Elena Bianchini-Cappelli

Elena Bianchini-Cappelli (1873 – September 19, 1919) was an Italian dramatic soprano opera singer.

Elena Bianchini-Cappelli as "Tosca", from a 1919 publication.
Elena Bianchini-Cappelli with Enrico Caruso in Cavalleria Rusticana, 1895; from a 1922 publication.

Early life

Elena Bianchini-Cappelli was from Rome.[1] She studied voice with Guglielmo Vergine in Naples, while he was also teaching Enrico Caruso.[2]

Career
Elena Bianchini-Cappelli in the role of Brünnhilde in Wagner's Siegfried

She appeared with Caruso in 1895, in Cavalleria Rusticana at Caserta.[3] The pair also appeared together in Puccini's Manon Lescaut in Cairo in 1895;[4] the two were only given five days to learn the show before opening night, so Caruso fastened the score to Bianchini-Cappelli's back, limiting her stage movement: "I was helpless to do more than hold as still as possible, serving as a human music rack for my comrade," she recalled. "And what did the rascal do? He was bursting to laugh!"[3]

In 1899 she was in the cast of Wagner's Siegfried at La Scala.[5] She was in the cast of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera when it was conducted by Arturo Toscanini at Trento.[6] She first performed in the United States in 1902, the year she sang "Sylvia" in Zanetto at the Metropolitan Opera House, under the direction of composer Pietro Mascagni.[7]

In her forties she taught voice in New York City, endorsed by her old friend Caruso.[2]

Personal life and legacy

Elena Bianchini-Cappelli died in 1919, at her villa in Rimini, aged 46 years. There is a street named for Elena Bianchini-Cappelli in Rimini.[8]

References
  1. Guido Biagi, ed., Chi è?: Annuario biografico italiano con cenni sommari delle persone più note... (Romagna 1908): 29.
  2. Pierre Scoglio, "Elena Bianchini-Cappelli" Music News (May 23, 1919): 12.
  3. Pierre Van Rensselaer Key, Bruno Zirato, Enrico Caruso: A Biography (Little, Brown 1922): 50; 54-55.
  4. Enrico Caruso, Andrew Farkas, Enrico Caruso: My Father and My Family (Hal Leonard Corporation 1997): 32. ISBN 9781574670226
  5. "'Siegfried' at La Scala" New York Times (November 19, 1899): 20.
  6. Harvey Sachs, Toscanini: Musician of Conscience (Liveright Publishing 2017). ISBN 9781631492723
  7. Alan Mallach, Pietro Mascagni and His Operas (UPNE 2002): 153-154. ISBN 9781555535247
  8. Via Elena Bianchini Cappelli, Mappa di Rimini.
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