Eugenia Tadolini
| Eugenia Tadolini | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Josef Kriehuber
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| Born |
Eugenia Savorani 9 July 1809 Forlì, Italy |
| Died | 11 July 1872 (aged 63) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Opera singer (soprano) |
Eugenia Tadolini (née Savorani) (9 July 1809 – 11 July 1872) was an Italian operatic soprano. Admired for the beauty of her voice and stage presence, she was one of Donizetti's favourite singers. During her career she created over 20 leading roles, including the title roles in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix and Maria di Rohan and Verdi's Alzira. She was born in Forlì and studied music there and in Bologna before making her debut in Florence in 1828. She sang in all of Italy's leading opera houses, as well as in Paris, Vienna, and London before retiring from the stage in 1852. She spent her remaining years first in Naples, where she had been the Teatro San Carlo's reigning prima donna for many years, and then in Paris, where she died of typhoid fever at the age of 63. From 1827 to 1834, she was married to the Italian composer and singing teacher, Giovanni Tadolini.
Eugenia Tadolini was born into a prosperous middle-class family in Forlì. Her father, Filippo Savorani, a high-ranking civil servant, saw to it that she received a good education for the time, including music lessons with Luigi Favi and Giovanni Grilli at the music academy in Forlì. When she began to develop a soprano voice, described by a contemporary biographer as "sweet, powerful, charming, and with perfect intonation", she was sent to Bologna to study with Giovanni Tadolini (1785–1872), a well-known composer, conductor and singing teacher.
She and Giovanni Tadolini married on 13 April 1827. She was 18 and he 42. The following year she made her stage debut in Florence. A brilliant house debut at the Teatro Regio di Parma followed on 29 December 1829 when she sang Giulietta in the theatre's first performance of Nicola Vaccai's Giulietta e Romeo. She appeared there the following year in the theatre's first performances of two Rossini operas – as Amenaide in Tancredi and as Bianca in Bianca e Faliero. Tadolini's husband was a close friend and admirer of the composer who was also living in Bologna at the time. In 1830, she sang in a soirée at Rossini's house there, the highlight of which was Rossini himself singing an aria from The Barber of Seville. She also sang Zoraide in Rossini's Ricciardo e Zoraide in its first performance at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris (23 October 1830). Although the Rossinian repertoire (including Rosina in The Barber of Seville) figured primarily in the earliest years of her career, she would later sing the title role in his Armida for a major revival at La Scala in 1836.
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