Angelica Catalani

Angelica Catalani (1780 – 12 June 1849) was an Italian opera singer, the daughter of a tradesman. At Sinigaglia, she was educated at the convent of Santa Lucia at Gubbio, where her soprano voice soon became famous. In 1795 she made her debut on the stage at Venice. For nearly thirty years she sang at all the great houses, receiving very large fees; her first appearance in London being at the Kings theatre in 1806. She remained in England, a prima... more

Angelica Catalani (1780 – 12 June 1849) was an Italian opera singer, the daughter of a tradesman. At Sinigaglia, she was educated at the convent of Santa Lucia at Gubbio, where her soprano voice soon became famous. In 1795 she made her debut on the stage at Venice. For nearly thirty years she sang at all the great houses, receiving very large fees; her first appearance in London being at the Kings theatre in 1806. She remained in England, a prima donna without a serious rival, for seven years. Then she was given the management of the opera in Paris, but this resulted in financial failure, due to the incapacity and extravagance of her husband, Captain Valabrégue, whom she married in 1806. In 1827, she visited Sweden, during which she heard Elisabeth Olin and Brita Catharina Lidbeck sing; during her stay, she was inducted as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. Her continental tours continued to be enormously successful, until she retired in 1828. She settled in Florence in... less