Enrico Tamberlick

Tamberlick in St. Petersburg

Reviews
Repertory
Guglielmo Tell – Roma, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, 20 December 1837
Lucrezia Borgia – Roma, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, December 1838
I Capuleti ed i Montecchi – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 9 March 1841
Tancredi – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 9 May 1841
Beatrice di Tenda – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 15 June 1841
Otello (Rodrigo) – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 29 July 1841
I due savoiardi – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 11 October 1841
Norma – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 15 November 1841
Gemma di Vergy – Napoli, Teatro San Carlo, 30 December 1841
Casa in vendita – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 5 March 1842
Accidente della vita – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 7 March 1842
I quindici (composer Luigi Bordese) – Napoli, San Carlo, 14 March 1842
Il tramonto del sole – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 2 April 1842
L'avaro – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 9 May 1842
Semiramide – Napoli, 23 June 1842
Chi dura vince – Napoli, Teatro del, Fondo, 12 July 1842
Anna La Prie (composer Battista) – Napoli, Teatro San Carlo, 28 March 1843
Adolfo Di Gerval (composer Bruno) – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 19 June 1843
La fidanzata corsa – Napoli, 27 June 1843
La Cenerentola – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 16 August 1843
Il templario – Napoli, Teatro San Carlo, 26 September 1843
Mattia l'invalido – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 27 September 1843
L'osteria d'Andujar (composer Lillo) – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 7 November 1843
L'albergo incantato – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 22 November 1843
Costanza d'Aragona (composer Sarmiento) – Napoli, Teatro San Carlo, 12 December 1843
Fenicia – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 27 January 1844
Ettore Fieramosca – Napoli, Teatro del Fondo, 29 February 1844
Gabriella di Vergy (composer Mercadante) – Lisboa, S. Carlos, 17 June 1844
Ernani – Lisboa, S. Carlos, 1 January 1845
Lucia di Lammermoor – Lisboa, Teatro S. Carlos, 22 February 1845
I lombardi – Lisboa, S. Carlos, 10 March 1845
Parisina d'Este – Napoli, S. Carlos, 17 March 1845
I due Foscari – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 22 July 1845
Adelia – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 10 August 1845
La sonnambula – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 3 September 1845
Mosè – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 4 October 1845
La favorita – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 20 November 1845
Torquato Tasso – Madrid 28 November 1845
Maria di Rohan – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 1845
Roberto Devereux – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 21 December 1845
Nabucco – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 21 December 1845
I puritani – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 1845/6
Maria Padilla – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 8 February 1846
Irza – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 15 March 1846
Marino Faliero – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 23 September 1846
Giovanna d'Arco – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 30 October 1846
Attila – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 5 January 1847
La muta di Portici – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 6 February 1847
Medea (composer Pacini) – Madrid, Teatro del Circo, 24 February 1847
I due illustri rivali – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, September 1847
Belisario (Eutropio) – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 2 October 1847
L'ebrea (composer Pacini) – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 17 November 1847
Il barbiere di Siviglia – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 6 December 1847
Don Carlo – Barcelona, 29 March 1848
I masnadieri – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 3 June 1848
Don Sebastiano – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 21 September 1848
Griselda (composer F. Ricci) – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 19 December 1848
L'italiana in Algeri – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, April 1849
L'assedio di Corinto – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, June 1849
La prova d'un opera seria – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 10 July 1849
Il diablo predicador – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 12 September 1849
La regina di Golgonda – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 13 October 1849
Don Giovanni – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 18 December 1849
La lega lombarda – Barcelona, Teatro Principal, 23 February 1850
La donna del lago – London, Covent Garden, 23 April 1850
Roberto il diavolo – London, Covent Garden, 23 May 1850
Otello – London, Covent Garden, 6 July 1850
L'ebrea (Leopoldo) – London, Covent Garden, 25 July 1850,
Don Pasquale – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 1850/1
Linda di Chamounix – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 25 November 1850
Der Freischütz – London, Covent Garden, 17 May 1851
Fidelio – London, Covent Garden, 27 May 1851
Sapho (composer Gounod) – London, Covent Garden, 9 August 1851
I martiri – London, Covent Garden, 20 April 1852
Faust (composer Spohr) – London, Covent Garden, 15 July 1852
Pietro il Grande (Jullien) – London, Covent Garden, 17 August 1852
Benvenuto Cellini – London, Covent Garden, 25 June 1853
Il profeta – London, Covent Garden, 1 July 1853
Il marito e l'amante – St, Petersburg, Imperial, November 1853
Saffo (composer Pacini) – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 18 November 1854
Poliuto – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 2 December 1854
Rigoletto – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 2 January 1855
Il trovatore – London, Covent Garden, 10 May 1855
L'ebreo (composer Apolloni) – Rio de Janeiro, Lirico Fluminense, 29 July 1856
Luisa Miller – Rio de Janeiro, Lirico Fluminense, 21 August 1856
La regina di Cipro – Rio de Janeiro, Lirico Fluminense, 2 October 1856
Il giuramento – Rio de Janeiro, Lirico Fluminense, 27 December 1856
Gli ugonotti – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 18 December 1857
Fra Diavolo – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 3 February 1858
Zampa – London, Covent Garden, 5 August 1858
La forza del destino – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 10 November 1862
Un ballo in maschera – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 29 November 1861
Faust – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 12 January 1864
Herculanum – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 27 January 1865
L'africana – St. Petersburg, Imperial, 18 January 1866
L'ebrea – Madrid, Real, 10 October 1867
Aroldo – Madrid, Real, 7 December 1869
La vestale (composer Mercadante) – Madrid, Real, 2 February 1870
Marina – Madrid, Real, 16 March 1871
Jone – Mexico, National, 20 August 1871
Martha – Havana, Tacon, 23 January 1872
Don Fernando el Emplazado (composer Zubiaure) – Madrid, Real, 5 April 1874
Aida – Madrid, Real, 12 December 1874
La hija de Jefte (composer Chapi) – Madrid, Real, 11 May 1876
Rienzi – Madrid, Real, 5 November 1876
La stella del nord – Madrid, Real, 24 February 1877
Ledia (composer Zubiaurre) – Madrid, Real, 22 April 1877
Zilia – Paris, Italiens, 1 December 1877
Roger de Flor (composer Chapi) – Madrid, Real, 11 February 1878
Il re di Lahore – Madrid, Real, 14 February 1880
La traviata – Malaga, Cervantes, December 1881

I wish to thank Tom Kaufman for putting his unpublished chronology of Tamberlick at my disposal.

Enrico Tamberlick a Pietroburgo Tamberlick sang Manrico with a pure and grand style that perpetrates the tradition of the true singing masters. Far from having lost his vocal means, he has kept his splendid sonorous effects, and has acquired the ability to delicately shade his tone and the ability to sing mezza voce, which he did not have at the beginning of his career. (...) Starting with the serenata of the first act, he was received with unending salvos of bravos and he had to appear on the proscenium to acknowledge the applause. (...) At the end of the third act, the members of the orchestra stood up to applaud him with the audience. The same newspaper (Journal de S. Petersbourg) of November 3rd wrote that "the Guglielmo Tell performance was splendid. We do not think that we have heard so much applause in other theaters. The success of Tamberlick was a triumph."
Il trovatore, 17 November 1870

Enrico Tamberlick The celebrated tenor Enrico Tamberlick died in Paris. Enrico Panofka wrote in his classical book "Voci e cantanti" the following over twenty years ago:
"Ah! Tamberlick is the first modern tenor that causes one to sigh. This artist is sublime for his passion and expression. In certain instants, his singing exults the perfection of giving and performing, of drawing enthusiasm and sending his listeners into frenzy. Then it is for us the noblest manifestation of vocal art, the model, the most perfect type of the tenore di forza ... Otello, Poliuto, and Jean de Leyde from Le prophète. We do not find a person who represents those roles in a nobler and truer manner than Tamberlick."
Tamberlick was born in Rome, and studied theology at the Montefiascone seminary. Tamberlick sang 141 (probably an exaggeration) parts. Tamberlick began his career in Naples in Capuleti e Montecchi (not quite right), and his last great role was in Roi de Lahore (actually his penultimate role). He was a magnificent Otello, in Rossini's work, he had no rivals except Duprez (actually they had only a small overlap in their careers). He had a prodigious vogue in Guglielmo Tell, Ugonotti, Roberto il diavolo, Poliuto and had similar triumphs in Don Giovanni (what would today's purists say of a tenor singing Arnold and Ottavio?) and Rigoletto. Enrico Tamberlick was first in Naples, then in Lisbon in Spain (?), where he remained many years. He was the idol of that nation that always loved Italian singers until the end of this century. He was in London, St. Petersburg, the United States, Havana, Mexico, and Argentina. During the many years he was in St. Petersburg, he was received by the rulers, especially by the terrible czar Nicolas, who joked with him frequently. He called him, better still, citoyen, making allusion to Tamberlick's freethinking ideas that he frequently proclaimed. In those stormy times, Tamberlick embraces those causes; he was the friend of Giuseppe Mazzini, who entrusted him with confidential tasks; of Ledru-Rollin; of Martin Bernard, Lamartine, Louis Blanc, Victor Hugo, Castelar and Pyat. In 1868, he was in Madrid during the revolution. All the European newspapers told the story of the actions taken by the sympathetic singer in those events. With all the European newspapers, we lament his death.
Il teatro illustrato, no. 100, anno IX, April 1899

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