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Marietta Alboni (March 6, 1826 – June 23, 1894) was a renowned Italian contralto opera singer. With...

Marietta Alboni (March 6, 1826 – June 23, 1894) was a renowned Italian contralto opera singer. With the exception of Maria Malibran, she was considered the greatest contralto of the nineteenth century. She was born at Città di Castello, in Umbria. She became a pupil of Antonio Bagioli of Cesena Romagna, and later of Gioachino Rossini. She made her début at the age of 15 at Bologna as Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia, and her success led to an engagement at La Scala, Milan. In 1846–47 she sang in all the principal cities of Europe; in London, at Covent Garden, in rivalry with Jenny Lind, who was at Her Majesty's Theatre. She toured the United States in 1852–53, appearing there with Camilla Urso. She sang a duet with Adelina Patti at Rossini's funeral in 1868. Marietta Alboni's voice, a fine contralto with a compass of two and one-half octaves, ranging as high as mezzo-soprano, possessed at once power, sweetness, fullness, and extraordinary flexibility. In passages requiring elevation and semi-religious calmness she had no peers, owing to the moving quality of her voice. She possessed vivacity, grace, and charm as an actress of the comédienne type, but her attempt at a strongly dramatic