Blanche Marchesi
Blanche Marchesi (4 April 1863 – 15 December 1940) was a French mezzo-soprano and voice teacher best known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner. She was the daughter of Mathilde Graumann Marchesi, a German voice instructor[1] who taught a variety of well-known opera singers, including Emma Eames, Nellie Melba, and Emma Calvé.[2]
Early life and career
[edit]Marchesi was born in Paris in February 1863. She received her education at boarding schools in Frankfurt, German Empire and later in Paris. Initially trained as a violinist, she decided to pursue a singing career in 1881. Her debut concert took place at Queen's Hall in 1896.[3] While opera critics at the time praised her interpretive ability, they criticized her technical skill. As a voice teacher, Marchesi instructed notable singers, including British contraltos Muriel Brunskill and Astra Desmond.[3] In the 1890s, she premiered a work by Cécile Chaminade in England .[4] Martin Shaw dedicated his song "Heffle Cuckoo Fair" to her. She held a farewell concert in 1938, two years before her passing.[5]
Personal life
[edit]Marchesi had two sisters, Thérèse and Stella. Her parents were Mathilde Graumann Marchesi of Frankfurt and Salvatore de Castrone (Marchese di Palermo), an opera singer and a voice instructor, from whom she derived her stage name Marchesi.[6] Her father was a key figure in the Italian Revolution of 1848 initiating the uprising at the Palazzo Raimondi in Milan. Marchesi was first married to Baron Alexander Popper von Podhragy, Vienna, with whom she had three sons: Leopold, Fritz and Ernst. Leopold was declared enemy of the state by the Nazis and the Democratic Republic of Austria, resulting in expropriation. Fritz was killed by Austrian Nazis in 1953 near Ischgl,Austria. Ernst was deported to Dachau and later to Buchenwald, freed and fled to the United States of America. In 1984, Marchesi married her second husband, Baron André Anzon-Caccamisi of London, with whom she had a son, Baron Jérôme Anzon-Caccamisi. Sadly, Jérôme was murdered by the National Socialists in February 1945, while serving as a Resistance and French intelligence officer in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.
References
[edit]- ^ Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1986). Mi Contra Fa: The Immoralisings of a Machiavellian Musician. Da Capo Press. p. 133.
- ^ "Music Heard Yesterday.; Miss Blanche Marchesi's First Song Recital at Mendelssohn Hall". New York Times. 1899-01-26. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
- ^ a b Wood, Joseph Henry (1871). My Life of Music. Ayer Publishing. p. 148. ISBN 0-8369-5820-9.
- ^ Summers, Jonathan. "CECILE CHAMINADE". NAXOS. NAXos. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^ "Blanche Marchesi". Opera News. 37 (19). 1973.
Blanche Marchesi gave her farewell concert in 1938, aged seventy-five...
- ^ Hetherington, John Aikman (1967). Melba: a Biography. Faber & Faber. p. 62.
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