The work never achieved great success on the stage, apart from in the operatic setting by Debussy, but it was at the time widely read and admired by the literary elite in the symbolist movement, such as Strindberg and Rilke. It also inspired other contemporary composers, including Gabriel Fauré, Arnold Schoenberg, and Jean Sibelius.
xxx/ellauri174.html on line 130: Malibran was born in Paris as María Felicitas García Sitches into a famous Spanish musical family. Her mother was Joaquina Sitches, an actress and operatic singer. Her father Manuel García was a celebrated tenor much admired by Rossini, having created the role of Count Almaviva in his The Barber of Seville. García was also a composer and an influential vocal instructor, and he was her first voice teacher. He was described as inflexible and tyrannical; the lessons he gave his daughter became constant quarrels between two powerful egos.
xxx/ellauri174.html on line 132: When the season closed, García immediately took his operatic troupe to New York. This was the first time that Italian opera was performed in New York. Over a period of nine months, Maria sang the lead roles in eight operas, two of which were written by her father. In New York, she met and hastily married a banker, Francois Eugene Malibran, who was 28 years her senior. It is thought that her father forced Maria to marry him in return for the banker's promise to give Manuel García 100,000 francs. However, according to other accounts, she married simply to escape her tyrannical father. A few months after the wedding, her husband declared bankruptcy, and Maria was forced to support him through her performances. After a year, she left Malibran and returned to Europe. Malibran is most closely associated with the operas of Rossini. Norma kyllä oli Bellinin. Yhtään Malibranin levytystä ei ole säilynyt.
xxx/ellauri174.html on line 138: Maria Anna Marzia (called Marietta) Alboni (6 March 1826 – 23 June 1894) was a renowned Italian contralto opera singer. She is considered "one of the greatest contraltos in operatic history".
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