Clara Novello

For the similarly named singer born in 1861, see Clara Novello Davies.

An 1833 portrait of Clara Novello by Edward Petre Novello

Clara Anastasia Novello (10 June 1818 – 12 March 1908) was an acclaimed soprano, the fourth daughter of Vincent Novello, a musician and music publisher, and his wife, Mary Sabilla Hehl.

Clara Novello's acclaimed soprano and pure style made her one of the greatest vocalists, alike in opera, oratorio and on the concert stage, from 1833 onwards. In 1843 she married Count Gigliucci, and retired in 1861. Charles Lamb wrote a poem ("To Clara N.") in her praise.

Biography

Her voice and musical ear were first noticed by her father's pupil Edward Holmes (musicologist), who began to give her lessons before she was five. At the age of 11 her parents took her to Paris to study at the Institution Royale de Musique et Religieuse. She only studied there for one year due to the July Revolution of 1830. By returning home, she was able to participate in her father's musical activities.

In 1833, she performed at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester and in 1834 she performed at the Royal Musical Festival at Westminster Abbey. In 1837, she sang Felix Mendelssohn's St. Paul to commemorate the new Birmingham town hall. Mendelssohn then arranged for her to at the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig. She went to Milan to study operatic stage in 1839. In 1841, made her debut as the title role in Gioachino Rossini's Semiramide in Pauda.

While on contract in Fermo, Italy in 1841, she met a young aristocrat, Count Giovanni Baptista Gigliucci. They married in 1843. She devoted herself to her husband and children for the first six years of marriage and shared his involvement in the struggle for Italian independence. In 1849, the collapse of the resurgence drove them from Fermo in exile. After being offered a contract in Rome, they decided that she should resume her professional career to provide for her family. In 1851 she returned to England and played in many engagements.

Her husband joined the liberation movement led by the House of Savoy, and the union of the former papal states with Piedmont in 1861 led to their return from exile and Clara's final retirement from professional life. She survived her husband by 15 years.

References

• The new grove dictionary of music and musicians. Edited by Stanley Sadie. 2nd edition.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External Reference

• Autograph letter by Clara Novello at Houghton Library, Harvard University

Persondata
Name	Novello, Clara Anastasia
Alternative names	Gigliucci, Clara
Short description	Soprano
Date of birth	10 June 1818
Place of birth	London
Date of death	12 March 1908
Place of death	Rome