Strepponi, Giuseppina (actually, Clelia Maria Josepha)
Strepponi, Giuseppina (actually, Clelia Maria Josepha)
Strepponi, Giuseppina, (actually, Clelia Maria Josepha) prominent Italian soprano, second wife of Giuseppe Verdi; b. Lodi, Sept. 8, 1815; d. Sant’ Agata, near Busseto, Nov. 14, 1897. She was the daughter of Felician Strepponi (1797-1832), organist at Monza Cathedral and a composer of operas. She studied piano and singing at the Milan Cons. (1830-34), taking first prize for bel canto. After making her operatic debut in Adria (Dec. 1834), she scored her first success in Rossini’s Matilda di Shabran in Trieste (1835); that same year she sang Adalgisa and the heroine in La Sonnambula in Vienna, the latter role becoming one of her most celebrated portrayals. She subsequently toured widely with the tenor Napoleone Moriani, who became her lover. In 1839 she made her debut at Milan’s La Scala; created Donizetti’s Adelia in Rome in 1841; returning to La Scala, she created Verdi’s Abigaille on March 9, 1842, but by then her vocal powers were in decline. All the same, she continued to sing in Verdi’s operas, having become a favorite of the composer. In 1846 she retired from the opera stage. From 1847 she lived with Verdi, becoming his wife in 1859.
Bibliography
M. Mundula, La Moglie di Verdi: G. S.(Milan, 1938); G. Servadio, Traviata: Vita di G. S.(Milan, 1994).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire