lacked to a surprising degree. Antonio DeSella, of the governing board of Shy, diffident and sometimes disagreeable, the Teatro Grande in Trieste. he had let others speak and act for him, had It is certain that two of these four chil­ let himself be manipulated, and had not taken dren survived (from Peppina's reference to full advantage of his years with Lavigna, as a herself as 'madre di due tigli'). In August more aggressive person might have done. 1849, Camillo became the protege of Elisa 5 Bonaparte's court sculptor Lorenzo Bart?­ Mo.. ...' of Peppina's letters, who was the lini, who was then the head of the Accadem1a father of one of these children. Many shards in Florence. Later Camillo studied medicine and scraps of solid evidence pointed away in Siena. The clue which led to the discovery from Mariani. of his death certificate is in the Musco Teat­ -But who, then? rale alla Scala in a letter from Peppina to her friend Mauro Corticelli, in which she begs In a libretto from Senigallia, I noted the him to find influential friends to help a young name ofa tenor listed there as 'Luigi Morini,' Sienese medical student named Palagi. Won­ the back-up for an ailing Moriani. Working dering why Pcppina Strepponi was con­ with the help of dedicated, patient colleagues cerned about a youth from .a city where, so in Florence, Milan, Venice, Bologna, Parma, far as we know, she never set foot, I began Ancona, Rome, Lucca, and Leghorn, I have once more to search Tuscan records. Dr pieced together a documentation which Manno-Tolu, assistant to the chief archivist shows that the tenor Francesco Luigi Morini, of the Archivio di Stato in Florence, found the son-in-law of Lanari's sister, may very Camillo Strepponi's death certificate a few well have been the 'Mo. ... .' who fathered weeks ago. He died in the hospital of Santa one, orfour, ofPeppin a Strepponi 's children. MariadellaScalain Sienaon26June 1863. At Morini was born in Bologna in 1808; he came that time, he was a legal resident of Florence, up throuAA the ranks with Teresa Guerrieri a medical student, and a bachelor. His fa­ Paradisi and with Peppina herself; he joined ther's name is given as 'Camillo' and his Lanari's 'stable' ofsingersonlythreemonths mother is 'Giuseppa N.' (Last Name Not after Peppinajoined; and he moved to Flor­ Known), which means that Peppina and ence permanently when she did. He was, in Verdi were remarkably successful in hiding fact, present in all the cities and in all the Camillo's existence. We know from one of periods when she became pregnant, in 1837, Peppina's letters at Sant' Agata that she did 1838, 1839, and 1841. not even observe fonnal mourning for him. Last spring, my daughter Catherine Matz, working in the manuscript collection of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence, When we come to the thorny problem of began to examine a collection of letters identifying the father or fathers of these chil­ which, more than any documents yet found, dren, born in 1838, 1839, 1840, and 1841 , we point to Morini as the father of Peppina's are on dangerous ground indeed. As early as children. 1962, I wrote that I thought Gatti wrong in After Morini's premature and unex­ believing that Merelli was the father of even pected death in October 1841 , Peppina never one of these children, and that Walker was referred to 'Mo.... .' again. (John Nadas, our wrong in claiming that the tenor Napoleone AIVS archivist, pointed this out to me.) Moriani was the father of the two he knew The person who made her 'head spin,' about and the third he deduced. whom she dreaded meeting in Vienna in From the death certificate of Camillo, it 1842, may be Donizetti (as Gatti and others seems that Camillo Cirelli is his father. Cirelli suspected), but this does not mean that he stood by Peppina through nearly a decade of was the father of four children born between turmoil. He eventually became Theatrical 1838 and 1841. Gatti did tell me, however, in Commissioner in Milan, but by the time he 1956, that he and several of his colleagues reached that pinnacle, Peppina had allied bel.ieved that Donizetti had been one of Pep­ herself to someone even more powerful­ pina's lovers. Vcrdi. But for at least seven years, Cirelli As for the man Moriani contemptuously was the most loyal friend Peppina had. calls 'that repulsive Lame Devil' and 'The One would like to believe that this gen­ Guardian' who rendered Peppina so 'abject erous man was indeed the father of Peppin a' s in the eyes of society,' I have been long children, but there is ample evidence to show tempted to think that it was someone in the that she was involved with other men as well. ballet and mime world of the period, since 'II The father of Camillo, for example, might diavolo i;oppo' and 'II tutore e la pupil/a' are well have been Vestri himself. The actor left both ballets of that era. Or we may identify Turin when she did, in 1838, 'for reasons not him as Vestri, who did in fact leave Turin connected with his profession'. when she did, to move to Milan. Like Morini, Letters from two people who knew her Vestri died in 1841. It is certain that in April well refer to her 'crazy love affairs'; and her 1840, when Peppina returned from her 'forty own letters refer to several men who may days' in Cremona, she had a protector who have been involved intimately with her. checked on her mail and visited her every Reviewing Walker's and Abbiati's and afternoon about four, but left her alone every Gatti's research, together with certain of night. But he could just as easily be any one Oberdorfcr's statements, I began in the early of the dozens of unidentified factors in this 1960s to try to identify at least 'the vile puzzle. 6 Out of the chaos of this biological and prove beyond all doubt that Peppina and emotional catastrophe, Peppina brought Verdi had a firm understanding about mar­ order, finally. If Donizetti's remark of March riage, and that their first intimacy dates from 1842, about 'her Verdi' is to be taken seri­ 1843 . They did not marry, as we know, until ously, then Verdi may be the anonymous 18S9. Since Camillo Strepponi reached his gentleman, described in Peppina's letter of 3 majority in January of that year (and there­ February 1842, who would like to marry a after could never lay claim to any of Verdi's "Singer or Ballerina" if she would be willing fortune as a step-son), it is likely that this to give up the theatre forever.' Documents event had much to do with their decision to marry then. All documentation of these devel­ 'A long ~m on Strepponi's Saffo, written by an unidentified man or woman named D. Barnshaw, opments, and of everything about Peppina is in the Sant'Agata archive. The occasion for Strepponi's life, enriches our understanding which it was written was Peppina 's appearance in of what Verdi got as her 'dowry' of experi­ Pacini's S<4]o at the Carlo Felice in Genoa on 18 ence and knowledge. But quite apart from January 1842. From Peppina's correspondence, it is evident that she knew English very well indeed. any contribution she made to Verdi's suc­ Out of fairness to all persons involved, one has to cess, we are building a documented biogra­ repon that this " Barnshaw" might be the gallant phy of one of the most distinguished, active gentleman who would be willing to marry a and influential figures in the history of music "Singer or a Ballerina" if she were willing to give up her career. in the last century.

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 S, 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 IS 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. lit 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. 8. Lampugnaniand F. Regli , bothofthem 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 IS 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):

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