Divismo del soprano nel rapporto con l’Opera: donne e personaggi nel melodramma italiano

From the 17th century, the role of the Soprano began to take importance. The operatic staging involves, in the realization of the product imagined for the Soprano, a demanding work of filing and creating the character directly on the interpreter. And so, great 19th century sopranos such as Isabella Colbran (Andrea della Corte, 1951 and Carla di Carlo, 2013), Giuditta Pasta (Susan Rutherford, 2007 and Paolo Russo, 2002) and Maria Malibran (Fabio Bertani, 2015) become the silhouettes on which the melodramatic production tailors draw the characters. This article wants to present these female artists by capturing both the characteristic features of the performative and artistic sphere but also the more human and personal features, providing overall some key interpretative elements of female opera stardom. To get to know the sopranos, reference will be made to chronicles of the time, their diaries and letters from different stakeholders (librettists, composers, family members, lovers…). In the conclusion, a new interpretative key will be provided from the point of view of the concept of stardom, reinterpreted in a pre-Hollywood key.