Editing Marietta Alboni (section)

==Artistic features==
Alboni's voice, an exceptionally fine contralto with a seamless compass of two and one-half [[octave]]s, extending as high as the [[soprano]] range,<ref name=C243>"She was a real contralto from f<sub>3</sub> to g<sub>5</sub>, then, up to c<sub>6</sub>, she was an excellent soprano. Which enabled her to perform, with some adjustments ['con qualche "accomodo"'], also Zerlina in ''[[Don Giovanni]]'', Amina in ''[[La sonnambula]]'' and Marie in ''[[La fille du régiment]]''" (Celletti, pp. 243–244). In fact, her voice could reach down to f<sub>3</sub> only while practising: in public her lowest note was g<sub>3</sub>. Alboni also reported that on practising she could sometimes climb up to e<sub>6</sub> flat (Pougin, 2001, p. 96).</ref> was said to possess at once power, sweetness, fullness, and extraordinary flexibility. She had no peers in passages requiring a sensitive delivery and semi-religious calmness, owing to the moving quality of her velvety tone. She possessed vivacity, grace, and charm as an actress of the ''comédienne'' type; but she was not a natural ''tragédienne'', and her attempt at the strongly dramatic part of [[Norma (opera)|Norma]] was sometimes reported to have turned out a failure.<ref>Article: [https://archive.org/stream/newinternational01gilm#page/284/mode/2up ''Alboni, Marietta''], in Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Moore, F., ''[[New International Encyclopedia]]'' (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead, 1905, I, p. 285. Not all sources, however, agree with the author of NIE; surely not [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], who was very keen on opera, somewhat of a connoisseur. "Alboni was sublime in Norma, last night," he wrote to his best friend [[Charles Sumner]] on 15 February 1853, "Would you had been with us, in our snug box." (quoted in Christoph Irmscher, ''Public Poet, Private Man: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at 200'', University of Massachusetts Press, 2009, p. 6. {{ISBN|978-1-55849-584-5}}). [[Walt Whitman]] went even farther likening "Alboni in the children's scene in ''Norma''" to a marvel of Nature, such as "the wild sea-storm" he had once seen "one winter day, off Fire island", or "night-views … on the field, after battles in Virginia, or the peculiar sentiment of moonlight and stars over the great Plains, western Kansas" (''Seeing Niagara to advantage'', in ''Complete Prose Works'', Kila MT/US, Kessinger Publishing, 2004, pp. 179–180, {{ISBN|978-1-4191-1370-3}})</ref> Nevertheless, she scored a real triumph in 1850, when she made her operatic debut at the [[Paris Opéra]] performing the tragic role of "Fidès" in [[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]]'s ''[[Le prophète]]'', which had been created the year before by no less than [[Pauline Viardot]].<ref>Pougin, 2001, pp. 57–67.</ref> Furthermore, she was able to cope with such dramatic roles as "Azucena" and "Ulrica" in [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s ''[[Il trovatore]]'' and ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]'', and even with the [[baritone]] role of "Don Carlo" in ''[[Ernani]]'' (London, 1847).<ref>Ciliberti; Celletti, pp. 243–244.</ref>