Teresa Bertinotti
Encyclopedia
Teresa Bertinotti (1776 – 12 Feb 1854) was a celebrated Italian soprano
and voice teacher. She created leading roles in several operas, including Simon Mayr
's Ginevra di Scozia
.
in Piedmont
, northern Italy, but grew up in Naples
where her parents moved when she was two years old. At the age of four she had her first music leassons and made her first stage appearance as a child singer at the Teatro San Carlo when she was 12. She studied singing with Baldassare La Barbiera and by the age of 20 had already sung at both La Scala
and La Fenice
. She went on to sing throughout Italy as well as in Germany, Austria, Portugal, Russia, Holland, Ireland and England. She had a great success in The Magic Flute
and Così fan tutte
at London's King's Theatre
, where she appeared between 1811 and 1812.
In 1801, she married the violinist and composer Felice Radicati (1775-1823) whom she had met in Turin
, and the couple travelled throughout Europe together. Radicati composed several works for his wife's voice, including his opera Fedra, which Bertinotti sang in her first season at the King's Theatre. He is also said to have composed several arias for her to interpolate in Vincenzo Federici's Zaira for its first London performance in 1811. The couple settled in Bologna
in 1815 when Radicati became leader of the municipal orchestra there and maestro di cappella at the San Petronio Basilica
. Following Radicati's death in 1823, Bertinotti retired from the stage and taught singing. Amongst her pupils were Carolina Cuzzani, who became a prima donna
at La Scala, and Balbina Steffenone
, who sang Leonora in the American premiere of Il trovatore
.
Teresa Bertinotti died in Bologna at the age of 78.
Other roles
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...
and voice teacher. She created leading roles in several operas, including Simon Mayr
Simon Mayr
Johann Simon Mayr , also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr was a German composer.- Life :...
's Ginevra di Scozia
Ginevra di Scozia
Ginevra di Scozia is an opera in two acts by Simon Mayr set to an Italian libretto by Gaetano Rossi based on Antonio Salvi's, Ginevra, principessa di Scozia, which in turn was adapted from Cantos 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Ginevra di Scozia premiered on 21 April 1801 at the...
.
Biography
Teresa Bertinotti was born in SaviglianoSavigliano
Savigliano is a comune of Piedmont, northern Italy, in the Province of Cuneo, c. 50 kilometers south of Turin by rail....
in Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, northern Italy, but grew up in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
where her parents moved when she was two years old. At the age of four she had her first music leassons and made her first stage appearance as a child singer at the Teatro San Carlo when she was 12. She studied singing with Baldassare La Barbiera and by the age of 20 had already sung at both 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...
and La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
. She went on to sing throughout Italy as well as in Germany, Austria, Portugal, Russia, Holland, Ireland and England. She had a great success in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
and Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
at London's King'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...
, where she appeared between 1811 and 1812.
In 1801, she married the violinist and composer Felice Radicati (1775-1823) whom she had met in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, and the couple travelled throughout Europe together. Radicati composed several works for his wife's voice, including his opera Fedra, which Bertinotti sang in her first season at the King's Theatre. He is also said to have composed several arias for her to interpolate in Vincenzo Federici's Zaira for its first London performance in 1811. The couple settled in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
in 1815 when Radicati became leader of the municipal orchestra there and maestro di cappella at the San Petronio Basilica
San Petronio Basilica
The Basilica of San Petronio is the main church of Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates the Piazza Maggiore. It is the fifth largest church in the world, stretching for 132 meters in length and 60 meters in width, while the vault reaches 45 meters inside and 51 meters in the facade...
. Following Radicati's death in 1823, Bertinotti retired from the stage and taught singing. Amongst her pupils were Carolina Cuzzani, who became a prima donna
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
at La Scala, and Balbina Steffenone
Balbina Steffenone
Balbina Steffenone was a 19th century soprano.Born in Turin, Italy, she studied in Bologna under Teresa Bertinotti, debuting as Lucia in Macerata in 1842. After singing across Italy, she spent 1845-47 singing at Covent Garden, then went to North America, where she stayed for seven years...
, who sang Leonora in the American premiere of 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...
.
Teresa Bertinotti died in Bologna at the age of 78.
Roles
Roles created- Ipermestra in Angelo TarchiAngelo TarchiAngelo Tarchi was an Italian composer of numerous operas as well as sacred music. Between 1778 and 1787, he worked primarily in Italy, producing five or six new operas each year....
's Le Danaidi (Milan, 1794) - Rossana in Ferdinando PaerFerdinando Paer-Biography:Paer was born at Parma. His father was a trumpeter with the Ducal Bodyguards and also performed at church and court events. His name, Ferdinando, was after Duke Ferdinand of Parma and was given to him by Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, Duke Ferdinand's wife...
's Rossana (Milan, 1795) - Ginevra in MayrSimon MayrJohann Simon Mayr , also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr was a German composer.- Life :...
's Ginevra di ScoziaGinevra di ScoziaGinevra di Scozia is an opera in two acts by Simon Mayr set to an Italian libretto by Gaetano Rossi based on Antonio Salvi's, Ginevra, principessa di Scozia, which in turn was adapted from Cantos 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Ginevra di Scozia premiered on 21 April 1801 at the...
(Trieste, 1801) - Zulira in NicoliniGiuseppe NicoliniGiuseppe Nicolini was an Italian composer who wrote at least 45 operas. From 1819 onwards, he devoted himself primarily to religious music...
's La selvaggia nel Messico (Bologna, 1803) - Virginia in Vincenzo Federici's La Virginia (Ferrara, 1805)
- Fedra in Felice Radicati's Fedra (London 1811)
- Telaira in Felice Radicati's Castore e Polluce (Bologna, 1815)
- Minerva in FarinelliGiuseppe FarinelliGiuseppe Farinelli was an Italian composer active at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century who excelled in writing opera buffas...
's Il vero eroismo ossia Adria serenata (Venice, 1815)
Other roles
- Berenice in Luigi Caruso's Antigono
- Merope in Sebastiano Nasolini's Merope e Polifonte
- Amenaide in Rossini's TancrediTancrediTancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède...
- Donna Anna in Mozart's Don GiovanniDon GiovanniDon 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...
- Pamina in Mozart's The Magic FluteThe Magic FluteThe Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
- Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutteCosì fan tutteCosì fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
- Fecennia in Pietro Generali's I baccanali di Roma
- Zenobia in Rossini's Aureliano in PalmiraAureliano in PalmiraAureliano in Palmira is an operatic dramma serio in two acts written by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto in which the librettist was credited only by the initials "G. F. R." The libretto has generally been attributed to Giuseppe Felice Romani, but sometimes to the otherwise...
Sources
- Bozoli, Giuseppe, "Radicati, Felice Maurizio", Biografia degli Italiani illustri nelle scienze, lettere ed arti del secolo XVIII, e de' contemporanei Volume 4, pp. 400-402, Alvisopoli, 1837 (in Italian)
- Casaglia, Gherardo, "Teresa Bertinotti", Almanacco Amadeus, 2005. Accessed 9 November 2009 (in Italian).
- De Bekker, L. J. (ed), "Bertinotti, Teresa", Stokes Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, Volume 1, p. 67. Originally published in 1908 and published in facsimile by Read Books, 2007. ISBN 1-4067-7180-5
- Green, Janet M. and Hubbard, William Lines, "Bertinotti, Teresa", Musical Biographies, Originally published in 1908 and published in facsimile by Read Books in 2008, p. 71. ISBN 1-4097-7867-3
- Grove, GeorgeGeorge GroveSir George Grove, CB was an English writer on music, known as the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians....
, "Bertinotti, Teresa", A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450-1889) Vol. 1, Macmillan & Co., 1900, p. 248. - Meyerbeer, Giacomo, The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer: The last years, 1857-1864 (translated and annotated by Robert Ignatius Le Tellier, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8386-3845-7
- Nicassio, Susan Vandiver, Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective, University of Chicago Press, 2002. ISBN 0-226-57972-7
- Romani, Luigi, Teatro alla Scala: cronologia di tutti gli spettacoli rappresentati in questo teatro dal giorno del solenne suo aprimento sino ad oggi, Luigi di Giacomo Pirola, 1862.
- Wesley, SamuelSamuel WesleySamuel Wesley was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart and was called by some "the English Mozart."-Personal life:...
, The letters of Samuel Wesley: professional and social correspondence, 1797-1837 (edited and annotated by Philip Olleson), Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-816423-8