Mathilde Marchesi (; 24 March 1821 – 17 November 1913) was a German

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

, a singing teacher, and a proponent of the

bel canto , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...

vocal method.

Biography

Mathilde Graumann was born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. Her aunt was the pianist Dorothea von Ertmann (née Graumann). In her adolescence, her family fortunes failed, so she travelled at the age of 22 to Vienna to study voice. Thereafter she went to Paris and studied with Manuel García II, who was to have the foremost influence on her. She made her debut as a singer in 1844, and had a short career in

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

and recital. Her voice, however, was only adequate, so she moved to teaching in 1849. In 1852, she married Italian baritone Salvatore Marchesi (pseudonym of Salvatore de Castrone della Rajata) (d. 1908). It was in this field that she would become famous. She taught at the conservatory in Cologne and, in the 1870s at the Vienna Conservatory, where she tutored Marie Fillunger among others. In 1881 she opened her own school on the in Paris, where she was to remain for most of her life. Ultimately, she was best known as the vocal teacher of a number of great singers. The most famous among them is perhaps

Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic lyric coloratura soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, and was the f ...

, but she also trained such illustrious singers as Emma Calvé, Frances Alda, Ellen Gulbranson, Gertrude Auld Thomas, Selma Kurz, Maikki Järnefelt, and

Emma Eames Emma Eames (August 13, 1865 – June 13, 1952) was an American first lyric soprano, later dramatic soprano renowned for the beauty of her voice. She sang major lyric and lyric-dramatic roles in opera and had an important career in New York City ...

. Marchesi died in London in 1913. The mother of

Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s to the 1980s. She possessed a voice ...

was taught by a pupil of Marchesi.

Teachings

Marchesi was clearly committed to the bel canto style of singing. Despite this, she did not particularly identify herself as a bel canto teacher. She asserted that there were only two styles of singing: "the ''good''...and the ''bad''" and argued that a properly trained vocalist could sing the old bel canto style just as easily as the then newer, more dramatic style. She was generally an advocate of a naturalistic style of singing: she called for a fairly instinctive method of breathing and argued against the "smiling" mouth position that many teachers of her day preferred. She was particularly concerned with vocal registration, calling it "the Alpha and Omega of the formation and development of the female voice, the touchstone of all singing methods, old and new." She also repeatedly expressed disdain for the teachers of her day who offered methods that they asserted would fully develop the voice in only a year or two. Instead, she felt that vocal training was best approached at a slow and deliberate pace. Two of the most distinctive features of her teachings were her "analytical method" and her insistence on very short practice times for beginners. Her "analytical method" placed great importance on intellectually understanding both the technical and the aesthetic nature of everything sung, from grand arias to simple vocal exercises. She argued that rote practice without understanding was ultimately harmful to the artistic use of the voice. Most distinctively, though, she insisted on very short practice times for beginners, as little as five minutes at a stretch three or four times a day for absolute beginners. Of course, as the voice matured those times could and should be expanded.

Pupils

Among her pupils were: * Suzanne Adams * Frances Alda * Sigrid Arnoldson * Blanche Arral * Kate Bensberg * Nadina Bulcioff * Emma Calvé * Ada Crossley *

Ilma de Murska ''Ilma'' is a genus of skippers in the family Hesperiidae. It is monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include s ...

* May De Sousa * Marie Duma *

* Emma Engdahl-Jägerskiöld * Rose Ettinger * Ethel Fiske * Antonietta Fricci * Marie Fillunger *

Mary Garden Mary Garden (20 February 1874 – 3 January 1967) was a Scottish-American operatic lyric soprano, then mezzo-soprano, with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century. She spent the latter part of her chil ...

* Etelka Gerster * Maikki Järnefelt * Louise Johnson-Missievitch * Jeanne Jomelli * Božena Kacerovská * Mai Kalna * Katharina Klafsky *

Gabrielle Krauss Marie-Gabrielle Krauss (24 March 18426 January 1906) was an important 19th century Austrian-born French operatic soprano. She created major roles in operas by Anton Rubinstein, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, Auguste Mermet, Clémence de Gr ...

* Selma Kurz * Miriam Licette *

Estelle Liebling Estelle Liebling (April 21, 1880 – September 25, 1970) was an American soprano, composer, arranger, music editor, and celebrated voice teacher and vocal coach. Born into the Liebling family of musicians, she began her professional opera career ...

* Blanche Marchesi (her daughter) * Dame

* Yevgeniya Mravina * Louise Natali-Graham * Emma Nevada * Aglaja Orgeni * Gina Oselio *

Regina Pacini Regina Isabel Luisa Pacini Quintero (January 6, 1871 – September 18, 1965) was a Portuguese lyric soprano, and First Lady of Argentina as the wife of Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear. Biography Pacini was born on January 6, 1871, in Lisbon, Portuga ...

* Rosa Papier * Anna Pessiak-Schmerling * Marta Petrini * Sedohr Rhodes * Louise Rieger *

Sarah Robinson-Duff Sarah Robinson-Duff (May 1, 1868 – May 11, 1934) was an American operatic soprano and celebrated voice teacher of many important opera singers, including Mary Garden and Alice Nielsen. She wrote the vocal pedagogy book '' Simple Truths Used b ...

* Elyda Russell * Caroline Salla *

Sibyl Sanderson Sibyl Sanderson (December 7, 1864May 16, 1903) was a famous American operatic dramatic coloratura soprano during the Parisian Belle Époque. Biography She was born in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Sibyl's father Silas Sanderson ...

* Frances Saville * Evelyn Scotney * Nadina Slaviansky * Georgina Stirling * Maggie Stirling * Florence Toronta * Guillaume Tremelli * Florence Turner-Maley * Inez McCune Williamson * Ellen Beach Yaw * Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel (Some pupils were noted on an 1899 dedicatory poster, ''Anniversary Fete – fifty years professorship, Mathilde Marchesi, 1849–1899'').

Family

Her daughter, Blanche Marchesi (1863–1940), a

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

, also a noted singer and teacher, made her début at a young age. She first appeared in opera at Prague in 1900, and subsequently sang at Covent Garden in 1902 and 1903. She was an admired concert singer.

Notes

References

* Marchesi, Mathilde. ''Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method''. Dover (1970). * Marchesi, Mathilde. ''Marchesi and Music: Passages from the Life of a Famous Singing Teacher''. New York; London : Harper & Bros. Publishers, 1898. * Marchesi, Mathilde. ''Ten Singing Lessons.'' Preface by Madame Melba, introduction by W. J. Henderson. New York; London : Harper, 1901. * * Somerset-Ward, Richard. ''Angels & Monsters: Male and Female Sopranos in the Story of Opera'', (Chapter 10, "Marchesi's Pupils"). New Haven; London : Yale University Press, 2004.

External links

The Marchesi Collection
contains many papers of Mathilde Marchesi, in th
Music Division
o

*

fro
The Etude MagazineApril, 1904

from ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100904083403/http://www.scriabin.com/etude/ The Etude Magazinebr>October, 1913
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchesi, Mathilde 1821 births 1913 deaths 19th-century German women singers German operatic mezzo-sopranos German voice teachers Vocal coaches Pupils of Manuel García (baritone) German emigrants to the United Kingdom Musicians from Frankfurt German women music educators