Pasta, Giuditta (EN)

Pasta Giuditta Maria Costanza, nee Negri, *28 October 1797 Saronno (near Milan), †1 April 1865 Blevio (near Como), Italian singer (soprano). She began learning music in Blevio with the local organist; in 1812, she began vocal studies with V. Lavigne and G. Scappa in Milan, where in 1815, she made her stage debut in Scappa’s opera Le tre Eleonore. In 1816, thanks to F. Paer’s recommendation, she began performing at the Théâtre Italien in Paris, singing in his opera Il principe di Taranto. In 1817, she appeared for the first time at the King’s Theatre in London (Telemachus in Penelope by D. Cimarosa), where in the following years, she played leading roles, including in operas by G. Rossini (Otello and Semiramide conducted by the composer, 1824), S. Mayr (Medea in Corinto, 1827), G. Donizetti (Anna Bolena, 1832) and V. Bellini (La sonnambula, 1832; Norma, 1833). After the first round of guest appearances in 1818–20 in Milan, Venice (G. Pacini’s Adelaide e Comingio), Brescia, Padua, Rome, Trieste and Turin, Pasta returned to the Théâtre Italien in 1821, beginning her great singing career there in one season. On this stage, in 1821–34, she triumphed in operas by Mozart (including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni), Rossini (Otello, 1821; Tancredi, Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra and Mosè in Egitto, 1822; Il viaggio a Reims, premiere 1825; Zelmira, 1826), S. Mayr (Medea in Corinto, La rosa bianca e la rosa rossa, 1823), S. Mercadante (Elisa e Claudio, 1823), G. Meyerbeer (Armando in Il crociato in Egitto, 1825), G. Paisiella (Nina, 1827) and in the title roles in Bellini’s La sonnambula and Donizetti’s Anna Bolena (1833–34). In 1829–30, she sang at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna (Imogene in Bellini’s Il pirata), where she was awarded the title Kammersängerin. From 1826, Pasta also performed in leading Italian opera houses. She took part in the premiere of Niobe by G. Pacini (19 November 1826, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples) and subsequent performances of Rossini’s operas in Naples and Bologna. The peak achievements of her career include the title roles in the premieres of several great operas of that era, composed with her in mind and largely due to her stage successes: Donizetti’s Anna Bolena (26 December 1830, Teatro Carcano in Milan) and La sonnambula (6 March 1831, ibid.), Norma (26 December 1831, La Scala in Milan) and Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda (16 March 1833, Teatro la Fenice in Venice). Bellini’s next opera written for Pasta was Emani (1830–31), which the composer, however, did not finish as he had no prospect of staging the work for political reasons. At the end of the 1930s, Pasta’s position in European opera theatre began to lose importance; there were tone and intonation defects in her voice. The last tour to Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Moscow (1840) was considered unsuccessful. In 1841, Pasta retired from the stage, singing the role of Norma for the last time in a performance of Bellini’s opera in Milan. Occasional subsequent public appearances, including in London (1850), were not appreciated by critics and audiences.

Pasta went down in history as one of the greatest dramatic singers. The beauty and dynamics of her voice (scale a-d3), acting talent and stage means compared to the acting art of F. Talma and the power of dramatic expression in the interpretation of great opera parts, especially Rossini (including Desdemona in Otello, the title roles in Tancred and Semiramis), Bellini and Donizetti aroused the admiration of their contemporaries – actors (S. Siddons), performers (M. Malibran, J. Grassin, R. Strinasacchi, M. Szymanowska), composers (R. Schumann), painters (E. Delacroix) and writers (F. Grillparzer, Th. Gautier, H. Balzac). In Vie de Rossini (Paris 1824), Stendhal devoted a separate analytical study to Pasta’s performance art. Chopin, delighted with Pasta’s singing in Paris (“I have never seen anything more sublime,” letter to T. Wojciechowski from 12 December 1831), recommended to W. von Lenz: “To obtain the right style, one must take a model from Giuditta Pasta, from all the great Italian singing school” (M. Tomaszewski Chopin. Człowiek, dzieło, rezonans, Poznań 1998). The influence of Pasta’s vocal art on pianism was also noted in the example of M. Szymanowska; the reviewer of the “Journal de Saint-Pétersbourg” (1827, No. 39), praising the melodiousness of Szymanowska’s phrase, noted that “in this respect, she was greatly benefited by her studies on the vocal method of the first female singers in Europe, and especially by her intimate relationship with Mrs. Pasta” (published in “Kurier Litewski” of 15 April 1827).

Literature: C. Alberti Giuditta Pasta al Carcano, Milan 1829; L. Bossini Giuditta Pasta, Naples 1833; G. Monaldi Giuditta Pasta e Maria Malibran, Rome 1906; M. Ferranti-Giulini Giuditta Pasta e i suoi tempi, Milan 1935; M. Budylina Dżuditta Pasta w Rossii, “Sowietskaja Muzyka” 1959 No. 23.