Sophie Cruvelli

Sophie Johanne Charlotte Crüwell, vicountess Vigier, stage name Sophie Cruvelli (12 March 1826 – 6 November 1907) was a German opera singer. She was a dramatic soprano who had a brief but stellar public career especially in London and Paris in the middle years of the 19th century. She was admired for her vocal powers and as a tragédienne. Both Verdi and Meyerbeer created operatic roles with the intention that she should first perform them.

Sophie Crüwell was the daughter of a Protestant Bielefeld family of comfortable means. She showed an early disposition towards music, and she and her sister Marie (later a mezzo-soprano) and her brother (later a baritone) were encouraged and assisted to training by the family. Sophie and Marie commenced their vocal studies with Louis Spohr in Kassel.

In 1844 their mother took the girls to Paris to continue their studies, first with Francesco Piermarini, and then with the distinguished tenor Marco Bordogni. Bordogni thought highly of Sophie: it is said that he allowed her to sing only scales and solfeggi which he composed for her, for two whole years. After that time mother Crüwell wanted to remove her, saying that she had learnt scales enough and that if she was going to do nothing else she might as well get married and give it up. Bordogni persuaded mother that she would have a wonderful career, and that she should go on to complete her studies in Milan. A first public appearance in January 1846 was reported in the musical journal Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris

In Milan she first went to audition with the impresario Bartolomeo Merelli, but was so struck with fright that she could not produce any sound at all. After this she resolved to return to Bielefeld: but the (later famous) teacher Francesco Lamperti took the situation in hand, and under his guidance her voice and powers returned and flourished.

Some sources attribute her debut to Venice at La Fenice, as Odabella in Verdi's Attila. She appeared in that role at Udine on 24 July 1847, and later as Lucrezia in I due Foscari in the same theatre. Later in 1847 she was singing Odabella in Rovigo, and it was there, at the end of that year, that Benjamin Lumley heard and ('struck with the splendid voice, the impulsive dramatic temperament, the spirit, and the captivating person') recruited her for the season of 1848 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, of which he was the impresario. The family objected that she was too young to face the English public, but Lumley was urged to proceed by the tenor Rubini: 'I tell you plainly, and with deep conviction, that you are making an excellent acquisition. A most beautiful voice – give her good models and a good maestro'. Sophie herself was delighted with the proposals. In the winter of 1847 she made several appearances at La Fenice.

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