Marietta Gazzaniga (1824 – 2 January 1884) was an Italian

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

tic

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880& ...

. Gazzaniga was born in

Voghera The Castle of Voghera in a 19th-century etching. Voghera ( Vogherese dialect of Emilian: ''Vughera''; Latin: ''Forum Iulii Iriensium'') is a town and '' comune'' in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy. The population was 39, ...

and studied singing with

Alberto Mazzucato Alberto Mazzucato (28 July 1813 – 31 December 1877) was an Italian composer, music teacher, and writer. Mazzucato was born in Udine. Trained at the Padua Conservatory, he composed eight operas between 1834 and 1843, of which his most succes ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

. Forbes, Elizabeth (1992). "Gazzaniga, Marietta" in

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was pub ...

, ed. ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', Volume 2, p. 368. London: Macmillan. . Her debut season was in 1840 in Voghera where she sang Jane Seymour in Donizetti's '' Anna Bolena'' and Romeo in Bellini's '' I Capuleti e i Montecchi''.Rosselli, John (2001). "Gazzaniga, Marietta" in

,ed., and John Tyrrell, exec. ed. '' The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians'', 2nd ed,. London: Macmillan. (hardcover). (eBook). She sang the title role in the premiere of Verdi's '' Luisa Miller'' at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples in 1849, and a year later she sang Lina in the premiere of Verdi's '' Stiffelio'' in

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

. Starting in 1851 she began singing at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

. In 1852 she sang Gilda in Verdi's ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...

'' in

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Com ...

. The production was considered a failure, and this was blamed on Gazzaniga's performance. Being quite irritated at the time, Verdi claimed that he had also disliked her performances in the premieres of ''Luisa Miller'' and ''Stiffelio''. That same year she also performed in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

, singing the title role in Bellini's '' Norma'' and Paolina in Donizetti's '' Poliuto''. Later she went on tour to both North and Central America. On her first such tour, which began in 1857, her husband, Count Malaspina, died of smallpox on the boat to

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. On a subsequent tour to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

(1866–1867) a critic praised her voice as having "greater purity and less vehement forcing of tone". She continued touring each year in the Americas until 1870. Near the end of her career she sang

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middl ...

roles. For example, she relinquished the role of Leonora in Verdi's ''

Il trovatore ''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...

'' and sang Azucena instead. She died in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gazzaniga, Marietta 1824 births 1884 deaths Italian operatic sopranos People from Voghera 19th-century Italian women opera singers