GIULIA

GRISI (1811-1869)  , Italian opera-singer, daughter of one of Napoleon's Italian officers, was born in Milan . She came of a family of musical gifts, her maternal aunt Josephina Grassini (1773–1850) being a favourite opera-singer both on the continent and in London; her mother had also been a singer, and her elder sister Giudetta and her cousin Carlotta were both exceedingly talented . Giulia was trained to a musical career, and made her stage debut in 1828 . Rossini and Bellini both took an interest in her, and at Milan she was the first Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma, in which Pasta took the title-part . Grisi appeared in Paris in 1832, as Semiramide in . Rossini's opera, and had a great success; and in 1834 she appeared in London . Her voice was a brilliant dramatic soprano, and her established position as a prima donna continued for thirty years . She was a particularly fine actress, and in London opera her association with such singers as Lablache, Rubini, Tamburini and Mario was long remembered as the palmy days of Italian opera . In 1854 she toured with Mario in America . She had married Count de Melcy in 1836, but this ended in a divorce; and in 1856 she married Mario (q.v.) . She died in Berlin on the 29th of November 1869 .