Inez Fabbri (26 January 1831 – 30 August 1909), ''née'' Agnes Schmidt, was an
Austrian American
Austrian Americans (, ) are Americans of Austrian descent, chiefly German-speaking Catholics and Jews. According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were 735,128 Americans of full or partial Austrian descent, accounting for 0.3% of the population. The ...
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
, voice teacher and
impresaria
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
His ...
. She sang in Austria, Germany, England, South America and the Caribbean, making her home in San Francisco where, in the 1870s, she was the most important musical personality and ''
prima donna assoluta'' of her time, performing in more than 150 concerts and operas from 1872 to 1879, producing operas, and teaching voice to up-and-coming singers.
Early career
She was the daughter of an impoverished Viennese textile manufacturer. She made a successful operatic debut in Kassa, Hungary, (now
Košice
Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of app ...
, Slovakia) in Donizetti's ''
Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Govern ...
'' in 1847. After a few years on the road singing in
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
(1856–1857) and
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
(1857), she arrived at the
Hamburgischerer Stadttheater where, among other roles, she received recognition for Valentine in Meyerbeer's ''
Les Huguenots
() is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and is one of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work suc ...
'' which became one of her starring roles.
[''Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon'' (1815–1950)]
Here she met Richard Mulder (1822–1874), a Dutch musician and impresario whom she married in 1858.
[ He organized a tour to South America (1858–59) during which time she sang in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.]["A fine opera company for the splendid new house at Santiago had arrived in Valparaiso in a French clipper. It possesses three prima donnas, Mesdames Fabbri, Wideman and Leoni Bardoni. Among the male singers are the tenor Benedetti, the bass, Domenech, and the baritone, Francolini. The company is headed by Mr. Mulder, and will open in '' Nabucodonosor''", ''NYT'' (28 June 1858)] From then on she would use her stage name, "Fabbri" (Italian for "Schmidt/Smith").Kurt Gänzl
Kurt-Friedrich Gänzl (born 15 February 1946) is a New Zealand writer, historian and former casting director and singer best known for his books about musical theatre.
After a decade-long playwriting, acting and singing career, and a second ca ...
The Prima donna of San Francisco - Kurt of Gerolstein
/ref>
American career
In 1860, she was engaged by Max Maretzek
Max Maretzek (June 28, 1821 – May 14, 1897) was a Moravian-born composer, conductor, and impresario active in the United States and Latin America.''Werner's magazine'', Vol.19 p.561 (1897) Music Teachers National Association, (Digitized by Google ...
to sing at his Winter Garden Theatre in New York.["Mr.MAX MARETZEK is expected to return to the City during the coming week; his season in Havana having terminated on the 26th of last month. The greatest anxiety prevails in musical circles concerning the new prima donna, Madame INEZ FABBRI, who is known to be great not only as a singer but as a lyric actress. Her admirers maintain that she is a new Jenny Lind, and the publics of Brazil, Peru and other South American States, even go further than that. In Rio Janteiro she was, preferred to LA GRANGE and LA GRUA, -- about whom there can be no mistake. On the 9th of April Mr. MARETZEK will commence operations, and then we shall both see and hear for ourselves. In the meantime we may satisfy public curiosity by stating that there is not the slightest doubt about Madame FABBRI being entitled to the place of honor among all the prime donne now in this country." ''NYT'' (5 March 1860)] Her highly acclaimed American debut was as Violetta in Verdi's ''La Traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...
''.["Madame FABBRI is the best Violetta we have had in this City. We say this without the slightest idea of underrating the excellencies of her predecessors. LA GRANGE was finished but cold; GAZZANIGA passionate but inartistic, and soon. Each singer illuminated a page of the story by some special flash of genius. Madame FABBRI lightens up the whole. In the first act she sings with the "joyaunce of rude strength; "in the second with, the broken accents of a sudden and stupifying calamity; in the third with the protesting vehemence of one wronged; in the fourth with the sunken tones of wretched because retrospective despair. Her perception of the emotional phases of the part are so varied and distinct, that a person seeing her in the first act, where she is all hilarity and voice, can form no idea of what she is in the last, where by consummate management she presents the spectra! and vocal wreck of her former self. The mezzo-voce by which this is effected is the best that we have heard in a singer of such prodigious power, and the acting with which it is accompanied, has not been surpassed in propriety, if it has even been exceeded in intensity." ''NYT'' (13 April 1860)] Shortly thereafter, she sang Elvira in Ernani in which ''The New York Times'' wrote that "she was more dramatic and powerful" han in her role as Violettaand "a dramatic actress of the first class". "Mme. Fabbri was called out twice after each act, and the finale to the third act was encored."[The newspaper also reported a near disaster when her dress caught on fire from the footlights. The baritone was able to extinguish the fire by folding the dress over the flames. "As it is, the lesson will not, we trust be thrown away on the proprietors of the Winter Garden. No footlight should be allowed to exist without a wire guard. Madame Fabbri's courage in an emergency which would have taxed the nerves of the strongest man, was extraordinary. She did not even break the continuity of the note she was singing, until compelled to do so by a torrent of applause." ''NYT'' (17 April 1860)]
Her debut at the Winter Garden was followed by tours in the American Mid-West, Canada and the Caribbean Islands. She was especially well received in Puerto Rico but lost all her possessions in a fire.[ In 1862–1863, she and her husband returned to Europe on a tour. From May 1863 to March 1864, she sang thirty-seven performances at the Wiener Hofoper in roles which included Elvira and Leonore in Verdi's '']Ernani
''Ernani'' is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the 1830 play ''Hernani (drama), Hernani'' by Victor Hugo.
Verdi was commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice in V ...
'' and ''Il Trovatore
''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...
'', Raquel in Halévy's '' La Juive'', and Alice and Berthe in 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 ''Le Prophète
''Le prophète'' (''The Prophet'') is a grand opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, which was premiered in Paris on 16 April 1849. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, after passages from the ''Essay on the ...
''.[
From 1864–1871 they lived in ]Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
where Fabbri was engaged to sing at the Stadttheater in roles which included Elisabeth in Wagner's ''Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and ...
''. She was described by critics at this time as a soprano with a strong, clear voice suitable for both coloratura and dramatic roles.[ After a guest performance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, she returned to New York in 1872 for an engagement with the Habelmann-Formes opera company.
]
San Francisco
In 1872, she went to San Francisco with the company where she sang at the California Theatre. She and her husband settled there and from 1873 to 1874 they produced forty-three operas, staging the first production of ''Die Zauberflöte
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that includ ...
'' in the city. Her husband founded a music school in San Francisco which she took over on his death in 1874. She continued to give concerts and to produce operas, many of which she performed in herself.[ From 1875 to 1876 she directed and sang in sixty operas. Her repertoire included some forty-six different roles.][
On 17 January 1876, she inaugurated the new opera house, later renamed the Grand Opera House, in ''Snow Flake! And The Seven Pigmies''.
]
Later years
In 1878, she married, secondly, the baritone Jacob Müller (or Muller), a former student of her late husband. In 1881, she ended her singing career but continued her activities as an impresaria. After large financial losses she lived in Los Angeles from 1891 but later returned to San Francisco where she again lost her assets in a fire believed to be arson.[ In 1901, her second husband died. In 1905 she produced an opera for the last time.
]
Death
She died in San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in 1909, aged 78. Her archives are housed at the University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.[Online Archive of California]
/ref> and her definitive original portrait is housed at the San Francisco Museum of Performing Arts and Design as donated by the Constance Jacoby Horstman and Janet Richmond Families.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabbri, Inez
1831 births
1909 deaths
Austrian Empire emigrants to the United States
Impresarios
Austrian operatic sopranos
Austrian theatre managers and producers
19th-century Austrian actresses
19th-century Austrian women opera singers
19th-century American women opera singers
American operatic sopranos
Voice teachers
Women music educators