Bassi, Carolina Manna

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Bassi, Carolina Manna

Bassi, Carolina Manna, greatly esteemed Italian contralto; b. Naples, Jan. 10, 1781; d. Cremona, Dec. 12, 1862. She was the daughter of the comic bass Giovanni Bassi. With her brother, the comic bass Nicola Bassi (1767–1825), she began her career in her father’s company of Raggazi Napoletani at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1789. She subsequently pursued a distinguished career, creating major roles in Meyerbeer’s Semiramide riconosciuta (Turin, March 1819), Margherita d’Angiù (Milan, Nov. 14, 1820), and L’Esule di Granata (Milan, March 12, 1821), in Rossini’s Bianca e Falliero, ossia II consiglio dei tre (Milan, Dec. 26, 1819), and in operas by Pacini and Mercadante. After retiring from the operatic stage in 1828, she appeared in concerts.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire