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Marietta
Alboni (1824-1894) was an Italian contralto and bel canto
specialist. As a student at Bologna she became a pupil to Rossini,
who later her instructed her in the leading contralto roles in the
majority of his operas. Outside of Malibran,
she had no peers in the vocal Fach of the contralto. Walt
Whitman was one of her biggest fans, and after a performance of hers at
Metropolitan Hall, he wrote of her, “The teeming lady comes, the
lustrous orb, Venus contralto, the blooming mother, sister of
loftiest gods, Alboni’s self I hear.” |
