Fanny Corri-Paltoni
Encyclopedia
Fanny Corri-Paltoni was a celebrated English
opera
tic soprano
active in Europe between 1818 and 1835. It was said that she possessed a voice of remarkable beauty and that she had a fine singing technique. She particularly excelled in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and Gioachino Rossini.
(1746–1825), was an important singing master and composer in Edinburgh. Her cousin Sophia Dussek
(née Corri) was a famous soprano.
Corri-Paltoni studied singing first with her father and then with Angelica Catalani
and John Braham
in London. She toured Continental Europe
with Catalani in 1815–1816. She was committed to the King's Theatre
in London between 1818–1820, making her professional opera debut at the theatre as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro on 17 January 1818. She earned rave reviews in London for her several other portrayals of Mozart heroines, including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte
and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute
. She was also a prized Matilda in Rossini's Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
on 30 April 1818. Another triumph came on 4 May 1820 when she sang Amenaide in the London premiere of Rossini's Tancredi
. She was also a regular performer in the Philharmonic Society concerts from 1818 to 1821.
In the early to mid 1820s, Corri-Paltoni participated in several successful concert tours of Germany, Italy and Spain. While in Italy she met and married the singer Giuseppe Paltoni, after which she was billed as Fanny Corri-Paltoni. In 1824 she gave an acclaimed portrayal of Isaura in Giacomo Meyerbeer
's Margherita d'Anjou
at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna
. On 20 April 1827 she portrayed the role of Daria Garbinati in the world premiere of Gaetano Donizetti
's Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali
at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples; after which she was committed to the opera house
in Madrid for the remainder of that year.
On 12 January 1828, Corri-Paltoni sang in the premiere of Luigi Ricci
's Ulisse in Itaca at the Teatro di San Carlo
in Naples . She soon joined the roster of singer at La Scala
where she was committed from 1828-1829. Her roles in Milan included Corilla in Francesco Gnecco's La Prova di un, the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola
(with the famous bass Luigi Lablache
), Rosa in Valentino Fioravanti
's Le cantatrici villane, Lisinga in Rossini's Demetrio e Polibio
, and Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville
.
In 1830 Corri-Paltoni toured throughout Germany. In 1834 she appeared in the world premiere of Saverio Mercadante
's Uggero il danese at the Teatro Riccardi in Bergamo. Her last known appearance was as Adalgisa in a performance of Bellini's Norma
at Alessandria
in 1835. After this point no information is available about her or her husband.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
opera
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 soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
active in Europe between 1818 and 1835. It was said that she possessed a voice of remarkable beauty and that she had a fine singing technique. She particularly excelled in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Gioachino Rossini.
Biography
Born Frances Corri in Edinburgh, she was the daughter of Italian immigrants. Her exact year of birth is unknown, but she was certainly born sometime between 1795 and 1801. Her father was composer Natale Corri (1765–1822) and her uncle, Domenico CorriDomenico Corri
Domenico Corri was an Italian composer, impressario, music publisher, and voice teacher.Corri was born in Italy and studied voice with Nicola Porpora in Naples. In 1781 he moved to Scotland with his family to become an opera conductor. He became an important singing master in Edinburgh...
(1746–1825), was an important singing master and composer in Edinburgh. Her cousin Sophia Dussek
Sophia Dussek
Sophia Giustina Dussek née Corri, later Moralt was a Scottish singer, pianist, harpist, and composer of Italian descent. She studied voice with her father, composer, music publisher, and impresario Domenico Corri. Her uncle was composer Natale Corri and her cousin was soprano Fanny Corri-Paltoni...
(née Corri) was a famous soprano.
Corri-Paltoni studied singing first with her father and then with Angelica Catalani
Angelica Catalani
Angelica Catalani was an Italian opera singer, the daughter of a tradesman.At Sinigaglia, she was educated at the convent of Santa Lucia at Gubbio, where her soprano voice soon became famous....
and John Braham
John Braham
John Braham was a tenor opera singer born in London, England. His long career led him to become one of Europe's leading opera stars. He also wrote a number of songs, of minor importance, although The Death of Nelson is still remembered...
in London. She toured Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
with Catalani in 1815–1816. She was committed to the King'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 London between 1818–1820, making her professional opera debut at the theatre as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro on 17 January 1818. She earned rave reviews in London for her several other portrayals of Mozart heroines, including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
. She was also a prized Matilda in Rossini's Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, is a dramma per musica or opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, from the play The Page of Leicester by Carlo Federici...
on 30 April 1818. Another triumph came on 4 May 1820 when she sang Amenaide in the London premiere of Rossini's Tancredi
Tancredi
Tancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède...
. She was also a regular performer in the Philharmonic Society concerts from 1818 to 1821.
In the early to mid 1820s, Corri-Paltoni participated in several successful concert tours of Germany, Italy and Spain. While in Italy she met and married the singer Giuseppe Paltoni, after which she was billed as Fanny Corri-Paltoni. In 1824 she gave an acclaimed portrayal of Isaura in 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 Margherita d'Anjou
Margherita d'Anjou
Margherita d’Anjou is an operatic melodramma semiseria in two acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The Italian libretto was by Felice Romani after a text by René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt. It is the fourth of Meyerbeer's Italian operas and his first real success.-Performance history:Margherita d’Anjou...
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....
. On 20 April 1827 she portrayed the role of Daria Garbinati in the world premiere of 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 Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali
Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali
Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali , also known as Viva la mamma, is a dramma giocoso, or opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti...
at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples; after which she was committed to 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 Madrid for the remainder of that year.
On 12 January 1828, Corri-Paltoni sang in the premiere of Luigi Ricci
Luigi Ricci
Luigi Ricci , was an Italian composer, particularly of operas.He was the elder brother of Federico Ricci, with whom he collaborated on several works.- Life :...
's Ulisse in Itaca 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...
in Naples . She soon joined the roster of singer 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...
where she was committed from 1828-1829. Her roles in Milan included Corilla in Francesco Gnecco's La Prova di un, the title role in Rossini's 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...
(with the famous bass Luigi Lablache
Luigi Lablache
Luigi Lablache was an Italian opera singer of French and Irish heritage. He was most noted for his comic performances, possessing a powerful and agile bass voice, a wide range, and adroit acting skills: Leporello in Don Giovanni was one of his signature roles.-Biography:Luigi Lablache was born in...
), Rosa in Valentino Fioravanti
Valentino Fioravanti
Valentino Fioravanti was a celebrated Italian composer of opera buffas.One of the best opera buffa composers between Domenico Cimarosa and Gioacchino Rossini. He was especially popular in Naples, and was the first in Italy to introduce spoken dialogue in the French manner in his works, sometimes...
's Le cantatrici villane, Lisinga in Rossini's Demetrio e Polibio
Demetrio e Polibio
Demetrio e Polibio is a two-act operatic dramma serio by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Vincenzina Viganò-Mombelli. The opera was orchestrated for strings only....
, and Rosina in Rossini's 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...
.
In 1830 Corri-Paltoni toured throughout Germany. In 1834 she appeared in the world 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 Uggero il danese at the Teatro Riccardi in Bergamo. Her last known appearance was as Adalgisa in a performance of Bellini's Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
at Alessandria
Alessandria
-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
in 1835. After this point no information is available about her or her husband.