Isabella colbran

Isabel Ángela Colbran (Madrid, February 28, 1784 - Bologna, October 7, 1845), was considered the best mezzo-soprano and dramatic-coloratura soprano of her time, although she was apparently a sfogato soprano. She was also a composer and left 4 volumes of songs written. Gioachino Rossini considered her her muse and one of the best interpreters of her work.

Trajectory

Portrait of Isabella Colbran painted by Johann Baptist Reiter, c. 1835.

Isabella Colbran was the daughter of Teresa Ortola and the violinist Giovanni Colbran, court musician of the King of Spain. She received her first training from F. Pareja and G. Marinelli, and with Girolamo Crescenti, in Paris. In 1801 she made her debut in Paris and in 1807 in Milan. In 1811 she is hired by the agent Domenico Barbaja (1778-1841), who would be her lover, for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

In 1815 the soprano abandoned Barbaja. At the height of her career she collaborated closely with Rossini (1792-1868), who composed for her the title role of Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra. The musical collaboration with the composer continued with the roles of Desdemona in Otello (1816), Lisetta in La Gazzetta (1816), Armida (1817), Elcia in Moses in Egypt (1818), Zoraide by Ricciardo e Zoraide (1818), the titular of Ermione (1819), Elena in La donna del Lago (1819), Anna in Maometto Secondo (1820) and the headline of Zelmira (1822) and Semiramide (1823).

In 1821 he left Naples and went to London with Rossini, whom he married on March 22, 1822. The following year they returned to Venice where the composer wrote the title role of Semiramide for Isabella, which received poor reviews from the public and the press. Semiramide would be the last opera that Rossini composed for Italy and for La Colbran. They then moved to Paris. During the French period, La Colbran's marriage to Rossini suffered from frequent domestic disagreements. In 1837 Isabella and Rossini left Paris to live in Italy where the composer suffered from neurasthenia.

La Colbran finally died in October 1845 at the age of sixty, after which Rossini would marry Olympe Pélissier. Her tomb is in the Cimitero Monumentale of the Bologna Charterhouse, together with her father Giovanni and Rossini's parents. She was the maternal aunt of Julia Espín y Colbrandt (1838-1906), who was one of the platonic loves of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870).

Isabella Colbran wrote four collections of songs dedicated to the Russian Tsarina, her teacher Girolamo Crescentini, the Queen of Spain, and Princess Eugenie de Beauharnais.

His voice

Colbran's voice was praised for its great power and unity of registers, she had the rare ability to sing roles of different tessitura, from low mezzo-soprano to high coloratura soprano. Her vocal range ranged from g ₃ to e ₆ . Rossini considered her her muse and one of the best interpreters of her work.

In 2009 the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato recorded a tribute recital with the works that Rossini composed for Colbran.