Name Teresa Bertinotti | Died 1854, Bologna, Italy | |
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Teresa Bertinotti (also known as Teresa Bertinotti-Radicati) (1776 – 12 Feb 1854) was a celebrated Italian soprano and voice teacher. She created leading roles in several operas, including Simon Mayr's Ginevra di Scozia.
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Biography
Teresa Bertinotti was born in Savigliano in Piedmont, northern Italy, but grew up in Naples where her parents moved when she was two years old. At the age of four she had her first music leassons and made her first stage appearance as a child singer at the Teatro San Carlo when she was 12. She studied singing with Baldassare La Barbiera and by the age of 20 had already sung at both La Scala and La Fenice. She went on to sing throughout Italy as well as in Germany, Austria, Portugal, Russia, the Netherlands, Ireland and England. She had a great success in The Magic Flute and Così fan tutte at London's King's Theatre, where she appeared between 1811 and 1812.
In 1801, she married the violinist and composer Felice Radicati (1775-1823) whom she had met in Turin, and the couple travelled throughout Europe together. Radicati composed several works for his wife's voice, including his opera Fedra, which Bertinotti sang in her first season at the King's Theatre. He is also said to have composed several arias for her to interpolate in Vincenzo Federici's Zaira for its first London performance in 1811. The couple settled in Bologna in 1815 when Radicati became leader of the municipal orchestra there and maestro di cappella at the San Petronio Basilica. Following Radicati's death in 1823, Bertinotti retired from the stage and taught singing. Amongst her pupils were Carolina Cuzzani, who became a prima donna at La Scala, and Balbina Steffenone, who sang Leonora in the American premiere of Il trovatore.
Teresa Bertinotti died in Bologna at the age of 78.