Giuditta Pasta

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Giuditta Pasta
Giuditta pasta.jpg
Portrait held at Villa Roccabruna, by an unknown artist
Born
Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Negri

(1797-10-26)26 October 1797
Died1 April 1865(1865-04-01) (aged 67)
OccupationOpera singer
Years active1823–1854

Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Pasta ( née  Negri; 26 October 1797 – 1 April 1865) was an Italian opera singer. A soprano, she has been compared to the 20th-century soprano Maria Callas.

Contents

Career

Early career

Pasta was born Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Negri in Saronno, near Milan, on 26 October 1797. [1] She was born of the Negri family, who came from Lomazzo, where the family practiced medical art. Her father, Carlo Antonio Negri or Schwarz, was Jewish and a soldier in the Napoleonic Army. [2] She studied in Milan with Giuseppe Scappa and Davide Banderali, and later with Girolamo Crescentini and Ferdinando Paer among others. In 1816, she married fellow singer Giuseppe Pasta and took his surname as her own. [3] She made her professional opera début in the world première of Scappa's Le tre Eleonore in Milan that same year. Later that year she performed at the Théâtre Italien in Paris as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni , Giulietta in Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli's Giulietta e Romeo , and in two operas by Paer. [1]

Pasta's first appearance in London in 1817 was a failure. Further studies with Scappa were followed by a successful debut in Venice in 1819. She caused a sensation in Paris in 1821–22, in the role of Desdemona in Gioachino Rossini's opera Otello . [1]

As Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn), 1830, by Karl Bryullov Karl Brullov 54.jpg
As Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn), 1830, by Karl Bryullov

Roles written specifically for Pasta

Giuditta Pasta as Amina, May 1831 premiere Giuditta Pasta-Amina-La sonnambula.jpg
Giuditta Pasta as Amina, May 1831 premiere

She sang regularly in London, Paris, Milan and Naples between 1824 and 1837. In Milan she created three roles which were written for her voice. They were the title role of Donizetti's Anna Bolena given at the Teatro Carcano in 1830 (which was that composer's greatest success at that time), the Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula and the protagonist's part of his Norma (both in 1831), which became three of her major successes. Stendhal had argued persuasively in 1824 for the necessity of a score composed expressly for Pasta. [4]

Later career

Pasta retired from the stage in 1835 and performed only infrequently after that date (including performances in London in 1837 and in Germany and Russia in 1840–1841.) [1]

Pasta later taught singing in Italy. [5] Among her notable pupils were contralto Emma Albertazzi and soprano Marianna Barbieri-Nini and the English soprano Adelaide Kemble. Another pupil was Carolina Ferni, herself a noted Norma, who in her turn taught the soprano Eugenia Burzio whose recordings are known for their passionate expression.

Pasta died in Blevio, a town in the province of Como on 1 April 1865, at the age of 67. [6]

Pasta's voice

Pasta in 1821 by Gioacchino Giuseppe Serangeli Gioacchino Giuseppe Serangeli - La cantante Giuditta Pasta.jpg
Pasta in 1821 by Gioacchino Giuseppe Serangeli

Giuditta Pasta's voice was described by a New Monthly Magazine reviewer in 1824 as follows:

It is a mezzo-soprano, somewhat similar to that of Madame Vestris, but clearer, more powerful, and of greater compass. She commands two octaves, but two or three of the highest notes of this range are forced, and not agreeable. Her middle tones are fine and full-bodied; but, occasionally, notes escape in the lowest half octave, which are husky and harsh. In point of cultivation and science, she possesses, first of all, the rare merit of a pure intonation. We have not heard her once out of tune.

Her voice type was what could be called a soprano sfogato. It was described by Stendhal as follows:

She can achieve perfect resonance on a note as low as bottom A, and can rise as high as C, or even to a slightly sharpened D; and she possesses the rare ability to be able to sing contralto as easily as she can sing soprano. I would suggest ... that the true designation of her voice is mezzo-soprano, and any composer who writes for her should use the mezzo-soprano range for the thematic material of his music, while still exploiting, as it were incidentally and from time to time, notes which lie within the more peripheral areas of this remarkably rich voice. Many notes of this last category are not only extremely fine in themselves, but have the ability to produce a kind of resonant and magnetic vibration, which, through some still unexplained combination of physical phenomena, exercises an instantaneous and hypnotic effect upon the soul of the spectator.
This leads to the consideration of one of the most uncommon features of Madame Pasta's voice: it is not all moulded from the same metallo, as it is said in Italy (which is to say that it possesses more than one timbre); and this fundamental variety of tone produced by a single voice affords one of the richest veins of musical expression which the artistry of a great cantatrice is able to exploit. [7]

In 1829 named cantante delle passioni by Carlo Ritorni, one of the most erudite critics of the period, he described her as such because her voice was directed "towards expressing the most intense passions, accompanying it with expressions of physical action, unknown before her in the lyric theatre". [8]

In modern times Susan Rutherford has made a specific comparison with Callas:

For the impact of corporeality on vocal timbre and delivery, and in the absence of Pasta's own explanations of its effect, we might turn to another distinctive attrice cantante (and one who sang much of Pasta's repertory) from a quite different period, Maria Callas. She also argued that gesture and facial expression must precede word in order to create the appropriate vehicle. [9]
It isn't merely fame that makes Pasta interesting:... Pasta's singularity is measured rather by the tone and extent of the debates her celebrity provoked, by her influence on the operatic stage, and by the timing of her career at the transition from Rossinian opera to the works of Bellini and Donizetti (with all the stylistic ramifications this implied). No other singer during that period attracted as much intellectual discussion, or was regarded as of such significance in the articulation of theories around operatic practices. For such reasons alone, Pasta is deserving of critical attention. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Pacini</span> Italian composer

Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas. The family was of Tuscan origin, living in Catania when the composer was born. He served as the Florence Conservatory's first director from 1849 through 1862.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Callas</span> American-born Greek operatic soprano (1923–1977)

Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini, and further to the works of Verdi and Puccini, and in her early career to the music dramas of Wagner. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina.

<i>Norma</i> (opera) Opera by Vincenzo Bellini

Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after the play Norma, ou L'infanticide by Alexandre Soumet. It was first produced at La Scala in Milan on 26 December 1831.

<i>La sonnambula</i> Opera by Vincenzo Bellini

La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime written by Eugène Scribe and choreographed by Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur. The ballet had premiered in Paris in September 1827 at the height of a fashion for stage works incorporating somnambulism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Malibran</span> Spanish opera singer (1808–1836)

Maria Felicia Malibran was a Spanish singer who commonly sang both contralto and soprano parts, and was one of the best-known opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death in Manchester, England, at age 28. Contemporary accounts of her voice describe its range, power and flexibility as extraordinary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inva Mula</span> Albanian opera singer

Inva Mula is an Albanian opera lyric soprano. She began her soprano career at a very early age. Her father and mother were also opera singers. She is also known for providing the voice of the diva Plavalaguna in the film The Fifth Element.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Zeani</span> Romanian opera singer (1925–2023)

Virginia Zeani was a Romanian-born opera singer who sang leading soprano roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giulietta Simionato</span> Italian opera singer

Giulietta Simionato was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned the period from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiorenza Cossotto</span> Italian mezzo-soprano

Fiorenza Cossotto is an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano.

Lucia Aliberti is an Italian operatic soprano singer. She performed the bel canto roles of Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Vivaldi, Mercadante and so on.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luigia Abbadia</span> Italian operatic mezzo-soprano 1821–1896

Luigia Abbadia (1821–1896) was an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano known for her fine voice, secure technique, and a strong temperament. Possessing an uncommonly wide range, Abbadia sang several roles traditionally portrayed by sopranos in addition to roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis</span> Italian opera singer

Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis was an Italian soprano opera singer famous for the roles written for her by the prominent composers of the 1820s and 1830s. Her father, Gaspare, was a prominent ballet dancer and choreographer, and her mother, Antonia, was a ballerina. Her brothers Stanislao and Pollione were opera singers. As a singer, she made her debut in Naples at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in 1814 in Giovanni Cordella's L'Avaro, followed by important engagements in Bologna in 1816, also appearing in Genoa, Florence; in 1817 as Giulia La Vestale, and in Bergamo. She married Italian bass Giuseppe de Begnis (1793–1849) when she was only 16. The marriage lasted only a few years and the two separated in 1825.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolina Ferni</span> Italian musician (1846–1926)

Carolina Ferni was an Italian violinist and operatic soprano.

Soprano sfogato is a contralto or mezzo-soprano who is capable — by sheer industry or natural talent — of extending her upper range and encompassing the coloratura soprano tessitura. An upwardly extended "natural" soprano is sometimes called soprano assoluto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppina Grassini</span> Italian opera singer

Gioseppa Maria Camilla, commonly known as GiuseppinaGrassini was a noted Italian dramatic contralto, and a singing teacher. She was a celebrity of considerable stature, noted for her beauty and regarded as one of the best singers in Europe. Giuseppina was also known for her affairs with Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. She sang in various productions by composers such as Cimarosa, Cherubini and Zingarelli.

Elisa Orlandi (1811–1834) was an Italian opera singer who was active at major opera houses in Italy from 1829 until her sudden death in 1834. Possessing a wide vocal range with a significant amount of coloratura facility, she tackled roles from both the mezzo-soprano and soprano repertoires. She is best remembered today for portraying the role of Giovanna Seymour in the world premiere of Gaetano Donizetti's Anna Bolena in 1830.

Hertha Töpper was an Austrian contralto in opera and concert, and an academic voice teacher. A member of the Bavarian State Opera, she appeared in leading roles at major international opera houses and festivals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalbina Caradori-Allan</span> French operatic soprano

Maria Caterina Rosalbina Caradori-Allan was a French operatic soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angiolina Ortolani-Tiberini</span> Italian opera singer

Angiolina Ortolani-Tiberini was an Italian soprano who sang many leading roles in European opera houses during a career spanning over twenty years. After their marriage in 1858, her career was closely entwined with that of her husband, the tenor Mario Tiberini, with the couple often appearing together on stage. Amongst the roles she created was Ofelia in Franco Faccio's Amleto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amalia Schütz Oldosi</span> Austrian opera singer

Amalie Schütz known under the stage name Amalia Schütz Oldosi, was an early 19th-century Austrian soprano who performed in Austria, France, England and Italy.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Stern (n.d.)
  2. Conway (2012), pg. 224.
  3. "Giuditta Pasta, Opera Diva". www.madamegilflurt.com.
  4. Rutherford 2007, p. 123
  5. Elson 1912, p. ??
  6. Lora, Francesco (2013). "Negri, Giuditta". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 78.
  7. Pleasants 1981, p. 374
  8. Carlo Ritorni, Annali del teatro della citta di Reggio (Bologna, 1829), p. 192 in Rutherford 2007, p. 112
  9. Rutherford 2007, p. 117
  10. Rutherford 2007, p. 108

Sources

Further reading