Giovanni Battista Belletti (17 February 1813 – 27 December 1890)"Belletti, Giovanni Battista"
Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 15 July 2022. was an Italian operatic baritone. He appeared in operas in Italy, Stockholm, London and Paris, and supported Jenny Lind in her tour of America.

Life

Belletti was born in 1813 in

Sarzana Sarzana (, ; lij, Sarzann-a) is a town, '' comune'' (municipality) and former short-lived Catholic bishopric in the Province of La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. It is east of Spezia, on the railway to Pisa, at the point where the railway to Parm ...

, Italy, son of a local businessman. He showed interest in music at an early age, and his father, being advised to cultivate his son's talent, placed him in the hands of a teacher in the neighbourhood. He was sent soon after, on the teacher's advice, to the

Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna The Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna ("philharmonic academy of Bologna"; sometimes known in English as the Bologna Academy of Music) is a music education institution in Bologna, Italy. The Accademia de' Filarmonici was founded as an associ ...

, over which presided. Pilotti taught him counterpoint as well as singing. After five years of study, Belletti received his diploma.

Stockholm

His voice was now settled, and was regarded as a baritone of beautiful quality and evenness, with good facility of execution. Advised to try the stage, he hesitated for some time, until he met at

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

the Swedish sculptor

Johan Niclas Byström Johan Niclas Byström (December 18, 1783 – 1848) was a Swedish sculptor. Byström was born at Filipstad and went to Stockholm at the age of twenty, studying there for three years under Johan Tobias Sergel. In 1809 he gained the prize of the ...

, who proposed to take him to Stockholm, free from all risk or expense, to lodge in his house, and make his debut; and, if unsuccessful, to send him back on the same terms to Italy. He accepted, and arrived at Stockholm in 1837. Early the next year he appeared in Rossini's ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based ...

'', achieving his first success about a month earlier than Jenny Lind, with whose career he was so much connected afterwards. With her he sang in Donizetti's ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoo ...

'', Meyerbeer's ''

Robert le diable ''Robert le diable'' (''Robert the Devil'') is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. ''Robert le diable'' is regarded as one of the first grand o ...

'', and other operas by these composers, translated into Swedish.

London and America

When Jenny Lind left Stockholm for Paris, Belletti returned to Italy; but when she came to London, the opera manager Benjamin Lumley, upon her advice, persuaded him to come to sing with her again. In the meantime he had sung with great success at

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

and Livorno, in operas of Rossini and Donizetti. In 1848 he made his first appearance at

Her Majesty's Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the 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 t ...

, in London, in Verdi's '' Ernani'', with

Sophie Cruvelli Sophie Johanne Charlotte Crüwell, vicountess Vigier, stage name Sophie Cruvelli (12 March 1826 – 6 November 1907) was a German opera singer. She was a dramatic soprano who had a brief but stellar public career especially in London and Paris ...

, and during that season he sang at both the opera houses in London. After singing with no less success in Paris, he was engaged, with Lind and Julius Benedict, by P. T. Barnum, for a tour in the United States from 1850 to 1852; during the tour he maintained his reputation and contributed to the enthusiastic reception which the company obtained in America.

Last years

Belletti returned to London, and remained there until the end of 1862, singing not only at the Opera, but in classical concerts and oratorios, with undiminished success. He afterwards retired, without a sign of faded powers, to Sarzana, his native place, where he lived a life of seclusion, universally respected, and surrounded by his family and relations. He died in Sarzana in 1890.

References

Attribution *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Belletti, Giovanni 1813 births 1890 deaths Italian operatic baritones 19th-century Italian male opera singers