Rosine Stoltz
Encyclopedia
Rosine Stoltz (13 January 1815 – 30 July 1903) was a French mezzo-soprano
. A prominent member of the Paris Opéra
, she created many leading roles there including Ascanio in Berlioz
's Benvenuto Cellini
, Marguerite in Auber
's Le lac des fées
, the title role in Marie Stuart
, and two Donizetti
heroines, Leonor in La favorite
and Zayda in Dom Sébastien
. She died in Paris
, the city of her birth, aged 88.
Her place of prominence at the Paris Opera was influenced by her relationship with the director, Léon Pillet. Pillet refused to mount an opera without a role for his mistress; this was one reason for the long-delayed première of Meyerbeer's opera Le prophète
, as the composer, who could not abide Stolz, insisted on Pauline Viardot for the role of Fidès. In view of the circumstances, Donizetti decided to abandon his original project for the Opéra, Le duc d'Albe
, and instead composed La favorite with the role of Leonor perfectly suited for Stoltz.
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
. A prominent member of the Paris Opéra
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
, she created many leading roles there including Ascanio in Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
's Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (opera)
Benvenuto Cellini is an opera in two acts with music by Hector Berlioz and libretto by Léon de Wailly and Henri Auguste Barbier. It was the first of Berlioz's operas. The story is loosely based on the memoirs of the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. The opera is technically very challenging...
, Marguerite in Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
's Le lac des fées
Le lac des fées
Le lac des fées is a grand opera in five acts composed by Daniel Auber to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe and Mélésville . The story is set in the Harz Mountains and based on a German ballad. The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 1 April 1839...
, the title role in Marie Stuart
Marie Stuart (opera)
Marie Stuart is a grand opera in five acts composed by Louis Niedermeyer to a libretto by Théodor Anne loosely based on events in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots...
, and two Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
heroines, Leonor in La favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
and Zayda in Dom Sébastien
Dom Sébastien
Dom Sébastien, Roi de Portugal is a French grand opera in five acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe, based on Paul Foucher's play Don Sébastien de Portugal , a historic-fiction about King Sebastian of Portugal and his ill-fated 1578 expedition to Morocco...
. She died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the city of her birth, aged 88.
Her place of prominence at the Paris Opera was influenced by her relationship with the director, Léon Pillet. Pillet refused to mount an opera without a role for his mistress; this was one reason for the long-delayed première of Meyerbeer's opera 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:...
, as the composer, who could not abide Stolz, insisted on Pauline Viardot for the role of Fidès. In view of the circumstances, Donizetti decided to abandon his original project for the Opéra, Le duc d'Albe
Le duc d'Albe
Le duc d'Albe or Il duca d'Alba is an opera in three acts originally composed by Gaetano Donizetti in 1839 to a French language libretto by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier...
, and instead composed La favorite with the role of Leonor perfectly suited for Stoltz.
Sources
- Bord, Gustave, Rosina Stoltz, Henri Daragon, 1909 (in French)
- Gossett, PhilipPhilip GossettPhilip Gossett is an American musicologist and historian, and recently officially retired from the post of Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago...
. Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera. University of Chicago Press, 2006, pp. 60–61. ISBN 0226304825 - Smart, Mary Ann, "Roles, reputations, shadows: Singers at the Opéra" in David Charlton (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 108–130. ISBN 0521646839
- Smart, Mary Ann, "Stoltz, Rosine (Noël, Victoire)" in Laura Williams Macy (ed), The Grove Book of Opera Singers, Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 467–468. ISBN 0195337654