Adelaide Borghi-Mamo
Encyclopedia
Adelaide Borghi-Mamo was an Italian opera
tic mezzo-soprano
who had an active international career from the 1840s through the 1880s. She was married to tenor Michele Mamo and their daughter, soprano Erminia Borghi-Mamo, also had a successful singing career.
, Borghi-Mamo studied singing
in Milan with Francesca Festa before making her professional opera debut in 1843 at the opera house
in Urbino as Bianca in Saverio Mercadante
's Il giuramento
. The following year she joined the roster of singers at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina. She was soon invited to make guest appearances with major opera houses throughout Italy.
In 1851 Borghi-Mamo portrayed the title role in the world premiere of Giovanni Pacini
's Malvina di Scozia at the Teatro di San Carlo
. She returned there in 1853 to create the title role in the premiere of Saverio Mercadante
's Statira and perform in the premiere of Pacini's Romilda di Provenza. She was also heard at that house that year as Azucena in Giuseppe Verdi
's Il trovatore
and in the title role in Gaetano Braga
's Alina. On 23 August 1853 she performed in the world premiere of Lauro Rossi
's L'alchimista at the Teatro del Fondo
in Naples. She was also heard in Vienna in 1853. In 1854 she sang in another premiere at the Teatro di San Carlo: the role of Tremacoldo in Errico Petrella
's Marco Visconti.
In 1854 Borghi-Mamo sang the role of Azucena in the French premiere of Il trovatore at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. She was committed to that theatre through 1856 where she was particularly admired in three roles in operas by Gioachino Rossini: the Contessa d'Arco in Matilde di Shabran
, Rosina in The Barber of Seville
, and the title role in La Cenerentola
. In 1856 she made her debut at the Paris Opera
as Leonor de Guzmán
in Gaetano Donizetti
's La favorite
. She remained committed to that house for the next four years where she notably created roles in the world premieres of Fromental Halévy
's La magicienne (1858, Mélusine), Félicien David's Herculanum (1859, Olympia), and Gaetano Braga
's Margherita la mendicante (1859, Margherita).
In 1860 Borghi-Mamo performed in London for the first time as Azucena and Leonor de Guzmán at Her Majesty's Theatre
. In November 1860 she performed at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna
as Fidès in that theatre's first presentation of Giacomo Meyerbeer
's Le prophète
. In 1861 she sang in the premiere of Achille Peri
's L'espiazione at La Scala
. She returned to that house on 26 December 1862 to sing the role of Giulia Raselli in the world premiere of Achille Peri
's Rienzi. In 1861-1862 she was again committed to the Teatro Regio di Torino where she was heard as Desdemona in Rossini's Otello
, Federica in Verdi's Luisa Miller
, Fidès, and Rosina. In 1870 she sang the title role in Pacini's Saffò
at La Fenice
. She returned to the Théâtre-Italien in Paris in 1876 to perform Preziosilla in Verdi's La forza del destino
. In 1879 she appeared at the Teatro Real
in Madrid as Beatrice in the world premiere of Emilio Usiglio
's Le donne curiose. She remained active on the stage up into the 1880s. She died in Bologna in 1901 at the age of 75.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
who had an active international career from the 1840s through the 1880s. She was married to tenor Michele Mamo and their daughter, soprano Erminia Borghi-Mamo, also had a successful singing career.
Life and career
Born in BolognaBologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, Borghi-Mamo studied singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
in Milan with Francesca Festa before making her professional opera debut in 1843 at the opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
in Urbino as Bianca in Saverio Mercadante
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as impressive a number of works as either; and his development of...
's Il giuramento
Il giuramento
Il giuramento is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Saverio Mercadante. The libretto, by Gaetano Rossi, is based on Victor Hugo's play Angélo, tyran de Padoue...
. The following year she joined the roster of singers at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina. She was soon invited to make guest appearances with major opera houses throughout Italy.
In 1851 Borghi-Mamo portrayed the title role in the world premiere of Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas...
's Malvina di Scozia at the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
. She returned there in 1853 to create the title role in the premiere of Saverio Mercadante
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as impressive a number of works as either; and his development of...
's Statira and perform in the premiere of Pacini's Romilda di Provenza. She was also heard at that house that year as Azucena in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
and in the title role in Gaetano Braga
Gaetano Braga
Gaetano Braga was an Italian composer and cellist.He was born in Giulianova in Abruzzi and died in Milan....
's Alina. On 23 August 1853 she performed in the world premiere of Lauro Rossi
Lauro Rossi
Lauro Rossi , was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. There is no known connection with Luigi Rossi .Rossi studied in Naples and produced his first opera there...
's L'alchimista at the Teatro del Fondo
Teatro del Fondo
The Teatro del Fondo is a theatre in Naples, now known as the Teatro Mercadante. Together with the Teatro San Carlo, it was originally one of the two royal opera houses of the 18th and 19th-century city....
in Naples. She was also heard in Vienna in 1853. In 1854 she sang in another premiere at the Teatro di San Carlo: the role of Tremacoldo in Errico Petrella
Errico Petrella
Errico Petrella was an Italian opera composer.Petrella was born at Palermo. A conservative of the Neapolitan school, he was the most successful Italian composer, second only to Verdi, during the 1850s and 1860s. He also earned the latter's scorn for his compositional and dramatic crudities,...
's Marco Visconti.
In 1854 Borghi-Mamo sang the role of Azucena in the French premiere of Il trovatore at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. She was committed to that theatre through 1856 where she was particularly admired in three roles in operas by Gioachino Rossini: the Contessa d'Arco in Matilde di Shabran
Matilde di Shabran
Matilde di Shabran , ossia Bellezza, e cuor di ferro , is a melodramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti after François-Benoît Hoffman’s libretto for Méhul’s Euphrosine and J. M. Boutet de Monvel's play Mathilde...
, Rosina in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
, and the title role in La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
. In 1856 she made her debut at the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
as Leonor de Guzmán
Eleanor of Guzman
Eleanor of Guzman or Leonor Núñez de Guzmán was a Castilian noblewoman and long-term mistress to Alfonso XI of Castile. She was the mother of King Henry II of Castile.- Life :...
in Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's La favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
. She remained committed to that house for the next four years where she notably created roles in the world premieres of Fromental Halévy
Fromental Halévy
Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy , was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.-Early career:...
's La magicienne (1858, Mélusine), Félicien David's Herculanum (1859, Olympia), and Gaetano Braga
Gaetano Braga
Gaetano Braga was an Italian composer and cellist.He was born in Giulianova in Abruzzi and died in Milan....
's Margherita la mendicante (1859, Margherita).
In 1860 Borghi-Mamo performed in London for the first time as Azucena and Leonor de Guzmán at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
. In November 1860 she performed at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Teatro Comunale di Bologna
The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy, and is one of the most important opera venues in Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season....
as Fidès in that theatre's first presentation of Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
's Le prophète
Le prophète
Le prophète is an opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe.-Performance history:...
. In 1861 she sang in the premiere of Achille Peri
Achille Peri
Achille Peri was an Italian composer and conductor. He is best known for his operas which were strongly influenced by the music of Giuseppe Verdi.-Life and career:...
's L'espiazione at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
. She returned to that house on 26 December 1862 to sing the role of Giulia Raselli in the world premiere of Achille Peri
Achille Peri
Achille Peri was an Italian composer and conductor. He is best known for his operas which were strongly influenced by the music of Giuseppe Verdi.-Life and career:...
's Rienzi. In 1861-1862 she was again committed to the Teatro Regio di Torino where she was heard as Desdemona in Rossini's Otello
Otello (Rossini)
Otello is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di Salsi, based on Shakespeare's play Othello....
, Federica in Verdi's Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller
Luisa Miller is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von Schiller. The first performance was given at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on December 8, 1849...
, Fidès, and Rosina. In 1870 she sang the title role in Pacini's Saffò
Saffò
Saffò is an opera in three acts by Giovanni Pacini on a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on a play by Franz Grillparzer, after the legend of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho.-Performance history:...
at La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
. She returned to the Théâtre-Italien in Paris in 1876 to perform Preziosilla in Verdi's La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
. In 1879 she appeared at the Teatro Real
Teatro Real
The Teatro Real or simply El Real , is a major opera house located in Madrid, Spain.-History:...
in Madrid as Beatrice in the world premiere of Emilio Usiglio
Emilio Usiglio
Emilio Usiglio was an Italian composer and conductor.Usiglio studied music in Parma, first with Giuseppe Barbacini and then with Giovanni Rossi, before continuing his education in Pisa with Carlo Romani and in Florence with Teodulo Mabellini. At the age of 20 he began his operatic career with...
's Le donne curiose. She remained active on the stage up into the 1880s. She died in Bologna in 1901 at the age of 75.