Luísa Todi
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Luísa Rosa de Aguiar Todi (1753 - 1833) was a very popular Portuguese opera singer. A mezzo-soprano with a rich strong voice and great dramatic talent, she was exclusively dedicated to the dramatic style.
Luísa Todi was born on January 9, 1753 in Setúbal, Portugal. In 1765, her family moved to Lisbon, where her father was a musical writer in the Theatre of Bairro Alto. In that theatre, Luísa began her career as an actress in 1767 or 1768 with Molière's play Tartuffe. Also there she met Francesco Saverio Todi, an Italian violinist, with whom she married in 1769.
After the marriage, taking her husband's advice, she began having singing lessons with David Perez, Italian composer and Royal Chapel's Master.
In 1770, she began her career as a singer with Giuseppe Scolari's opera Il Viaggiatore Ridicolo, in the Theatre of Bairro Alto. From 1772 to 1777, Luísa lived in Oporto where she was a singer and a singing teacher, starting to be an important figure.
In the winter of 1777, at 24 years, she made her first performance abroad: at the King's Theatre in London. The British enthusiastic critics said that "Mrs. Luísa Todi possess a high merit as singer and as actress".
In 1778 she sang at the famous Concerts Spirituels in Paris, getting an absolute triumph and being considered the best foreign singer that was ever presented in France. She stayed in France until to 1780.
From 1780 to 1783 she sang at the Teatro Reggio in Turin and made performances in Germany and Austria in 1781.
At 30 years-old, she came back to Paris for the Concerts Spirituels and it was established a confrontation between Luísa Todi and the German soprano Gertrud Elisabeth Mara (1749 - 1833), which divided the public. Luísa Todi won this confrontation and began to be called by the French "the Nation's Singer".
In 1784 Luísa travelled to Russia by exigence of Catherine II. Luísa Todi, with her husband and children, arrived at St. Petersburg on June 7, 1784 (May 27 O.S.), being received by the Empress two days later. On June 10 (May 30 O.S.) in the presence of Catherine II, Luísa gave her first concert, interpreting Giuseppe Sarti's Armida and Rinaldo with a prodigious success. She caused so great an impression that, in the end of that concert, the Empress offered her two diamond bracelets. As a form of gratitude, Luísa and her husband wrote the opera Pollinia dedicated to the Empress. This opera's debut was in October and Luísa performed with the famous castrato Luigi Marchesi (1754 - 1829). Marchesi, famous for his turbulent temperament, became envious of her success. He and the composer Sarti engaged in a rivalry competition against Luísa Todi. Empress Catherine took Luísa's party and didn't renew the contract of Marchesi and Sarti. Luísa Todi stayed 4 years in Russia (1784 - 1788), where she was always treated with respect, affection and friendship. She was the court princesses' singing teacher and Catherine II continued to offer her magnificent jewels of incalculable value.
In 1788 Luísa was in Frederick William II of Prussia's court. In the following year, she returned to Paris for her third season in the "Concerts Spirituels" and was considered by the critics as "the greatest singer of her time". She returned to the Prussian court few weeks before the beginning of the French Revolution. In 1790 she started a triumphant tour through Germany and in Bonn she was homaged by a Beethoven's performance.
In the end of that year, she went to Venice and performed at the Teatro di San Samuele with the opera "La Didone Abbandonata", wearing a tiara, a necklace, and diamond earrings that had been offered to her by Catherine II.
In Venice, Luísa Todi, 37 years-old, reached one of the most glorious moments of her career, in such way that the Italian season of 1790/1791 was known as the "Todi's Year". During her stay in Venice, some vision problems began which caused her to abandon the stage for some months. The Venetians were concerned and her fans wrote hundreds of verses and poems in her homage. When Luísa returned to the stage in 1791 she was received with an enormous ovation. After Venice, she carried a tour through other Italian cities.
From 1792 to 1796, she sang in Madrid at the Teatro de los Caños del Peral.
In April 1793 Luísa returned to Portugal. She required a special authorization because in Portugal the women were forbidden to perform in public. In Lisbon she sang in a commemorative party of the Prince Regent's (future John VI) daughter birth. Unhappily, her native country didn't recognize Luísa's merit because her performance was not widely advertised and the Royal Family was not present.
After singing in Naples (1796) she returned definitively to Portugal in 1801, living in Oporto. In that city she continued to sing until the death of her husband in 1803, when she retired and dressed mourning forever.
In 1809 Oporto was invaded by the Napoleonic army commanded by general Soult. Luísa Todi decided to abandon the city but during the escape she lost great part of her belongings, including her jewels. This made her economic situation difficult in the last years of her life.
Luísa Todi and her family were imprisoned by the French but general Soult recognized her as "the Nation's Singer" and protected her.
In 1811 she moved to Lisbon. In 1823, due to the previous vision problems she was completely blind. She died on October 1, 1833 of a stroke that had occurred on July 28, 1833. She was buried on the cemetery of the Church of Encarnation, close to Chiado, in Lisbon.
That cemetery still exists today. It is underneath the foundation of a building, number 78, Rua do Alecrim. Unbelievably enough, in spite of constant requests made by fans and descendants to the proper authorities, she, who was one of the greatest Portuguese singers of all times, still lies buried there: underneath the pavement of an obscure cellar.
Before dying, Luísa Todi saw her talent immortalized in Antoine Reicha's book Traité de melodie, who considered her as "the Singer of all Centuries".
She was praised by her vocal capacities, her clear diction, her language domain (she spoke perfect French, English, Italian and German), her professionalism, her talent as actress and the emotion and sensibility she placed in her personages, a list of qualities that made her an extreme modern interpreter. These are the same qualities that had allowed Luísa Todi to be remembered through the centuries.
