Giulia Grisi
Giulia Grisi ( born July 28, 1811 in Milan, † November 29, 1869 in Berlin) was one of the greatest Italian opera singers of the 19th century.
She came from a musically talented family. Her mother, as well as her aunt Giuseppina Grassini (1773-1850), and especially her sister Giuditta Grisi were famous singers. Carlotta Grisi Her cousin was one of the greatest ballerinas of the Romantic period.
Trained at the Conservatory in Milan, she made her debut in 1828 as Emma in Rossini Zelmira in Bologna. In 1831 she was in Milan the first Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma. Alongside Giuditta Pasta 1832 she led a commitment to Paris where she made her debut in Rossini's Semiramide and inspired by the purity, lightness and size of her voice, but also by its classic beauty the audience. 1834 she appeared for the first time in London in Rossini's The Thieving Magpie on.
Her voice was a brilliant dramatic soprano and secured its position as the leading lady for 15 years. In addition, she was an excellent actress. From Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini highly valued, various operas such as Bellini's opera I Puritani were written for them. However, their most important achievement was the Norma. She sang the first mezza - voce on the stage and wowed the audience as, for example, in the aria casta diva in Norma.
In Donizetti's Marino Faliero, she performed together with Giovanni Battista Rubini, Antonio Tamburini and Luigi Lablache. These singers lived long as the Puritani quartet continued in the memory of opera fans. 1836 she married the Marquis de Meley in London, this marriage was isolated in 1842. In 1856 she finally married the love of her life, the famous singer Mario, Giovanni Matteo de Candia actually (1810 -1883 ), with whom she had five daughters and one son. With Mario, who came from a noble Sardinian family, she made several trips, including one by North America. During her marriage to Mario, she lived in Paris and London, and spent the summer in the palace of her husband's family in Sardinia. They sang, albeit with a weakened force, some years in Paris and then retired permanently from the stage.
On a train journey with her children to her husband to St. Petersburg, she was involved in an accident in Germany and died in a hotel in Berlin. She was transferred to Paris and buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Her grave wearing a white stone with the inscription Giulietta de Candia.