Italian Divas in 19th Century London

By the early 19th century, Italian-language opera was firmly established in London and continued to attract audiences with its cosmopolitan prestige, despite the steady rise of English-language opera. As the century progressed, sopranos such as Giuditta Pasta, who performed regularly in London and brought several Rossini and Bellini roles to English audiences, Giulia Grisi and Adelina Patti, all achieved the status of world-famous divas. Their fame was greatly aided by technological advances that facilitated touring, as well as the rise of print culture and the impact of photography, which helped to turn singers into celebrities through advance publicity and the circulation of singers’ cartes de visite. This article focuses on the reception of Italian female singers in nineteenth-century London and discusses the extent to which they came to define the age of international touring stardom, while also shaping notions of ‘Italianità’. On the prestigious London stages they rivalled other foreign opera divas, such as Sweden’s Jenny Lind and Spain’s Maria Malibran. Like that of the international Italian theatre actresses who defined the 19th-century ‘gilded stage’, the success of Italian opera in England was largely due to the appeal of seeing famous female singers competing in popular leading roles.