Francesca Lebrun
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
singer and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
She was born Franziska Dorothea Danzi in Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Her father was the Italian-born cellist Innocenz Danzi and her younger brother was the composer and cellist Franz Danzi
Franz Danzi
Franz Ignaz Danzi was a German cellist, composer and conductor, the son of the noted Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi. Born in Schwetzingen, Franz Danzi worked in Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, where he died....
(1763–1826). She was renowned for her vocal dexterity and highly sought after by notable contemporaries, such as Schweitzer, Holzbauer, and Salieri, for the lead roles in their most challenging opuses.
Her talent extended beyond the stage to the manuscript tablet and the keyboard; twelve sonatas for fortepiano and violin of hers survive, six of which have been recorded.
Biography
Francesca was the eldest child in the family of gifted musicians. Her mother (Barbara Toeschi), a dancer, and her father (Innozenz Danzi), an Italian cellist, were the core of the elite elector Mannheim court performers in the late 1750s. Her brothers, Franz (Ignaz) Johann Baptist were cellist and violinist respectively and were successful composers.She made her first public appearance as a singer at the age of 16 and the following year was engaged by the Mannheim Opera. There seems to be some debate whether she first performed in Gassmann’s L’amore artigiano in May 1772, or Sacchini’s La Contadina in Corte, the role for which she earned the title virtuosa da camera. She stayed with the Mannheim court opera for four years and was cast in the premier roles: Parthenia in Anton Schweitzer
Anton Schweitzer
Anton Schweitzer was a German composer of operas.He was a child prodigy who obtained the patronage of the duke of Hildburghausen, who sent him to study in Bayreuth in 1758, then Italy , and made him Kapellmeister enabling him to tour Europe...
's Alceste (1775, Schlosstheater Schwetzingen
Schlosstheater Schwetzingen
Schlosstheater Schwetzingen is a theater in Schwetzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The historic building, opened in 1753, is part of the Schwetzingen Castle and since 1952 the principal venue of the Schwetzingen Festival. It is also called Hoftheater , Hofoper , and Comoedienhaus...
), and Anna in Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg
Günther von Schwarzburg
Günther XXI von Schwarzburg , German king, was a descendant of the counts of Schwarzburg and the younger son of Henry VII, count of Blankenburg....
(1777), a role composed specifically for her voice. At twenty-one she traveled to London to sing four opera series by J.C. Bach & Sacchini.
In 1778, she married oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
virtuoso and composer Ludwig August Lebrun
Ludwig August Lebrun
Ludwig August Lebrun was a German oboist and composer.-Life:Lebrun was born in Mannheim. The well-known and celebrated oboe virtuoso played with the orchestra at the court of the Prince-Elector Carl Theodor in Mannheim...
(1746–1790) from Mannheim. That summer, now known as Signora Lebrun, she toured Italy with Ludwig. At the opening of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
on August 3, 1778, Francesca Lebrun was the female lead in Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
's opera Europa Riconosciuta
Europa riconosciuta
Europa riconosciuta is an opera in two acts by Antonio Salieri, designated as a dramma per musica, set to an Italian libretto by Mattia Verazi.The opera takes place in Tyre and tells a story of love, violence and political discord in ancient times...
. She created a sensation in 1779 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the Concert Spirituel
Concert Spirituel
The Concert Spirituel was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790; later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, London and elsewhere...
through her ability to fit Italian words to instrumental parts of symphonies concertantes and sing them. The Lebruns lived in London from 1779 through 1781 while Francesca appeared at the King's Theater. In 1780 the celebrated English artist Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
painted her portrait.
Her compositions for Fortepiano and Violin were published in 1780. Schubart noted that she could sing A, 3 octaves above middle C with ‘clarity and distinctness’. Charles Burney
Charles Burney
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...
wrote that and when she and her husband performed divisions of thirds and sixths it was impossible to discover who was uppermost of the interval. A celebrated soprano, she sang on major operatic and concert stages through Europe, including England, Germany and Italy to great acclaim.
Francesca’s family flourished as well, she gave birth to daughter Sophie
Sophie Lebrun
Sophie Lebrun Dulken was a German pianist and composer, the daughter of Munich court oboist Ludwig August Lebrun and singer and composer Francesca Lebrun . Sophie Lebrun was born in London while her mother was on tour...
while in London in June of 1781 and daughter Rosine in 1783 in Munich. Francesca and Ludwig toured around Europe again in 1785, spending a season in Naples, then Berlin and London where Ludwig eventually passed in 1790. She performed only twice after his death and survived him by only five months, dying on May 14, 1791 at the age of 35.
She was a respected composer of sonatas for violin and piano. It is thought, too, that she was a fine pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, as reflected in her writing for the instrument.
Her daughters also became well-known. Rosine Lebrun (1783–1855) was a successful opera singer and actress and was a member of the Munich theatre company, 1801–30. Sophie
Sophie Lebrun
Sophie Lebrun Dulken was a German pianist and composer, the daughter of Munich court oboist Ludwig August Lebrun and singer and composer Francesca Lebrun . Sophie Lebrun was born in London while her mother was on tour...
[Dülken] (1781-after 1815) became a well-known pianist and composer. Sophie’s daughters and their daughters also became musicians.
Discography
- Francesca LeBrun (1756–1791), Six Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin, Op. 1, World Premiere Recording of Complete OP.1
- Performed by: Monica Jakuc & Dana Maiben
- Available: http://www.dorian.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=5332
- Women Composers At The Courts Of Europe Sonata (6) for Piano and Violin, Op. 1: no 2 in E flat major by Francesca Lebrun
- Performer: Jaroslav Sveceny (Violin), Fine Zimmermann (Harpsichord)
- Available: http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Namedrill?&name_id=108087&name_role=1