| |
| Id |
22125 |
| Category |
artwork |
| Author / Composer |
WHELER, P. |
| Title |
Madame Grassini by P. Wheler. |
| Place |
[London? |
| Publisher |
|
| Publication Date |
[ca 1815] |
| ISBN / Plate No. |
|
| Series |
|
| Size |
151 x 134mm. |
| Description |
Pen and ink with some wash; laid down on card with title at lower edge. Grassini is depicted on stage in character, with curtains to the left and above, kneeling in sandals and long classical robes, her hands chained together, posing as one in great distress. The artist Wheler has not been located in the standard encyclopaedias. "Italian contralto. After studying with Domenico Zucchinetti in Varese and with Antonio Secchi in Milan, she made her début in 1789 at Parma in P.A. Guglielmi’s La pastorella nobile. In the following year she appeared at La Scala in three comic roles but, realizing that her natural talent was dramatic, during the next decade she sang in Vicenza, Venice, Milan, Naples and Ferrara, creating roles in Zingarelli’s Artaserse and Giulietta e Romeo and in Cimarosa’s Gli Orazi ed i Curiazi, and singing in Portugal’s Demofoonte, Bertoni’s Orfeo e Euridice, Mayr’s Telemaco, Cimarosa’s Artemisia and Nasolini’s La morte di Semiramide. Grassini made her London début at the King’s Theatre in 1804 as Cora in Andreozzi’s La vergine del sole. She also sang the title roles in Winter’s Il ratto di Proserpina and Zaira, Nasolini’s La morte di Cleopatra and Fioravanti’s Camilla. In 1806 she returned to Paris. At the Tuileries she sang in Paer’s Didone abbandonata and Cherubini’s Pigmalione, and in 1813 she appeared as Horatia (Gli Orazi) at the Théâtre Italien. The following year she returned to London for the season, singing in Pucitta’s Aristodemo. In 1815 she returned to Italy and sang in Brescia, Padua, Trieste and Florence; in 1817 she gave two performances of Gli Orazi at La Scala. She retired to Milan in 1823 and supervised the musical studies of her nieces Giuditta and Giulia Grisi. Her voice, though narrow in range, was of great power and volume, unusually flexible for its weight and always used with taste and musicality” (New Grove2). |
| Reference |
|
| Price |
£1200.00 |
|
