Angelica Catalani (1780 – 12 June1849) was an Italianopera singer, the daughter of a tradesman. At Sinigaglia, she was educated at the convent of Santa Lucia at Gubbio, where her soprano voice soon became famous.
In 1795 she made her debut on the stage at Venice. For nearly thirty years she sang at all the great houses, receiving very large fees; her first appearance in London being at the Kings theatre in 1806. She remained in England, a prima donna without a serious rival, for seven years. Then she was given the management of the opera in Paris, but this resulted in financial failure, due to the incapacity and extravagance of her husband, Captain Valabrhgue, whom she married in 1806.
Her continental tours continued to be enormously successful, until she retired in 1828. She settled in Florence in 1830, where she founded a free singing school for girls; and her charity and kindness were unbounded. She died of cholera in Paris.
Catalani's greatest gift was her voice, a soprano of nearly three octaves in range. Its unsurpassed power and flexibility made her one of the greatest bravura singers of all times ([1]).
Publications
Edwards, The Prima Donna: Her History and Surroundings from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century, volume i (two volumes, London, 1888)
Ferris, Great Singers (New York, 1893)
Needham, Queens of Song (London, 1863)
H. C. Lahee, Famous Singers of To-Day and Yesterday (Boston, 1900)
