The Harmonicon. Part the First

by Various

A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF TAMBURINI. BY M. CASTIL BLAZE.

ANTONIO TAMBURINI, the man who has brought base singing to its utmost perfection, was born at Faenza, March 28, 1800. He was the son of Pasquale Tamburini and Luigia Collina. His father was a professor of music at Faenza, playing on the clarionet, the horn, and the trumpet. He quitted this town and went to Fossombrone, near Ancona, where he became the director of the musicians entertained by the municipal authorities. Antonio accompanied his father, who taught him the rudiments of music, and then gave him lessons on the horn. At the age of nine the young Tamburini played this instrument very well, though it never pleased him; but the fatigue attendant on its practice in the case of so young a subject, brought on a serious illness, which determined his father to change the object of his son’s musical studies. When his health was perfectly re-established, he was placed under the Maestro di Capello at Fossombrone, who exercised him continually in the solfeggi, and then brought him forward in all the churches of the town and its environs. He was everywhere admired for the beauty of his voice; but when he was twelve years old, his father’s engagement at Fossombrone being ended, they returned to his native town of Faenza, where he was engaged at the theatre to sing the soprano parts in the chorus. The smallest towns in Italy possess their musical artists of the first merit; and such singers as Mombelli, David, and Donzelli, did not disdain to assist at the theatre of Faenza during the fair. Our youthful choriste heard and admired their execution; he profited by what he heard, and without receiving lessons from any one, formed his own style on the models that he had thus daily opportunities of witnessing. He divided his time between the church and the theatre, as is the custom in countries where music still forms a prominent part in the service of the temple. His assistance was required in the chapels of all the neighbouring convents, where his fine voice and delicate and florid execution were the theme of universal admiration.

At eighteen Tamburini resolved to see the world, and, without bidding adieu to his parents, this nightingale of Faenza took flight for Bologna, the rendezvous of all those pretenders to musical fame who, possessing moderate talent, come there hoping to form engagements with the managers of various corps of itinerant artists who seek for such to fill their ranks; and with one of these, who was forming a troupe for the theatre at Cento, he associated himself.

In the mean time the delicate soprano of Tamburini had become a fine base, at once sonorous and flexible—full of expression and pathos, and, at the same time, capable of executing with ease rapid and brilliant passages. He made his débût in the town of Cento, in La Contessa di Col-Erboso of Generali, and was agreeably surprised by the reception he met with: the measured and moderate praises bestowed on him in his native town had not prepared him for the enthusiastic plaudits that awaited this his débût in the first rank of dramatic character as a base singer. However, such was his success, that it emboldened the leader to advertise a representation for the benefit of this highly-favoured débutant: honour was, however, all that he derived from this evening’s success; the profit went to the funds of the troupe. At Mirandola, at Correggio, his success was the same: at the latter place he met with Azioli, who congratulated him on his voice and his talent, telling him at the same time, that with more regular study he would probably have had less brilliant success. Their musical tour completed, the troupe returned to Bologna, where one of the actors proposed to ask for the Teatro Contavalli, for the purpose of giving representations, but Tamburini distrusted his powers, nor could the favourable reception he had hitherto met with make him confident of success with the more refined audience of Bologna. In this diffidence none shared, and it was determined that the attempt should be made. The dilettanti of Bologna confirmed the judgment already given at Cento, Mirandola, and Correggio; in consequence, he was immediately engaged for the theatre at Piacenza, during the Carnival of 1819. Here Tamburini found a much more extensive musical library, and was enabled thus to quit the circumscribed path he had hitherto trodden, and to launch out at once into the wide field of Rossini’s compositions. He appeared first in the Cenerentola, and his fame spreading rapidly, Rimbaldi came express from Naples to judge of the merits of this youthful pretender, and finding that report had not exaggerated his talents, immediately engaged him for the Teatro Nuovo in that city. If his débût here was not marked by that enthusiastic applause which had awaited him in other places, his success was not the less solid, being only delayed by the caution of a fastidious public, which here, as in Paris, withholds its praise till the judgment is entirely satisfied. It is enough to say, his engagement was renewed for the next season.

During these two years, Pavesi, Generali, Cordella, and Mercadante, wrote for Tamburini. The troubles of 1820 causing the theatres of Naples to be closed, he went to Florence, where he was attacked by a serious indisposition, which checked for a time his career of fame. From Florence he went to Leghorn for the Carnival; and from thence to Turin. In the autumn of 1822 he appeared on the immense stage of La Scala, at Milan, and met here with Mlle. Marietta Gioja, a singer of much merit and most agreeable figure, to whom he was soon after married. Passing through Venice, on his road to Trieste, where he was engaged for the Carnival, he was stopped by a mandate too powerful and too flattering to be resisted, that he might assist at two representations of Il Matrimonio Segreto, in presence of the Emperors of Germany and Russia, and at the concerts given to them and their court.

He afterwards proceeded to Venice to fulfil his engagement there, whence he went to Sicily, and remained two years at Palermo. A singular story is told of him during his residence in that city, where a custom prevails of allowing, during the first day of the Carnival, the audience at the theatres to interrupt and drown the performance by every sort of discordant noise. The prima donna, offended at this licence, refused to perform her part; the people were furious; and Tamburini, who had once before allayed the storm by his ready wit, now undertook to go through the scene in the dress of Elisa, and in the high tones of his clear falsetto, which he is said to have done with the most perfect success, contriving even to perform the duet, with which the scene concludes, by rapidly changing from the high notes of the female part to the deep and full tones of his own natural voice. He gave another proof of the versatility of his talent at Naples, where the principal woman having, through sudden illness, lost her power of singing, he went through the whole aria while she leaned motionless on his shoulder. After he quitted Palermo, he entered into an engagement with Barbaja for four years, during which he appeared at Milan, at Vienna, and at Genoa, for the opening of the Carlo-Felice. He was then recalled to Naples by Barbaja, with whom he had renewed his engagement. After two years of uninterrupted success at Naples, he came to London; thence he proceeded to Paris, where he made his débût on the 7th of October, 1832, in his favourite part of Dandini in La Cenerentola.

Tamburini is a good actor; his figure is manly, and his exterior is altogether noble and prepossessing; his acting is full of spirit and gaiety. His voice is a fine baritone, well defined, extending from A to F, occasionally reaching G

, and sometimes descending to G

. I might have allotted to him the two full octaves without reserve, but I prefer to retrench the semitone, above and below, that I may give to his voice and tone the full praise it merits. It is round, rich, and clear, of wonderful flexibility, and such astonishing firmness, that it is impossible to suspect any note is passed over unperceived. He has the neatness and precision of execution that Ber and Barizel have acquired on the clarionet or bassoon. The tone is equal in its whole extent, taking and holding F

with as much ease as a tenor voice would do, or running over the notes with a vivacity unheard of till now; while its pathetic tones, in the cavatina from La Straniera, Mai tu vieni o misera, move the hearer even to tears. The parts of Dandini and of Figaro show his comic powers, his good taste, and the astonishing rapidity of his articulation. No singer has yet displayed so much grace in the andante from La Cenerentola, Come un Ape. The part of Valdeburgo, in La Straniera, and of Uberto in l’Agnese of Paer, have taught us to appreciate his pathetic powers, and even to the insignificant part of Faraone, in Mosè, he has given a degree of importance which does honour to his powers. Such brilliant successes could not fail to induce our directors of the Italian Opera in Paris to engage Tamburini for the ensuing season.