Luisa Tetrazzini

Luisa Tetrazzini (29 June 1871 – 28 April 1940) was an Italian coloratura soprano of great international fame. Tetrazzini "had a scintillating voice with a brilliant timbre and a range and agility well beyond the norm...". She enjoyed a highly successful operatic and concert career in Europe and America from the 1890s through to the 1920s. Her voice lives on in recordings made between 1904 and 1920. She wrote a memoir, My Life of Song, in 1921 and a treatise, How to Sing, in 1923. After retirement she taught voice in her homes in Milan and Rome until her death.

Early life

Tetrazzini was born on 29 June 1871 in Florence, Italy. Her father was a tailor, and she had two sisters and two brothers. Reportedly she began singing at the age of three. Luisa herself recalled singing early on as a child and reminisced that her father was the first person to ever compare her to the famous bel canto soprano Adelina Patti. Luisa first studied singing with her oldest sister Eva Tetrazzini (1862–1938)(it). Eva was also a prima donna soprano who made a name for herself internationally. During her chores Luisa was known to practice entire acts of operatic roles and to sing every voice part. She began studies at the Istituto Musicale (now known as the Florence Conservatory) between the ages of ten and thirteen with Professor Giuseppe Ceccherini. She married Giuseppe Santino Alberto Scalaberni on 14 October 1889.

Career

Through a stroke of luck Tetrazzini stepped in for an ailing prima donna and made her operatic debut in Florence on 21 October 1890 as Inez in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine at age nineteen. She reminisces that after her debut, “The pavements from the theatre to my home were lined, even at that late hour, with large numbers of people, all of whom seemed to be shouting congratulations to me.” Next she sang Inez in Rome on 26 December 1890 for the King and Queen of Italy. She was then invited by the Queen to sing the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, as it was the Queen’s favorite opera. The first part of her career was spent mainly in the Italian provincial theaters and then touring in South America. She travelled with Pietro Cesare, who became her lover of nearly 14 years, to Buenos Aires where she was offered £280 per month to sing. Her husband Alberto followed her to Argentina with the intention of taking her back home. She refused to reconcile, and he left for Florence without her in October. Tetrazzini made her debut a few days later as Annetta in Crispino e la comare. When Alberto died on 4 June 1905, they were still separated.