Marietta Alboni (b. Città di Castello, the Papal States (now Italy) 1823 – d. 1894, Ville-d’Avray, France) was an Italian contralto renowned for her mastery of classical Italian bel canto. Maria Anna Marzia Alboni was studying opera singing in Bologna when she attracted the attention of Gioacchino Rossini, who would later give her his most important contralto roles in his operas. In 1842, she made her debut as Climene in Giovanni Pacini’s Saffo in Bologna. That same year, she was a great success in Rossini’s The Siege of Corinth (role of Neocles) in her first appearance at La Scala in Milan. She toured Austria (1843), Russia (1844–1845), and Germany and Eastern Europe (1846). In 1847, Marietta Alboni caused a sensation when she appeared for the first time on the London stage, at Covent Garden, and in Paris, at the Théâtre-Italien, in the role of Arsace in Rossini’s Semiramide. From 1852–1853, she made a triumphant tour of Spain and the United States. After her marriage, she settled in Paris. She sang, alongside Adelina Patti, a duet from Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the composer’s funeral in 1868. She bid farewell to the stage in 1872, preferring to retire due to her heavy build. She died on June 23, 1894 in Ville-d’Avray, near Paris.
