Antonio Giuglini

Infobox Person
name = Antonio Giuglini


image_size =
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birth_date = 1827
birth_place = Fano, Italy
death_date = 1865
death_place = Pesaro
education = in Italy with Cellini
occupation = Opera singer
spouse =
parents =
children =

Antonio Giuglini (1827 – 12 October 1865) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the last eight years of his life was one of the leading stars of the operatic scene in London. He created several major roles for London audiences, including the first London performances of Gounod's "Faust" and of Riccardo in Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera". In London he was the usual stage partner of the soprano Therese Tietjens.

Early career in Italy

Guiglini was born in Fano, Italy. He studied in Italy with Cellini, and made his debut at Fermo. His first season at La Scala, Milan, in early 1855, was witnessed by Charles Santley [C. Santley, "Student and Singer" (Edward Arnold, London 1892), 69-70.] who observed that he created 'a perfect furore' and was the hero of the day.

Santley saw him there as Raoul ("Gli Ugonotti"), in which he sang charmingly but lacked the fire and manliness for the role, as Arturo in "I Puritani", which rivetted the attention completely, and in selection evenings, when he sang the trio 'Pappataci' from "L'Italiana in Algeri" with Scheggi (buffo) and Ignazio Marini (bass), so popular it had to be repeated throughout the season.

London 1857

Giuglini was first introduced in London by Benjamin Lumley in 1857, at Her Majesty's Theatre, as Fernando in "La favorita". He joined an already celebrated company which included artists such as Marietta Piccolomini, Marietta Alboni and Therese Tietjens. This house was in competition with the newly rebuilt Covent Garden theatre, where Giulia Grisi and Giovanni Mario led the cast and the box-office under Michael Costa for Frederick Gye. In that season Giuglini appeared as Rodolfo at Her Majesty's in the original London production of Verdi's "Luisa Miller", opposite Piccolomini. [H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, "Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera" (OUP, London 1974).] There was also an Italian version of Balfe's "The Bohemian Girl" for him, with Piccolomini, Vialetti and Belletti. [C. Santley, "Reminiscences of my Life" (Isaac Pitman, London 1909), 15-16.]

With Mapleson and Smith, 1858-1861

However, as Lumley's management soon afterwards collapsed, Colonel J.H. Mapleson, hoping to revive the Her Majesty's company, set up a company at Drury Lane, acquiring some of Lumley's artistes, and in its second season (1858) Giuglini appeared again as Fernando for the debut of Carolina Guarducci, who made a sensational debut despite never having studied the part which she sang (i.e. Leonora), and was afterwards coached by Mme Tietjens. [J.H. Mapleson, "The Mapleson Memoirs" (Belford, Clarke and Co, Chicago 1888),I, 9, 17.] At Drury Lane in July 1859 Giuglini created the role of Arrigo in the first London production of Verdi's "Les vêpres siciliennes", opposite Tietjens. [Rosenthal and Warrack 1974.]

With Edward Tyrrel Smith the "Her Majesty's" project was resumed, and in 1860 Tietjens and Giuglini were available to Smith and Mapleson as part of a £16,000 deal with Lumley. [Mapleson 1888, I, 23-27.] English and Italian opera companies were run on alternate nights, and Giuglini, Tietjens, Mme Lemaire and Sig. Vialetti in "Il trovatore" were alternated with G.A. Macfarren's Robin Hood, starring Helen Lemmens-Sherrington (her début), John Sims Reeves and Charles Santley. [J. Sims Reeves, "The Life of Sims Reeves written by himself" (Simpkin Marshall, London 1888), 220-221.] But the management partnership split, and Mapleson again dealt with Lumley to obtain Giuglini and Tietjens for a new project at the Lyceum Theatre.

Mapleson's Lyceum season, 1861

Meanwhile Mapleson had also recruited Adelina Patti, but she was immediately poached by Gye for Covent Garden. The Lyceum company opened on 8 June 1861 with "Il trovatore" with Giuglini and Tietjens, Alboni, Enrico delle Sedie (who had sung with Giuglini in Milan) and Édouard Gassier, under Luigi Arditi. The second night was "Lucrezia Borgia", with the same cast, Tietjens' greatest role. Soon afterwards Giuglini led a cast in the very successful first London production of "Un ballo in maschera", just beating Covent Garden to it, after all-night rehearsals for weeks through productions of "Les Huguenots", "Lucrezia Borgia" and "Norma" (Giuglini as Pollio, opposite Tietjens), all with Arditi conducting. The end of the season was crowned with an evening of excerpts, in which Giuglini and Tietjens sang the grand duet from "Les Huguenots". [Mapleson 1888, I, 29-39.]

Her Majesty's, and a Cantata

In 1862 Mapleson finally obtained the lease of Her Majesty's Theatre, with the continued services of Tietjens and Giuglini. Verdi's "Cantata", rejected for the opening of the 1862 London Exhibition, was performed, and productions of "Semiramide", "Oberon", "Robert le Diable", "Lucrezia Borgia" and "Il trovatore" followed. During this season Giuglini began to be difficult, spending much time in Brighton with a notorious lady, but being brought to heel by the threat of being replaced as Manrico. He however made it a condition of his continued service, that Mapleson should present a new "Cantata" which he, Giuglini, had written, including a lugubrious role for Tietjens, and a scene in which no fewer than 120 windows should appear in a stage set, from each of which at a given signal (i.e., the Garibaldi hymn) an Italian flag should appear. Mapleson complied: the "cantata" was performed for one night only. [Mapleson 1888, I, 43-45.] The 1862 season also included Giuglini in the opera "Martha".

Following an incident in which Mme Tietjens accidentally struck Giuglini on the nose with a drumstick when sounding a gong during a performance of "Norma", causing the tenor's nose to bleed on stage, Giuglini conceived a hatred for that opera and swore a solemn oath never to appear in it again. However, during a breakdown in a series of "Il trovatore", owing to the indisposition of the contralto, Mapleson was obliged to stage "Norma" and engaged another tenor, knowing Giuglini's objection, and that this performance was supernumerary to his contract. Having attempted to extort additional fees, Giuglini at the last minute had the rival forcibly divested of his costume backstage, and sang the role himself, but to little financial advantage, and without the drumstick. [Mapleson 1888, I, 47-57.]

The 1863 season opened with "Il trovatore", and in May was the premiere of Schira's opera "Niccolo de' Lapi" with Giuglini as Lamberto, Tietjens, Zelia Trebelli and Santley. [Santley 1892, 197-199.] However the highlight of that season was the first London "Faust", launched 11 June at Her Majesty's, in which he took the title role: the opera was thereafter produced at Covent Garden in every year until 1911. The premiere was with Tietjens (Margherita), Trebelli (Siebel), Edouard Gassier (Mephistopheles) and Charles Santley (Valentin), Arditi conducting. (On one occasion Giuglini was hissed for a late appearance in the church scene. [Santley 1892, 199.] ) It was given for ten nights in succession, after which Gye opened it at Covent Garden on July 2 with Enrico Tamberlik, and with Mario in the following year. In later productions Mapleson replaced Giuglini in the role with the tenor Alessandro Bettini (who married Trebelli), and with Sims Reeves. [Mapleson 1888, I, 66-76.] Giuglini again sang "The Bohemian Girl", this time with Santley, Vialetti and Louisa Pyne. [Santley 1909,15-16.]

In 1864 Tietjens and Giuglini performed "Lucrezia Borgia" at Her Majesty's, in the gala performance in the presence of Garibaldi, and surpassed themselves. [Mapleson 1888, I, 81.] They led the cast in a new production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" of Nicolai (as Mistress Ford and Fenton), with Bettini, Gassier, Santley and Caroline Bettelheim, which ran for many nights. Both appeared in Buckingham Palace concerts in that year. Giuglini was also Vincenzo in Gounod's "Mireille", in a fight scene of which, owing to insufficient rehearsal, he received a resounding blow on the head from Santley, playing Ourrias. [Santley 1892, 208-209.]

At St Petersburg

Late in 1864 Giuglini accepted an engagement for a season in St Petersburg, but arrived to find that he was not required for "Faust" as Tamberlik had contrived to take that role. His debut as Faust there was, therefore, delayed, and when he was finally asked, Patti (the Marguerite) was rumoured to be indisposed, to be replaced by a débutante. Giuglini was unnerved, and became indisposed himself. When at the end of his contract a sum was deducted for that evening because he had taken a walk and left his house on that night, he threw his payment into a stove in fury, and thereafter his reason began to desert him. He returned to London in spring 1865, where Mapleson awaited him for a Dublin tour. All his valuable clothes and fur coats had been stolen in the journey back from Russia, and all the precious stones removed from his property and jewellery. [Mapleson 1888, I, 82-85.]

Illness and death

At home in Welbeck Street, Giuglini sat eating oysters and refused to put on his trousers. Mapleson placed him in the care of a doctor at Chiswick, and in a later visit, with Tietjens, the tenor seemed rational, and sang 'Spirto gentil' and M'appari' for them divinely. His condition deteriorated, and having made a sea voyage to Italy that autumn for his health, he died at Pesaro. [Mapleson 1888, I, 84-86, 89-90; Rosenthal and Warrack 1974.]

Character

According to Mapleson, Giuglini had a childlike and sometimes mischievous nature. He was often prey to unscrupulous young women who used their charms to play on his sensitive nature to bring him under their influence. In this he was protected by an adoptive mother-figure named Mme Puzzi, or Mamma Puzzi as he called her, who was frequently summoned by letter or telegraph to rescue him at a moment's notice, and never failed to do so. He was very fond of flying kites, which he often did in the Brompton Road at the risk of being crushed to death by passing omnibuses, and became known to the drivers who indulgently avoided him. [Mapleson 1888, I, 51.] He also loved fireworks, and Mme Tietjens told of a hazardous journey with him back from a performance in the theatre at Dublin, in a cab stuffed full of fireworks, with excited but unaware fellow travellers smoking pipes and cigars around them. Giuglini himself was a cigar-smoker, and enjoyed gossip and conspiracy among his companions. [Mapleson 1888, I, 49-53.]

A critique

Santley, who had admired him in Milan, felt afterwards that he was not so fine a singer as Italo Gardoni, the tenor who succeeded him in London. In 1893, George Bernard Shaw could still write of his own time as the 'post-Giuglinian days'; and his name was often coupled with that of the great tenor Mario. [G.B. Shaw, "Music in London 1890-1894" (Constable, London 1932), III, 41.]

Notes

Sources

* J.H. Mapleson, "The Mapleson Memoirs", 2 vols (Belford, Clarke & Co, Chicago 1888).
* H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, "Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera" (OUP, London 1974 printing).
* C. Santley, "Student and Singer - The Reminiscences of Charles Santley" (Edward Arnold, London 1892).
* C. Santley, "Reminiscences of my Life" (Isaac Pitman, London 1909).
* G.B. Shaw, "Music in London 1890-1894", 3 vols (Constable, London 1932).
* J. Sims Reeves, "The Life of Sims Reeves written by himself" (Simpkin Marshall, London 1888).