Elena Balletti, Elena Riccoboni or Flaminia (27 April 1686 – 29 December 1771) was an Italian actress, poet, woman of letters, playwright and writer.

Personal life

Elena Virginia Balletti was born in

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

to a family of actors. Her parents were Francesco and Giovanna Benozzi, with the Francesco Calderoni company. She inherited the stage name Flaminia from her grandmother

Agata Calderoni Agata may refer to: * AGATA (organization), a Lithuanian non-profit performing rights organization Name * Agatha (given name), Agata (given name) * Agata (surname) Places *Agata Station, a train station in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan P ...

, as the name was passed down through the family. She was the second wife of the director of her theatre company, fellow actor Luigi Andrea Riccoboni. They were married in 1706. Their son was actor

Antoine-François Riccoboni Antoine-François Riccoboni (1707 – 15 May 1772)"Riccoboni, An ...

. Her brother Guiseppi Balletti remained in the company and travelled to France with her.

Career

She learned Latin, Greek, Spanish and French and was considered culturally well educated. She was admitted to the Pontifical Academy of Arcadia as a poet. She wrote under the name ''Mirtinda Parraside''. Balletti was also a member of the academies of Ferrara,

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. In

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Bellotti was known for her 'salons' and wrote with numerous writers such as Antonio Conti. Balletti and Riccoboni took their Italian theater company to France where she was the first to play ''Merope'' by

Francesco Scipione, marchese di Maffei Francesco Scipione Maffei (; 1 June 1675 – 11 February 1755) was an Italian writer and art critic, author of many articles and plays. An antiquarian with a humanist education whose publications on Etruscan antiquities stand as incunables of ...

. Balletti was a renowned actress in Paris known by her character name of ''Flaminia''. She gained recognition as a leading actress in ''Sofonisba'' by Giovan Giorgio Trissino, ''Semiramide'' by Muzio Manfredi and ''

Iphigénie en Tauride ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' (, ''Iphigenia in Tauris'') is a 1779 opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard. With ''Iphigénie,'' Gluck too ...

'' by Pier Jacopo Martello. Balletti retired with her husband in 1729 however she returned to the stage on 10 April 1731 and stayed working until 1752. Balletti died in

in 1771.

Bibliography

*Sonnets by Mirtinda Parasside *Letters of Fanny Butler *The Shipwreck, 1726

References

External links

data.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balletti, Elena 1686 births 1771 deaths Writers from Ferrara Actors from Ferrara Actresses from Emilia-Romagna 18th-century Italian actresses Members of the Academy of Arcadians Italian women dramatists and playwrights