Antonio Giuglini
Encyclopedia
Antonio Giuglini was an Italian opera
tic tenor
. During the last eight years of his life, before he developed signs of mental instability, he earned renown as one of the leading stars of the operatic scene in London. He created several major roles for British audiences, appearing in the first London performances of Gounod's Faust
and Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
. In London, he was the usual stage partner of the great dramatic soprano
Thérèse Tietjens.
in Italy's middle/north-east. He studied in his home country with Francesco Cellini, and made his debut in opera at Fermo
.
According to the impresario Benjamin Lumley
, Giuglini had been destined for the priesthood. He began in the choir of the metropolitan church of Fermo, where his excellence as a treble, and then as a tenor, attracted attention. He firmly resisted many inducements to appear on the stage, until one day one day he took the place of a member of the Theatre orchestra who fell ill. Soon afterwards the principal tenor also fell ill, and Giuglini took his place as Jacopo in I due Foscari
. He was immediately successful, and then had brilliant successes at other theatres. This led him to Milan, where he came to the attention of the Emperor of Austria, who conferred on him the title of chamber-singer (Kammersänger) to his court, and wanted to engage him for Vienna. However Lumley had already booked him for three years in London, but the Viennese court then secured him in advance for the year 1860.
His first season at La Scala
, Milan
, in early 1855, was witnessed by Charles Santley
who observed that he created 'a perfect furore' and was the hero of the day.
Santley saw him there as Raoul (Gli Ugonotti
), in which he sang charmingly but lacked the fire and manliness for the role, as Arturo in I Puritani
, which rivetted the attention completely, and in selection evenings, when he sang the trio 'Pappataci' from L'Italiana in Algeri
with Scheggi (buffo) and Ignazio Marini
(bass), so popular it had to be repeated throughout the season. On 26 December 1855 he appeared at Teatro Regio di Parma
in the first performance of Giovanna de Guzman, the first Italian version of Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes
.
on 14 April 1857, at Her Majesty's Theatre
, as Fernando in La favorita, with Mlle Spezia and Sig. Vialetti. Giuglini took the London palms, and was immediately approved by the London audience. He joined an already celebrated company which included artists such as Maria Piccolomini, Marietta Alboni
and Therese Tietjens. This house was in competition with the newly rebuilt Covent Garden theatre, where Giulia Grisi
and Giovanni Mario
led the cast and the box-office under Michael Costa
for Frederick Gye
. La favorita was followed by La traviata
with Mlle Piccolomini, and Giuglini was received with even greater excitement than before: and in I puritani
, chosen for the debut of Angiolina Ortolani, he stole the laurels from his partner. His Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor
, with Piccolomini, was a further sensation:
As Manrico
, opposite Maria Spezia-Aldighieri
and with Marietta Alboni
as Azucena, he still held the centre of attention. In the revival of Don Giovanni
, with Piccolomini (Zerlina), Mlles Spezia (Donna Anna) and Ortolani (Elvira), Belletti (Leporello), 'the music of Don Ottavio was warbled by the beautiful voice of Giuglini as few had heard it warbled before. The noble air "Dalla sua Pace" was restored by Giuglini on this occasion, and he made a marked sensation by his tender, expressive delivery of it.' He took part in an Italian version of Balfe
's The Bohemian Girl
(as, La Zingara), with Piccolomini, Alboni, Vialetti and Belletti: 'Giuglini's singing of "Then you'll remember me," in the Italian brought with it a pleasure never to be forgotten by those who heard it.' He also gave a 'Festival Performance' of La sonnambula
with Mlle Piccolomini and Sig. Belletti.
. Even during rehearsal there was tremendous interest, when Tietjens' artistic efforts called forth a response from her Raoul:
Tietjens and Giuglini next sang Il trovatore
, and both productions, attended by the Queen and court, had wildly enthusiastic receptions. On 3 June 1858, for Lumley, he appeared as Rodolfo in the first UK performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller
, opposite Piccolomini.
However, as Lumley's management soon afterwards collapsed, Colonel J.H. Mapleson
, hoping to revive the Her Majesty's company, set up a company at Drury Lane, acquiring some of Lumley's artistes, and in its second season (1858) Giuglini appeared again as Fernando for the debut of Carolina Guarducci, who made a sensational debut despite never having studied the part which she sang (i.e. Leonora), and was afterwards coached by Mme Tietjens. At Drury Lane in July 1859 Giuglini created the role of Arrigo in the first London production of Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes
, opposite Tietjens.
With Edward Tyrrel Smith the Her Majesty's project was resumed, and in 1860 Tietjens and Giuglini were available to Smith and Mapleson as part of a £16,000 deal with Lumley. English and Italian opera companies were run on alternate nights, and Giuglini, Tietjens, Mme Lemaire and Sig. Vialetti in Il trovatore were alternated with G.A. Macfarren
's Robin Hood
, starring Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
(her début), John Sims Reeves and Charles Santley
. But the management partnership split, and Mapleson again dealt with Lumley to obtain Giuglini and Tietjens for a new project at the Lyceum Theatre.
, but she was immediately poached by Gye for Covent Garden. The Lyceum company opened on 8 June 1861 with Il trovatore with Giuglini and Tietjens, Alboni, Enrico Delle Sedie
(who had sung with Giuglini in Milan) and Édouard Gassier, under Luigi Arditi
. The second night was Lucrezia Borgia
, with the same cast, Tietjens' greatest role. Soon afterwards Giuglini led a cast in the very successful first London production of Un ballo in maschera
, just beating Covent Garden to it, after all-night rehearsals for weeks through productions of Les Huguenots, Lucrezia Borgia and Norma
(Giuglini as Pollio, opposite Tietjens), all with Arditi conducting. The end of the season was crowned with an evening of excerpts, in which Giuglini and Tietjens sang the grand duet from Les Huguenots.
, Oberon
, Robert le Diable
, Lucrezia Borgia
and Il trovatore
followed. During this season Giuglini began to be difficult, spending much time in Brighton with a notorious lady, but being brought to heel by the threat of being replaced as Manrico. He however made it a condition of his continued service, that Mapleson should present a new Cantata which he, Giuglini, had written, including a lugubrious role for Tietjens, and a scene in which no fewer than 120 windows should appear in a stage set, from each of which at a given signal (i.e., the Garibaldi hymn) an Italian flag should appear. Mapleson complied: the cantata was performed for one night only. The 1862 season also included Giuglini in the opera Martha
.
Following an incident in which Mme Tietjens accidentally struck Giuglini on the nose with a drumstick when sounding a gong during a performance of Norma, causing the tenor's nose to bleed on stage, Giuglini conceived a hatred for that opera and swore a solemn oath never to appear in it again. However, during a breakdown in a series of Il trovatore, owing to the indisposition of the contralto, Mapleson was obliged to stage Norma and engaged another tenor, knowing Giuglini's objection, and that this performance was supernumerary to his contract. Having attempted to extort additional fees, Giuglini at the last minute had the rival forcibly divested of his costume backstage, and sang the role himself, but to little financial advantage, and without the drumstick.
The 1863 season opened with Il trovatore, and in May was the premiere of Schira's opera Niccolo de' Lapi with Giuglini as Lamberto, Tietjens, Zélia Trebelli
and Santley. However the highlight of that season was the first London Faust
, launched 11 June at Her Majesty's, in which he took the title role: the opera was thereafter produced at Covent Garden in every year until 1911. The premiere was with Tietjens (Margherita), Trebelli (Siebel), Edouard Gassier (Mephistopheles) and Charles Santley (Valentin), Arditi conducting. (On one occasion Giuglini was hissed for a late appearance in the church scene.) It was given for ten nights in succession, after which Gye opened it at Covent Garden on July 2 with Enrico Tamberlik
, and with Mario in the following year. In later productions Mapleson replaced Giuglini in the role with the tenor Alessandro Bettini, and with Sims Reeves. Giuglini again sang The Bohemian Girl, this time with Santley, Vialetti and Louisa Pyne
.
In 1864, Tietjens and Giuglini performed Lucrezia Borgia at Her Majesty's, in the gala performance in the presence of Garibaldi, and surpassed themselves. They led the cast in a new production of The Merry Wives of Windsor
of Nicolai (as Mistress Ford and Fenton), with Bettini, Gassier, Santley and Caroline Bettelheim, which ran for many nights. Both appeared in Buckingham Palace concerts in that year. Giuglini was also Vincenzo in Gounod's Mireille
, in a fight scene of which, owing to insufficient rehearsal, he received a resounding blow on the head from Santley, playing Ourrias.
had contrived to take that role. His debut as Faust there was, therefore, delayed, and when he was finally asked, Patti (the Marguerite) was rumoured to be indisposed, to be replaced by a débutante. Giuglini was unnerved, and became indisposed himself. When at the end of his contract a sum was deducted for that evening because he had taken a walk and left his house on that night, he threw his payment into a stove in fury, and thereafter his reason began to desert him. He returned to London in spring 1865, where Mapleson awaited him for a Dublin tour. All his valuable clothes and fur coats had been stolen in the journey back from Russia, and all the precious stones removed from his property and jewellery.
, and in a later visit, with Tietjens, the tenor seemed rational, and sang 'Spirto gentil' and M'appari' for them divinely. His condition deteriorated, and having made a sea voyage to Italy that autumn for his health, he died at Pesaro
.
('Mamma Puzzi' as he called her), who was frequently summoned by letter or telegraph to rescue him at a moment's notice, and never failed to do so. Giuglini was very fond of flying kites, which he often did in the Brompton Road
at the risk of being crushed to death by passing omnibuses, and became known to the drivers who indulgently avoided him.
Lumley noted one of Giuglini's obsessions in 1857: "At this period the principal passion of the great tenor was for making and letting off fireworks ! It was one of those passions which almost amounted to a mania, and engrossed all his thoughts when not occupied with his art. He had come to be a considerable adept in fire work-making..." Mme Tietjens told of a hazardous journey with him back from a performance in the theatre at Dublin, in a cab stuffed full of fireworks, with excited but unaware fellow travellers smoking pipes and cigars around them. Giuglini himself was a cigar-smoker, and enjoyed gossip and conspiracy among his companions.
According to a story published in 1951 purporting to be based in historical reality, from around 1858 to 1863 Giuglini openly maintained a relationship with a married woman, Mrs Agnes Wyndham (formerly Agnes Willoughby), wife of 'Mad' Wyndham of Felbrigg Hall
in Norfolk, which caused a frisson of public scandal. Mrs Wyndham was very attached to Giuglini and set up house with him in London, despite the fact that her husband appeared from time to time to create embarrassing scenes, and threatened her with divorce. The writer tells that when Guiglini's popularity and fortunes began to wane late in 1863, and he could no longer underwrite her expenses, she detached herself from him, at about the time he entered an asylum in Chiswick. However she was deeply affected by news of his death in 1865.
, the tenor who succeeded him in London.
Santley also wrote:
In 1893, George Bernard Shaw
could still write of his own time as the 'post-Giuglinian days'; and Giuglini's name was often coupled with that of the great tenor Mario
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
. During the last eight years of his life, before he developed signs of mental instability, he earned renown as one of the leading stars of the operatic scene in London. He created several major roles for British audiences, appearing in the first London performances of Gounod's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
and Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
. In London, he was the usual stage partner of the great dramatic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Thérèse Tietjens.
Early career in Italy
Guiglini was born at FanoFano
Fano is a town and comune of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort 12 km southeast of Pesaro, located where the Via Flaminia reaches the Adriatic Sea...
in Italy's middle/north-east. He studied in his home country with Francesco Cellini, and made his debut in opera at Fermo
Fermo
Fermo is a town and comune of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo.Fermo is located on a hill, the Sabulo with a fine view, on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway....
.
According to the impresario Benjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley, opera manager and solicitor, was born Benjamin Levy, in 1811, the son of a Jewish merchant Louis Levy, and died 17 March 1875 in London.-Beginnings at His Majesty's Theatre:...
, Giuglini had been destined for the priesthood. He began in the choir of the metropolitan church of Fermo, where his excellence as a treble, and then as a tenor, attracted attention. He firmly resisted many inducements to appear on the stage, until one day one day he took the place of a member of the Theatre orchestra who fell ill. Soon afterwards the principal tenor also fell ill, and Giuglini took his place as Jacopo in I due Foscari
I due Foscari
I due Foscari is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on a historical play, The Two Foscari by Lord Byron....
. He was immediately successful, and then had brilliant successes at other theatres. This led him to Milan, where he came to the attention of the Emperor of Austria, who conferred on him the title of chamber-singer (Kammersänger) to his court, and wanted to engage him for Vienna. However Lumley had already booked him for three years in London, but the Viennese court then secured him in advance for the year 1860.
His first season at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, in early 1855, was witnessed by Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
who observed that he created 'a perfect furore' and was the hero of the day.
Santley saw him there as Raoul (Gli Ugonotti
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
), in which he sang charmingly but lacked the fire and manliness for the role, as Arturo in I Puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
, which rivetted the attention completely, and in selection evenings, when he sang the trio 'Pappataci' from L'Italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
with Scheggi (buffo) and Ignazio Marini
Ignazio Marini
Ignazio Marini was a celebrated Italian operatic bass. He sang in the world premieres of several operas by Gaetano Donizetti, Saverio Mercadante, and Giuseppe Verdi and appeared as a guest artist in major opera houses throughout Europe and in New York City and Cairo.-Biography:Ignazio Marini was...
(bass), so popular it had to be repeated throughout the season. On 26 December 1855 he appeared at Teatro Regio di Parma
Teatro Regio di Parma
Teatro Regio di Parma is a famous 19th century opera house and opera company in Parma, Italy. The theatre was originally known as the Teatro Ducale....
in the first performance of Giovanna de Guzman, the first Italian version of Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe, which was written in 1838 and offered to Halevy and Donizetti before Verdi...
.
London 1857-1858
Giuglini made his debut in London for Benjamin LumleyBenjamin Lumley
Benjamin Lumley, opera manager and solicitor, was born Benjamin Levy, in 1811, the son of a Jewish merchant Louis Levy, and died 17 March 1875 in London.-Beginnings at His Majesty's Theatre:...
on 14 April 1857, at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, as Fernando in La favorita, with Mlle Spezia and Sig. Vialetti. Giuglini took the London palms, and was immediately approved by the London audience. He joined an already celebrated company which included artists such as Maria Piccolomini, Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni was a renowned Italian contralto opera singer. Together with the charismatic Maria Malibran, she was considered the greatest deeper-voiced female singer of the nineteenth century.-Biography:...
and Therese Tietjens. This house was in competition with the newly rebuilt Covent Garden theatre, where Giulia Grisi
Giulia Grisi
Giulia Grisi, also known as Madame De Candia was an Italian opera singer...
and Giovanni Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
led the cast and the box-office under Michael Costa
Michael Costa (conductor)
Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa was an Italian-born conductor and composer who achieved success in England.-Biography:He was born in Naples as Michaele Andrea Agniello Costa, to a family, according to some, of Sephardic stock...
for Frederick Gye
Frederick Gye
Frederick Gye was an English businessman and opera manager who for many years ran what is now the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.-Life:...
. La favorita was followed by La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
with Mlle Piccolomini, and Giuglini was received with even greater excitement than before: and in I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
, chosen for the debut of Angiolina Ortolani, he stole the laurels from his partner. His Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, with Piccolomini, was a further sensation:
As Manrico
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, opposite Maria Spezia-Aldighieri
Maria Spezia-Aldighieri
Maria Spezia-Aldighieri was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active international career from 1849 up into the 1870s. She excelled in the coloratura soprano repertoire and was particularly admired for her portrayals in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi...
and with Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni was a renowned Italian contralto opera singer. Together with the charismatic Maria Malibran, she was considered the greatest deeper-voiced female singer of the nineteenth century.-Biography:...
as Azucena, he still held the centre of attention. In the revival of Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, with Piccolomini (Zerlina), Mlles Spezia (Donna Anna) and Ortolani (Elvira), Belletti (Leporello), 'the music of Don Ottavio was warbled by the beautiful voice of Giuglini as few had heard it warbled before. The noble air "Dalla sua Pace" was restored by Giuglini on this occasion, and he made a marked sensation by his tender, expressive delivery of it.' He took part in an Italian version of Balfe
Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, best-remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl.After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed 38 operas, almost 250 songs and other works...
's The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...
(as, La Zingara), with Piccolomini, Alboni, Vialetti and Belletti: 'Giuglini's singing of "Then you'll remember me," in the Italian brought with it a pleasure never to be forgotten by those who heard it.' He also gave a 'Festival Performance' of La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
with Mlle Piccolomini and Sig. Belletti.
With Mapleson and Smith, 1858-1861
Lumley's 1858 season did not begin until after Easter, and for its launch, when the future was very uncertain, he gave a lavish production for the London debut of Thérèse Tietjens, with Giuglini, in Les HuguenotsLes Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
. Even during rehearsal there was tremendous interest, when Tietjens' artistic efforts called forth a response from her Raoul:
Tietjens and Giuglini next sang Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, and both productions, attended by the Queen and court, had wildly enthusiastic receptions. On 3 June 1858, for Lumley, he appeared as Rodolfo in the first UK performance of Verdi's Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von Schiller. The first performance was given at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on December 8, 1849...
, opposite Piccolomini.
However, as Lumley's management soon afterwards collapsed, Colonel J.H. Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson was an English opera impresario, probably the leading figure instrumental in the development of opera production, and of the careers of singers, in London and New York City in the second half of the 19th century.-Life and career:Mapleson was born in London, England...
, hoping to revive the Her Majesty's company, set up a company at Drury Lane, acquiring some of Lumley's artistes, and in its second season (1858) Giuglini appeared again as Fernando for the debut of Carolina Guarducci, who made a sensational debut despite never having studied the part which she sang (i.e. Leonora), and was afterwards coached by Mme Tietjens. At Drury Lane in July 1859 Giuglini created the role of Arrigo in the first London production of Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe, which was written in 1838 and offered to Halevy and Donizetti before Verdi...
, opposite Tietjens.
With Edward Tyrrel Smith the Her Majesty's project was resumed, and in 1860 Tietjens and Giuglini were available to Smith and Mapleson as part of a £16,000 deal with Lumley. English and Italian opera companies were run on alternate nights, and Giuglini, Tietjens, Mme Lemaire and Sig. Vialetti in Il trovatore were alternated with G.A. Macfarren
George Macfarren
George Macfarren was a playwright and the father of composer George Alexander Macfarren. Macfarren's first play, Ah! What a Pity, or, The Dark Knight and the Fair Lady, was produced on 28 September 1818 at the English Opera House; for the next several decades, a Macfarren play was produced...
's Robin Hood
Robin Hood (opera)
For the comic opera by Reginald De Koven, see Robin Hood .Robin Hood is a ballad opera by Michael Tippett based on the legend of Robin Hood. Composed in 1934, the score remains unpublished...
, starring Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
Helen Lemmens-Sherrington
Helen Lemmens-Sherrington was the leading English concert and operatic soprano of the 1860s.- Early life :Born in Preston, England, in 1834, Helen Sherrington studied singing at Rotterdam and Brussels...
(her début), John Sims Reeves and Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
. But the management partnership split, and Mapleson again dealt with Lumley to obtain Giuglini and Tietjens for a new project at the Lyceum Theatre.
Mapleson's Lyceum season, 1861
Meanwhile Mapleson had also recruited Adelina PattiAdelina Patti
Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...
, but she was immediately poached by Gye for Covent Garden. The Lyceum company opened on 8 June 1861 with Il trovatore with Giuglini and Tietjens, Alboni, Enrico Delle Sedie
Enrico Delle Sedie
Enrico Augusto Delle Sedie was an Italian operatic baritone who sang extensively in Europe, performing the bel canto repertoire and in works by Verdi....
(who had sung with Giuglini in Milan) and Édouard Gassier, under Luigi Arditi
Luigi Arditi
Luigi Arditi was an Italian violinist, composer and conductor.Arditi was born in Crescentino, Piemonte . He began his musical career as a violinist, and studied music at the Conservatory of Milan. He made his debut in 1843 as a director at Vercelli, and it was there that he was made an honorary...
. The second night was Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia [luˈkrɛtsia ˈbɔrʤa] was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia...
, with the same cast, Tietjens' greatest role. Soon afterwards Giuglini led a cast in the very successful first London production of Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, just beating Covent Garden to it, after all-night rehearsals for weeks through productions of Les Huguenots, Lucrezia Borgia and Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
(Giuglini as Pollio, opposite Tietjens), all with Arditi conducting. The end of the season was crowned with an evening of excerpts, in which Giuglini and Tietjens sang the grand duet from Les Huguenots.
Her Majesty's, and a Cantata
In 1862 Mapleson finally obtained the lease of Her Majesty's Theatre, with the continued services of Tietjens and Giuglini. Verdi's Cantata, rejected for the opening of the 1862 London Exhibition, was performed, and productions of SemiramideSemiramide
Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
, Oberon
Oberon
Oberon is a legendary king of the fairies.Oberon may also refer to:-People:* Merle Oberon , British actress* Oberon Zell-Ravenheart , Neopagan activist-Media and entertainment:* Oberon...
, Robert le Diable
Robert le diable
Robert le diable may refer to:* Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer* Robert the Devil, a medieval legend...
, Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan with...
and Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
followed. During this season Giuglini began to be difficult, spending much time in Brighton with a notorious lady, but being brought to heel by the threat of being replaced as Manrico. He however made it a condition of his continued service, that Mapleson should present a new Cantata which he, Giuglini, had written, including a lugubrious role for Tietjens, and a scene in which no fewer than 120 windows should appear in a stage set, from each of which at a given signal (i.e., the Garibaldi hymn) an Italian flag should appear. Mapleson complied: the cantata was performed for one night only. The 1862 season also included Giuglini in the opera Martha
Martha (opera)
Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
.
Following an incident in which Mme Tietjens accidentally struck Giuglini on the nose with a drumstick when sounding a gong during a performance of Norma, causing the tenor's nose to bleed on stage, Giuglini conceived a hatred for that opera and swore a solemn oath never to appear in it again. However, during a breakdown in a series of Il trovatore, owing to the indisposition of the contralto, Mapleson was obliged to stage Norma and engaged another tenor, knowing Giuglini's objection, and that this performance was supernumerary to his contract. Having attempted to extort additional fees, Giuglini at the last minute had the rival forcibly divested of his costume backstage, and sang the role himself, but to little financial advantage, and without the drumstick.
The 1863 season opened with Il trovatore, and in May was the premiere of Schira's opera Niccolo de' Lapi with Giuglini as Lamberto, Tietjens, Zélia Trebelli
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini , also known as Zelia Gilbert or by her stage name Trebelli, was a French opera singer.Mme Trebelli's artistry was greatly admired by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote about her a number of times in his various reviews...
and Santley. However the highlight of that season was the first London Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, launched 11 June at Her Majesty's, in which he took the title role: the opera was thereafter produced at Covent Garden in every year until 1911. The premiere was with Tietjens (Margherita), Trebelli (Siebel), Edouard Gassier (Mephistopheles) and Charles Santley (Valentin), Arditi conducting. (On one occasion Giuglini was hissed for a late appearance in the church scene.) It was given for ten nights in succession, after which Gye opened it at Covent Garden on July 2 with Enrico Tamberlik
Enrico Tamberlik
Enrico Tamberlik was an Italian tenor who sang to great acclaim at Europe and America's leading opera venues. He excelled in the heroic roles of the Italian and French repertories and was renowned for his powerful declamation and clarion high notes.-Career:Born in Rome, some sources claim that...
, and with Mario in the following year. In later productions Mapleson replaced Giuglini in the role with the tenor Alessandro Bettini, and with Sims Reeves. Giuglini again sang The Bohemian Girl, this time with Santley, Vialetti and Louisa Pyne
Louisa Pyne
Louisa Bodda-Pyne was an English soprano and opera company manager.She was born Louisa Fanny Pyne in 1832, the youngest daughter of the alto George Pyne...
.
In 1864, Tietjens and Giuglini performed Lucrezia Borgia at Her Majesty's, in the gala performance in the presence of Garibaldi, and surpassed themselves. They led the cast in a new production of The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor (opera)
The Merry Wives of Windsor is an opera in three acts by Otto Nicolai to a German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, based on the play The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare....
of Nicolai (as Mistress Ford and Fenton), with Bettini, Gassier, Santley and Caroline Bettelheim, which ran for many nights. Both appeared in Buckingham Palace concerts in that year. Giuglini was also Vincenzo in Gounod's Mireille
Mireille (opera)
Mireille is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.-Composition history:...
, in a fight scene of which, owing to insufficient rehearsal, he received a resounding blow on the head from Santley, playing Ourrias.
At St Petersburg
Late in 1864 Giuglini accepted an engagement for a season in St Petersburg, but arrived to find that he was not required for Faust as Enrico TamberlikEnrico Tamberlik
Enrico Tamberlik was an Italian tenor who sang to great acclaim at Europe and America's leading opera venues. He excelled in the heroic roles of the Italian and French repertories and was renowned for his powerful declamation and clarion high notes.-Career:Born in Rome, some sources claim that...
had contrived to take that role. His debut as Faust there was, therefore, delayed, and when he was finally asked, Patti (the Marguerite) was rumoured to be indisposed, to be replaced by a débutante. Giuglini was unnerved, and became indisposed himself. When at the end of his contract a sum was deducted for that evening because he had taken a walk and left his house on that night, he threw his payment into a stove in fury, and thereafter his reason began to desert him. He returned to London in spring 1865, where Mapleson awaited him for a Dublin tour. All his valuable clothes and fur coats had been stolen in the journey back from Russia, and all the precious stones removed from his property and jewellery.
Illness and death
At home in Welbeck Street, Giuglini sat eating oysters and refused to put on his trousers. Mapleson placed him in the care of a doctor at ChiswickChiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
, and in a later visit, with Tietjens, the tenor seemed rational, and sang 'Spirto gentil' and M'appari' for them divinely. His condition deteriorated, and having made a sea voyage to Italy that autumn for his health, he died at Pesaro
Pesaro
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
.
Character
According to Mapleson, Giuglini had a childlike and sometimes mischievous nature. He was often prey to unscrupulous young women who used their charms to play on his sensitive nature to bring him under their influence. In this he was protected by his manageress Mme PuzziGiacinta Toso
Giacinta Toso , , Maman Puzzi, was an Italian operatic soprano who had a significant career in England during the 1820s and 1830s, before ill health forced her to retire from the stage...
('Mamma Puzzi' as he called her), who was frequently summoned by letter or telegraph to rescue him at a moment's notice, and never failed to do so. Giuglini was very fond of flying kites, which he often did in the Brompton Road
Brompton Road
Brompton Road is a street in Knightsbridge, London, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea .It starts from Knightsbridge tube station and runs south-west through an extremely wealthy residential area until it reaches Egerton Gardens and the area to the east of South Kensington tube station...
at the risk of being crushed to death by passing omnibuses, and became known to the drivers who indulgently avoided him.
Lumley noted one of Giuglini's obsessions in 1857: "At this period the principal passion of the great tenor was for making and letting off fireworks ! It was one of those passions which almost amounted to a mania, and engrossed all his thoughts when not occupied with his art. He had come to be a considerable adept in fire work-making..." Mme Tietjens told of a hazardous journey with him back from a performance in the theatre at Dublin, in a cab stuffed full of fireworks, with excited but unaware fellow travellers smoking pipes and cigars around them. Giuglini himself was a cigar-smoker, and enjoyed gossip and conspiracy among his companions.
According to a story published in 1951 purporting to be based in historical reality, from around 1858 to 1863 Giuglini openly maintained a relationship with a married woman, Mrs Agnes Wyndham (formerly Agnes Willoughby), wife of 'Mad' Wyndham of Felbrigg Hall
Felbrigg Hall
Felbrigg Hall is a 17th-century country house located in Felbrigg, Norfolk, England. Part of a National Trust property, the unaltered 17th-century house is noted for its Jacobean architecture and fine Georgian interior...
in Norfolk, which caused a frisson of public scandal. Mrs Wyndham was very attached to Giuglini and set up house with him in London, despite the fact that her husband appeared from time to time to create embarrassing scenes, and threatened her with divorce. The writer tells that when Guiglini's popularity and fortunes began to wane late in 1863, and he could no longer underwrite her expenses, she detached herself from him, at about the time he entered an asylum in Chiswick. However she was deeply affected by news of his death in 1865.
A critique
Santley, who had admired him in Milan, felt afterwards that he was not so fine a singer as Italo GardoniItalo Gardoni
Italo Gardoni was a leading operatic tenore di grazia singer from Italy who enjoyed a major international career during the middle decades of the 19th century...
, the tenor who succeeded him in London.
Santley also wrote:
In 1893, George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
could still write of his own time as the 'post-Giuglinian days'; and Giuglini's name was often coupled with that of the great tenor Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
.
Sources
- J.H. Mapleson, The Mapleson Memoirs, 2 vols (Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Co, 1888).
- H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (London: OUP, 1974 printing).
- C. Santley, Student and Singer - The Reminiscences of Charles Santley (London: Edward Arnold, 1892).
- C. Santley, Reminiscences of my Life (London: Isaac Pitman, 1909).
- G.B. Shaw, Music in London 1890-1894, 3 vols (London: Constable,1932).
- J. Sims Reeves, The Life of Sims Reeves written by himself (London: Simpkin Marshall, 1888).