Mathilde Marchesi (née Graumann; 24 March 1821 – 17 November 1913) was a German mezzo-soprano, a singing teacher, and a proponent of the

bel canto Bel canto (Italian for "beautiful singing" or "beautiful song", )—with several similar constructions (''bellezze del canto'', ''bell'arte del canto'')—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing. The phrase was not associat ...

vocal method.

Biography

Marchesi was born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

. Her father's last name was Graumann; her aunt was the pianist and friend of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

, Dorothea von Ertmann (née Graumann). In her adolescence her family fortunes failed, so she travelled at the age of 22 to Vienna to study voice. Thereafter she went to Paris and studied with Manuel García II, who was to have the foremost influence on her. She made her debut as a singer in 1844, and had a short career in

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 libre ...

and recital. Her voice, however, was only adequate, so she moved to teaching in 1849. In 1852, she married Italian baritone Salvatore Marchesi (pseudonym of Salvatore de Castrone della Rajata) (d. 1908). It was in this field that she would become famous. She taught at the conservatory in Cologne and, in the 1870s at the

Vienna Conservatory Vienna Conservatory may refer to: *University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university ...

, where she tutored Marie Fillunger among others. In 1881 she opened her own school on the in Paris, where she was to remain for most of her life. Ultimately, she was best known as the vocal teacher of a number of great singers. The most famous among them is perhaps

Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century ...

, but she also trained such illustrious singers as Emma Calvé,

Frances Alda Frances Davis Alda (31 May 1879 – 18 September 1952) was a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised operatic lyric soprano. She achieved fame during the first three decades of the 20th century due to her outstanding singing voice, fine technique ...

Ellen Gulbranson Ellen Gulbranson (née Norgren) (4 March 1863 – 2 January 1947) was a Swedish operatic soprano with a strong, dramatic voice best suited to the works of Richard Wagner. She was a leading figure among the second generation of Bayreuth singers ...

, Gertrude Auld Thomas, Selma Kurz and Emma Eames. Marchesi died in London in 1913. The mother of

Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She possessed ...

was taught by a pupil of Marchesi. Today, Marchesi is remembered not at all for her singing career. Rather, she is known first and foremost as the teacher of a surprising number of great singers, and also as the person who carried the bel canto technique into the 20th century. Her ideas are still studied, primarily by female singers, especially those with voices in the soprano range, in which Marchesi had specialized.

Teachings

Marchesi was clearly committed to the bel canto style of singing. Despite this, she did not particularly identify herself as a bel canto teacher. She asserted that there were only two styles of singing: "the ''good''...and the ''bad''" and argued that a properly trained vocalist could sing the old bel canto style just as easily as the then newer, more dramatic style. She was generally an advocate of a naturalistic style of singing: she called for a fairly instinctive method of breathing and argued against the "smiling" mouth position that many teachers of her day preferred. She was particularly concerned with vocal registration, calling it "the Alpha and Omega of the formation and development of the female voice, the touchstone of all singing methods, old and new." She also repeatedly expressed disdain for the teachers of her day who offered methods that they asserted would fully develop the voice in only a year or two. Instead, she felt that vocal training was best approached at a slow and deliberate pace. Two of the most distinctive features of her teachings were her "analytical method" and her insistence on very short practice times for beginners. Her "analytical method" placed great importance on intellectually understanding both the technical and the aesthetic nature of everything sung, from grand arias to simple vocal exercises. She argued that rote practice without understanding was ultimately harmful to the artistic use of the voice. Most distinctively, though, she insisted on very short practice times for beginners, as little as five minutes at a stretch three or four times a day for absolute beginners. Of course, as the voice matured those times could and should be expanded.

Pupils

Among her pupils were: *

Suzanne Adams Suzanne Adams (28 November 1872 – 5 February 1953) was an American lyric coloratura soprano. Known for her agile and pure voice, Adams first became well known in France before establishing herself as one of the Metropolitan Opera's leading sop ...

Sigrid Arnoldson Sigrid Arnoldson (20 March 1861 – 7 February 1943) was a Swedish opera singer with an active international career at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th. Possessing a fine dramatic coloratura soprano voice with a range of three octave ...

* Blanche Arral * Kate Bensberg * Nadina Bulcioff * Emma Calvé * Ada Crossley * Ilma de Murska * May De Sousa * Marie Duma * Emma Eames *

Emma Engdahl-Jägerskiöld Emma Engdahl-Jägerskiöld ( Madsén; 26 April 1852 — 13 June 1930) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish operatic soprano, and one of the country's first internationally recognised singers, noted especially for her dramatic talents as well as her v ...

* Rose Ettinger * Ethel Fiske * Antonietta Fricci * Marie Fillunger * Mary Garden *

Etelka Gerster Etelka Gerster (25 June 1855, Košice20 August 1920, Pontecchio) was a Hungarian soprano. She debuted in Italy in 1876 and sang in London the following year. In 1878, she was performing in the Academy of Music where she was considered one of t ...

* Louise Johnson-Missievitch *

Jeanne Jomelli Jeanne Jomelli (May 18, 1879 – August 29, 1932) was a Dutch soprano opera singer, concert singer, and music educator. Early life Jeanne Jomelli was born in Amsterdam. She studied voice under Mathilde Marchesi in Paris. Career Jomelli made her ...

* Božena Kacerovská * Mai Kalna * Katharina Klafsky *

Gabrielle Krauss Marie-Gabrielle Krauss (24 March 18426 January 1906) was an important 19th century Austrian-born French operatic soprano. She created major roles in operas by Anton Rubinstein, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, Auguste Mermet, Clémence de G ...

* Selma Kurz * Miriam Licette * Estelle Liebling * Blanche Marchesi (her daughter) * Dame

* Yevgeniya Mravina * Louise Natali-Graham * Emma Nevada * Aglaja Orgeni * Gina Oselio * Regina Pacini * Rosa Papier *

Anna Pessiak-Schmerling Anna Pessiak-Schmerling (1834 – 14 March 1896) was an Austrian composer born in Vienna. Life and career She was born Anna Schmerling, daughter of Maria Anna Giannatasio del Río (1792-1868), and the granddaughter of Cajetan Giannatasio del Rí ...

* Marta Petrini * Sedohr Rhodes * Louise Rieger * Sarah Robinson-Duff * Elyda Russell * Caroline Salla *

Sibyl Sanderson Sibyl Sanderson (December 7, 1864May 16, 1903) was a famous American operatic dramatic coloratura soprano during the Parisian Belle Époque. Biography She was born in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Sibyl's father Silas Sanderson ...

* Frances Saville *

Evelyn Scotney Evelyn Scotney (11 July 1896 – 5 August 1967) was an Australian lyric coloratura soprano of great renown in the period from 1913 to the late 1920s. Her range extended to E ''in altissimo''. She was compared very favourably with Amelita Galli-C ...

* Nadina Slaviansky * Georgina Stirling * Maggie Stirling * Florence Toronta * Guillaume Tremelli * Florence Turner-Maley * Inez McCune Williamson *

Ellen Beach Yaw Ellen Beach Yaw (September 14, 1869 – September 9, 1947) was an American coloratura soprano, best known for her concert career and extraordinary vocal range, and for originating the title role in Arthur Sullivan's '' The Rose of Persia'' ( ...

* Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel (Some pupils were noted on an 1899 dedicatory poster, ''Anniversary Fete – fifty years professorship, Mathilde Marchesi, 1849–1899'').

Family

Her daughter, Blanche Marchesi (1863–1940), a

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typical ...

, also a noted singer and teacher, made her début at a young age. She first appeared in opera at Prague in 1900, and subsequently sang at Covent Garden in 1902 and 1903. She was an admired concert singer.

Notes

References

* Marchesi, Mathilde. ''Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method''. Dover (1970). * Marchesi, Mathilde. ''Marchesi and Music: Passages from the Life of a Famous Singing Teacher''. New York ; London : Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1898. * Marchesi, Mathilde. ''Ten Singing Lessons.'' Preface by Madame Melba, introduction by W. J. Henderson. New York ; London : Harper, 1901. * * Somerset-Ward, Richard. ''Angels & Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera'', (Chapter 10, "Marchesi's Pupils"). New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, 2004.

External links

The Marchesi Collection
contains many papers of Mathilde Marchesi, in th
Music Division
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*

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The Etude MagazineApril, 1904

from ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100904083403/http://www.scriabin.com/etude/ The Etude Magazinebr>October, 1913
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchesi, Mathilde 1821 births 1913 deaths 19th-century German women singers German operatic mezzo-sopranos Voice teachers Vocal coaches Pupils of Manuel García (baritone) German emigrants to the United Kingdom Musicians from Frankfurt Women music educators