Eugenia Tadolini
Monday, September 28, 2020
Italian opera of the 19th century presented new challenges for singers, especially for coloratura sopranos. Eugenia Tadolini (1808-1872) delighted the public as well as numerous composers throughout her over twenty-year career. Atypically for a coloratura soprano, she refrained from adding her own coloratura passages, such as in the role of Amina in Bellini’s La Somnambula. But it was precisely the beauty of her voice that prevented her from singing the role of Lady Macbeth in the 1848 premiere of Verdi’s Macbeth; the composer had in mind more of a harsh, stifled, and hollow voice with a diabolical character.
Nevertheless, Tadolini’s name remains associated with numerous premieres, including Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, the main role in his Linda di Chamounix, and the title role in Verdi’s Alzira.
In RISM, Eugenia Tadolini appears in only 16 records because names of singers are only included when they are named on the source.
A particularly nice manuscript contains four opera arias from Tadolini’s repertoire of pieces that she sang at the Teatro S Carlo in Naples from 1843 to 1845.
Image: Eugenia Tadolini, lithographic print by Josef Kriehuber, 1835, from Wikimedia Commons.
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Category: RISM A-Z
