14 Facts About Giuseppina Grassini

Gioseppa Maria Camilla, commonly known as Giuseppina Grassini was a noted Italian dramatic contralto, and a singing teacher.

Giuseppina Grassini was a celebrity of considerable stature, noted for her beauty and regarded as one of the best singers in Europe.

Giuseppina Grassini sang in various productions by composers such as Cimarosa, Cherubini and Zingarelli.

In that same year, Giuseppina Grassini took part in a third premiere of Gaetano Marinelli's Issipile, which was by no means as successful as the others.

On 4 June 1800, shortly before the victory at Marengo, while interpreting Andreozzi's La vergine del sole at La Scala, Milan, Giuseppina Grassini made a strong hit with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Giuseppina Grassini enrolled her among his lovers and brought her to Paris, where she sang in several concerts.

Giuseppina Grassini's relationship with the First Consul was probably not convenient, but it was a sign of her modern, free attitude, so that when she, in turn, took a liking to the violinist Pierre Rode, she did not hesitate to embark upon a fresh affair with him, and to quit Paris for an 1801 concert tour in the Netherlands and Germany, returning finally to Italy.

In 1806 Giuseppina Grassini returned to Paris together with her former master Crescentini, where she was appointed first chamber virtuosa of Emperor Napoleon.

At the Tuileries Palace Giuseppina Grassini was on stage as the protagonist in the premiere of Paer's La Didone and in Cherubini's Pimmalione.

Giuseppina Grassini was at that time appointed British ambassador in France, but Grassini was forced to leave French territory because Louis XVIII was unwilling to tolerate the great popularity of Napoleon's former lover.

Giuseppina Grassini sang in Brescia, Padua, Trieste, Florence and, in 1817, again at La Scala, without achieving such success as formerly she had been accorded.

Giuseppina Grassini retired from the stage in 1823 and finally settled in Milan, giving herself up to teaching, among other pupils, Giuditta Pasta and her nieces Giulia and Giuditta Grisi.

Commonly classed as a contralto, Giuseppina Grassini sang, in fact, in tessiture which would later be ascribed to mezzo-sopranos and had rather a narrow vocal range.

Giuseppina Grassini was therefore one of a particular group of leading singers who in this way helped to establish a new artistic trend, which soon evolved into 'the Rossini grand finale' of an entire musical era.