#Clotilde Barili Thorne

[opera-ghosts]

Clothilde de Barili Thorne – Houghton Library, Harvard University

From Verdi at the Golden Gate : opera and San Francisco in the Gold Rush years by Martin, George Whitney:

Barili-Thorn, born into a family of Italian musicians, most of them singers, had made her professional debut in Italy at least as early as 1845, and two years later, while still not yet twenty, she had created a stir in New York. Remarkably pretty, she soon married a rich and socially prominent New Yorker, but continued to sing; and though her voice was considered to lack brilliance and power, it was much ad¬ mired for its purity and range. As an actress, however, she was thought to be cold and tame. Unfortunately, while in San Francisco she seems In Italy, New York, Mexico City, and Lima she had grown up with Verdi’s music, and though her voice was too light for much of it, she evidently understood its style. This seems to have been true also of her colleagues, especially perhaps of the baritone Alessandro Lanzoni, who, if identity of name is equivalent to identity of person, in Rome in 1849 had sung a small solo role under Verdi’s direction at the rehearsals and early performances of La battaglia di Legnano. But more than just Barili-Thorn, Leonardi, or Lanzoni, the troupe as a whole consistently was praised for making of its productions something more than merely concerts in costume. Of the opening-night Emani, with “augumented” chorus, the critic for Wide West concluded: “Taken as a whole, it is the best attempt at opera we have yet had.” And Pioneer Magazine, in summarizing the troupe’s virtues, reported: “It is capable of presenting an opera without giving one part an undue preponder¬ ance over the others, or leaving the principal lacking the support necessary from the subordinate characters.” In San Francisco, with the Barili-Thorn season, opera as drama took a step forward.

In several respects, Barili-Thorn’s Ernani could not fail to improve on Pellegrini’s. It had the larger chorus and orchestra, which now were becoming usual, and for the baritone role of Don Carlos it could cast a baritone, Lanzoni, in place of Von Gulpen, a mezzo-soprano, thus regaining for several scenes the desired weight and quality of voice. In other ways, however, it did no better, and perhaps worse. It, too, lacked a women’s chorus, and Barili-Thorn had that “hoarseness,” while the tenor, Carlo Scola, who in the title role was supposed to project manly pride, beauty, and daring, “falters in his steps, stands nerveless and unsteady, with knees inclining towards each other, and his whole system relaxed and feeble.”

Indeed, Ernani proved so popular that the company extended its season, repeating the opera three times before the end of the year and then, with a change in cast, once again in January 1833, as well as performing Acts I and III in an evening of excerpts — all in all, a strong exposure in a city of no more than 40,000. Meanwhile, only three months after Bishop and Bochsa’s Judith, Barili-Thorn staged three performances of Nabucco. Thus Verdi’s music suddenly flooded the ears and minds of the city’s music-lovers, who confirmed at the box office.

She was a creature “ of fire and dew,” and so enraged aristocratic old Colonel Thorne of New York by marrying his son, that the young pair fled from his wrath to Peru. Little was heard of them afterwards, except that the husband died at sea and Clotilde followed him a few years later at Matanzas, Cuba.

From The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 1882:

[...] Clotilde Barili was a vocalist with a pure soprano voice remarka ble only for its compass in the upper register. She could give F sharp above the lines and gracefully. But her voice was thin and so was her figure and she was cold and tame and produced little impression on the York public. Her pretty face however ere won her a husband the son of a rich man well known in New York and she disappeared from public life. Her brother Antonio was an excel lent maestro and for some fifteen years was teacher of singing in New York and there hardly have been a better After all his success he returned to Italy in disgust He not find the New York public to his taste.

From The Pioneer 1854-12: Vol 2 Iss 6:

The personal appearance of the Prima Donna, Signora Clotilde Barili, disposes the audience in her favor. An exquisitely moulded form, a graceful motion, a queenly dignity, eyes large, dark and lustrous, a mouth of faultless perfection, artistically chiseled lips, drooping lids, arching brows, hair dark and abundant, and an enchanting smile, that in an instant irradiates the whole face like a sunbeam ;—such charms, and more, she possesses, which go far to insure success.

As an artist, she is finished and elegant, rather than forcible. Her voice is a mezzo soprano of moderate register and volume. Its tone is pure, but it is thin and uncertain. Its greatest excellence is in the rendition of simply beautiful music. It is not sufficiently flexible to execute the most elaborate passages with artistic finish, and it does not possess the requisite strength and volume to give the proper effect to passionate or highly-wrought conceptions. Indeed, she does not herself possess the requisite physique for such réles. It is but justice, however, to say that Barili is evidently laboring under the effects of a severe cold, such as would prevent almost any artiste from appearing; and the faults which

we have noticed may be the result of this cause alone. We doubt whether, if her interests only were to be consulted, she would make her appearance under such unfavorable circumstances; but, probably she prefers to risk her reputation by an unfavorable first appearance, rather than prejudice the interests of her associates by causing them a loss of time.

Measuring her merits by her success, she should be awarded a very high position. Her first night was not an ovation. The audience were coldly critical. Yet there was what a true artist loves,—appreciation. The applause, though not enthusiastic, was frequent and judicious. At the subsequent representations, the applause was warmer, and on the third opera night, it became really enthu siastic, while the house was as crowded as at the first. Signora Barili will take hold upon the hearts of the audience, and establish a sympathy calculated to inspire her with that energy which she lacks.

We should not have chosen the operas which have thus far been produced. The leading performers, with the exception of Leonardi, have not been equal to the réles they have been compelled to assume. Signor Scola has no conception of the part of Ernani, nor of Gennaro. Lanzoni made but a tolerable Don Carlos, and only a fair Duke Alfonzo, And Leonardi was the only one, on either oceasion, who filled his ré/e satisfactorily. In both operas the part of the prima donna demanded a passionate energy, which Barili does not possess.

From Musical Discourse (1928) by Richard Aldrich:

Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the American pianist, with whom Patti made a short tour of the West Indies in 1856, before her operatic debut, has left in his book, " Notes of a Pianist," some interesting remarks about Adelina's family, which included an extraordinary number of fine artists : what he calls "a dynasty of distinguished singers." The father, Salvatore, was an "excellent tenore di forza."His wife, Caterina, mother of Adelina, (whose first husband was one Barili), was in 1863, when Gottschalk wrote, "still celebrated in Spain, Portugal, and Naples as a 'fiery actress,'" who sometimes had transports not connected with her art, and denounced violently audiences that did not listen with all the attention and respect she considered due her and her art. She had lived in New York for a number of years. Ireland, in his "Records of the New York Stage," mentions her debut there as Romeo in Bellini's opera of "I Capuleti ed i Montecchi" (in which the hero's part is written for a soprano). He calls her "a vocalist and actress of great skill and accomplishment" but, he adds, "with advancing years and failing voice, her undoubted merits were insufficient to keep her permanently before the public." Her eldest daughter, Clotilde Barili, was successful as a singer: "young, pretty, and interesting," says Ireland, "and, for a short period, regarded as little less than a divinity by the dilettanti of New York."

***

Clotilde made her operatic debut at nineteen. She was a creature “ of fire and dew,” and so enraged aristocratic old Colonel Thorne of New York by marrying his son, that the young pair fled from his wrath to Peru. Little was heard of them afterwards, except that the husband died at sea and Clotilde followed him a few years later at Matanzas, Cuba.