Inez Fabbri
Encyclopedia
Inez Fabbri née Agnes Schmidt, was an Austrian American soprano
, voice teacher and impresaria. She sang in Austria, Germany, England, South America and the Caribbean, making her home in San Francisco where, in the 1870s, she was the most important musical personality and prima donna assoluta
of her time, performing in more than 150 concerts and operas from 1872 to 1879, producing operas, and teaching voice to up-and-coming singers.
, Slovakia) as Abigail in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia
in 1847. After a few years on the road singing in Königsberg
(1856–1857) and Potsdam
(1857), she arrived at the Hamburgischerer Stadttheater
where, among other roles, she received recognition for Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots
which became one of her starring roles.
Here she met Richard Mulder (1822–1874), a Dutch musician and impresario whom she married in 1858. He organized a tour to South America in 1858 to 1859 during which she sang in Argentina, Brazil and Chile."A fine opera company for the splendid new house at Santiago had arrived in Valparaiso in a French clipper. It possesses three prima donnas, Mesdames Fabbri, Wideman and Leoni Bardoni. Among the male singers are the tenor Benedetti, the bass, Domenech, and the baritone, Francolini. The company is headed by Mr. Mulder, and will open in Nabucodonosor." NYT (June 28, 1858) From this time onward, she used her stage name, "Fabbri" (Italian for "Schmidt/Smith").
to sing at his Winter Garden Theatre in New York."Mr.MAX MARETZEK is expected to return to the City during the coming week; his season in Havana having terminated on the 26th of last month. The greatest anxiety prevails in musical circles concerning the new prima donna, Madame INEZ FABBRI, who is known to be great not only as a singer but as a lyric actress. Her admirers maintain that she is a new Jenny Lind, and the publics of Brazil, Peru and other South American States, even go further than that. In Rio Janteiro she was, preferred to LA GRANGE and LA GRUA, -- about whom there can be no mistake. On the 9th of April Mr. MARETZEK will commence operations, and then we shall both see and hear for ourselves. In the meantime we may satisfy public curiosity by stating that there is not the slightest doubt about Madame FABBRI being entitled to the place of honor among all the prime donne now in this country." NYT (March 5, 1860) Her highly acclaimed American debut was as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata
."Madame FABBRI is the best Violetta we have had in this City. We say this without the slightest idea of underrating the excellencies of her predecessors. LA GRANGE was finished but cold; GAZZANIGA passionate but inartistic, and soon. Each singer illuminated a page of the story by some special flash of genius. Madame FABBRI lightens up the whole. In the first act she sings with the "joyaunce of rude strength; "in the second with, the broken accents of a sudden and stupifying calamity; in the third with the protesting vehemence of one wronged; in the fourth with the sunken tones of wretched because retrospective despair. Her perception of the emotional phases of the part are so varied and distinct, that a person seeing her in the first act, where she is all hilarity and voice, can form no idea of what she is in the last, where by consummate management she presents the spectra! and vocal wreck of her former self. The mezzo-voce by which this is effected is the best that we have heard in a singer of such prodigious power, and the acting with which it is accompanied, has not been surpassed in propriety, if it has even been exceeded in intensity. " NYT (April 13, 1860) Shortly thereafter, she sang Elvira in Ernani in which The New York Times wrote that "she was more dramatic and powerful" [than in her role as Violetta] and "a dramatic actress of the first class". "Mme. Fabbri was called out twice after each act, and the finale to the third act was encored."The newspaper also reported a near disaster when her dress caught on fire from the footlights. The baritone was able to extinguish the fire by folding the dress over the flames. "As it is, the lesson will not, we trust be thrown away on the proprietors of the Winter Garden. No footlight should be allowed to exist without a wire guard. Madame Fabbri's courage in an emergency which would have taxed the nerves of the strongest man, was extraordinary. She did not even break the continuity of the note she was singing, until compelled to do so by a torrent of applause." NYT (April 17, 1860)
Her debut at the Winter Garden was followed by tours in the American Mid-West, Canada and the Caribbean Islands. She was especially well received in Puerto Rico but lost all her possessions in a fire.
In 1862–1863, she and her husband returned to Europe on a tour. From May 1863 to March 1864, she sang thirty-seven performances at the Wiener Hofoper in roles which included Elvira and Leonore in Verdi's Ernani
and Il Trovatore
, Raquel in Halévy's La Juive
, and Alice and Berthe in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable
and Le Prophète
.
From 1864 to 1871 they lived in Frankfurt am Main where Fabbri was engaged to sing at the Stadttheater in roles which included Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser
. She was described by critics at this time as a soprano with a strong, clear voice suitable for both coloratura and dramatic roles.
After a guest performance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, she returned to New York in 1872 for an engagement with the Habelmann-Formes opera company.
. She and her husband settled there and from 1873 to 1874 they produced forty-three operas, staging the first production of Die Zauberflöte in the city.. Her husband founded a music school in San Francisco which she took over on his death in 1874. She continued to give concerts and to produce operas, many of which she performed in herself. From 1875 to 1876 she directed and sang in sixty operas. Her repertoire included some forty-six different roles.
On January 17, 1876, she inaugurated the new opera house, later renamed the Grand Opera House, in Snow Flake! And The Seven Pigmies.
In 1878, she married the baritone Jacob Müller (Muller), a former student of her late husband.
In 1881, she ended her singing career but continued her activities as an impresaria. After large financial losses she lived in Los Angeles from 1891 but later returned to San Francisco where she again lost her assets in a fire believed to be arson.
In 1901, her second husband died. In 1905 she produced an opera for the last time. She died in San Francisco in 1909. Her archives are housed at the University of California, Berkely.
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, voice teacher and impresaria. She sang in Austria, Germany, England, South America and the Caribbean, making her home in San Francisco where, in the 1870s, she was the most important musical personality and prima donna assoluta
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
of her time, performing in more than 150 concerts and operas from 1872 to 1879, producing operas, and teaching voice to up-and-coming singers.
Early career
She was the daughter of an impoverished Viennese textile manufacturer. She made a successful operatic debut in Kassa, Hungary, (now KošiceKošice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...
, Slovakia) as Abigail in Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan with...
in 1847. After a few years on the road singing in Königsberg
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
(1856–1857) and Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
(1857), she arrived at the Hamburgischerer Stadttheater
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.Opera in Hamburg dates back to 2 January 1678 when the "Opern-Theatrum" was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile...
where, among other roles, she received recognition for Valentine in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
which became one of her starring roles.
Here she met Richard Mulder (1822–1874), a Dutch musician and impresario whom she married in 1858. He organized a tour to South America in 1858 to 1859 during which she sang in Argentina, Brazil and Chile."A fine opera company for the splendid new house at Santiago had arrived in Valparaiso in a French clipper. It possesses three prima donnas, Mesdames Fabbri, Wideman and Leoni Bardoni. Among the male singers are the tenor Benedetti, the bass, Domenech, and the baritone, Francolini. The company is headed by Mr. Mulder, and will open in Nabucodonosor." NYT (June 28, 1858) From this time onward, she used her stage name, "Fabbri" (Italian for "Schmidt/Smith").
American career
In 1860, she was engaged by Max MaretzekMax Maretzek
Max Maretzek was a Moravian-born composer, conductor, and impresario active in the United States and Latin America.-European career:...
to sing at his Winter Garden Theatre in New York."Mr.MAX MARETZEK is expected to return to the City during the coming week; his season in Havana having terminated on the 26th of last month. The greatest anxiety prevails in musical circles concerning the new prima donna, Madame INEZ FABBRI, who is known to be great not only as a singer but as a lyric actress. Her admirers maintain that she is a new Jenny Lind, and the publics of Brazil, Peru and other South American States, even go further than that. In Rio Janteiro she was, preferred to LA GRANGE and LA GRUA, -- about whom there can be no mistake. On the 9th of April Mr. MARETZEK will commence operations, and then we shall both see and hear for ourselves. In the meantime we may satisfy public curiosity by stating that there is not the slightest doubt about Madame FABBRI being entitled to the place of honor among all the prime donne now in this country." NYT (March 5, 1860) Her highly acclaimed American debut was as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
."Madame FABBRI is the best Violetta we have had in this City. We say this without the slightest idea of underrating the excellencies of her predecessors. LA GRANGE was finished but cold; GAZZANIGA passionate but inartistic, and soon. Each singer illuminated a page of the story by some special flash of genius. Madame FABBRI lightens up the whole. In the first act she sings with the "joyaunce of rude strength; "in the second with, the broken accents of a sudden and stupifying calamity; in the third with the protesting vehemence of one wronged; in the fourth with the sunken tones of wretched because retrospective despair. Her perception of the emotional phases of the part are so varied and distinct, that a person seeing her in the first act, where she is all hilarity and voice, can form no idea of what she is in the last, where by consummate management she presents the spectra! and vocal wreck of her former self. The mezzo-voce by which this is effected is the best that we have heard in a singer of such prodigious power, and the acting with which it is accompanied, has not been surpassed in propriety, if it has even been exceeded in intensity. " NYT (April 13, 1860) Shortly thereafter, she sang Elvira in Ernani in which The New York Times wrote that "she was more dramatic and powerful" [than in her role as Violetta] and "a dramatic actress of the first class". "Mme. Fabbri was called out twice after each act, and the finale to the third act was encored."The newspaper also reported a near disaster when her dress caught on fire from the footlights. The baritone was able to extinguish the fire by folding the dress over the flames. "As it is, the lesson will not, we trust be thrown away on the proprietors of the Winter Garden. No footlight should be allowed to exist without a wire guard. Madame Fabbri's courage in an emergency which would have taxed the nerves of the strongest man, was extraordinary. She did not even break the continuity of the note she was singing, until compelled to do so by a torrent of applause." NYT (April 17, 1860)
Her debut at the Winter Garden was followed by tours in the American Mid-West, Canada and the Caribbean Islands. She was especially well received in Puerto Rico but lost all her possessions in a fire.
In 1862–1863, she and her husband returned to Europe on a tour. From May 1863 to March 1864, she sang thirty-seven performances at the Wiener Hofoper in roles which included Elvira and Leonore in Verdi's Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
and Il Trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, Raquel in Halévy's La Juive
La Juive
La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on February 23, 1835.-Composition history:...
, and Alice and Berthe in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable
Robert le diable (opera)
Robert le diable is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, often regarded as the first grand opera. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Casimir Delavigne and has little connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil. Originally planned as a three-act opéra comique, "Meyerbeer persuaded...
and Le Prophète
Le prophète
Le prophète is an opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe.-Performance history:...
.
From 1864 to 1871 they lived in Frankfurt am Main where Fabbri was engaged to sing at the Stadttheater in roles which included Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser was a German Minnesänger and poet. Historically, his biography is obscure beyond the poetry, which dates between 1245 and 1265...
. She was described by critics at this time as a soprano with a strong, clear voice suitable for both coloratura and dramatic roles.
After a guest performance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, she returned to New York in 1872 for an engagement with the Habelmann-Formes opera company.
San Francisco
In 1872, she went to San Francisco with the company where she sang at the California TheatreCalifornia Theatre (San Francisco)
The California Theatre , was located at 414 Bush Street, San Francisco. It was built in 1869 by William Ralston, at that time the treasurer of the Bank of California. S. C. Bugbee & Son were the architects and the theatre cost $250, 000 to build.Anpther source puts the figure at $150,000...
. She and her husband settled there and from 1873 to 1874 they produced forty-three operas, staging the first production of Die Zauberflöte in the city.. Her husband founded a music school in San Francisco which she took over on his death in 1874. She continued to give concerts and to produce operas, many of which she performed in herself. From 1875 to 1876 she directed and sang in sixty operas. Her repertoire included some forty-six different roles.
On January 17, 1876, she inaugurated the new opera house, later renamed the Grand Opera House, in Snow Flake! And The Seven Pigmies.
In 1878, she married the baritone Jacob Müller (Muller), a former student of her late husband.
In 1881, she ended her singing career but continued her activities as an impresaria. After large financial losses she lived in Los Angeles from 1891 but later returned to San Francisco where she again lost her assets in a fire believed to be arson.
In 1901, her second husband died. In 1905 she produced an opera for the last time. She died in San Francisco in 1909. Her archives are housed at the University of California, Berkely.