Balbina Steffenone

Balbina Steffenone (also spelled Bina or Steffanone or Steffenoni, 1825–1896) was a 19th-century soprano. Born in Turin, Italy,[1] she studied in Bologna under Teresa Bertinotti, debuting as Lucia in Macerata in 1842.[2] After singing across Italy, she spent 1845-47 singing at Covent Garden, then went to North America, where she stayed for seven years.[2] Her appearances ranged from Boston to Mexico City and Havana,[2] where she remained a principal in the company under Giovanni Bottesini around 1850.[3]

Photograph of Steffenone, c. 1860

She sang in the American premiere of Il trovatore at the Academy of Music in New York, sharing the roles of Leonora and Ines in the production.[2][4] On her return from Cuba in 1855, when she played Lucrezia Borgia in the opera, The New York Times called her "one of the few worth welcoming back again"; but critic Richard Grant White wrote that her voice had deteriorated into "a bewildered shriek".[5]

She continued her career in Europe, appearing in Vienna in 1859 and Naples in 1860-61, where she created Errico Petrella's Morosina.[2] She is reported to have retired in 1862,[2] but also to have taken part in the première of Vincenzo Battista's Giovanna di Castiglia at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1863.[6]

She died in Naples in 1896.[1]

References
  1. Giacomo Meyerbeer (2004). "October 1857". Briefwechsel und Tagebücher (in German). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-018030-8. Retrieved 2007-08-26.
  2. Giacomo Meyerbeer (2004). The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer. Robert Ignatius Le Tellier. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Retrieved 2007-08-26.
  3. Katherine K. Preston (2001). Opera on the Road: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United States, 1825-60. University of Illinois Press.
  4. Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (entry under Maggio 1855, Mercoledì)
  5. Vera Brodsky (1999). Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong, 1836-1875. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 2007-08-26.
  6. Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia entry under (26 Aprile 1863, Domenica) in Italian at
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