Speaker: Sarah Hibberd

Antonio Tamburini sang in the premieres of Bellini’s I puritani and Donizetti’s Marino Faliero in 1835 and appeared in a stream of other works in Paris and London as part of the so-called Puritani Quartet, with Luigi Lablache, Giovanni Battista Rubini and Giulia Grisi. Together they were central to the dissemination of Italian opera in these cities –­ and its development beyond the Italian peninsula. Tamburini has been remembered as the first baritone of the mid-nineteenth century (Everist, 2005), and when in 1840 he was replaced in I puritani at Her Majesty’s Theatre by another singer, the audience rioted. However, contemporary reviews often side-lined the comparatively unassuming singer in discussions that instead focused on the power and charisma of Lablache’s bass voice and the glamour and virtuosity of Grisi and Rubini (usually playing the central lovers).

My primary aim in this paper is to analyse Tamburini’s role in Mercadante’s I briganti (1836) – written specially for the Quartet – through his rapport with the other members of the group. I do this through the theme of self-sacrifice, manifest in a series of duets before he ultimately (literally) falls on his sword. Tamburini’s characters often found themselves in a similar position given the formulaic nature of nineteenth-century opera plots, but his roles also capitalised on his vocal capacities and his personal qualities, and the relationships he established with the other singers. In other words, his characterisations tell us something about a singer who has largely escaped analysis.

This Tamburini case study is part of broader aim to illuminate the dynamics and chemistry between the voices and personalities of the Quartet. I draw on the ideas of sympathy and organisation set out recently by Carmel Raz in relation to Berlioz and the overpowering experience of music (2022), and on Laura Tunbridge’s recent explication of string quartet dynamics (2022), to theorise the currents and hierarchies within the Puritani Quartet in the context of scientific and social debates of the mid-nineteenth century – and their impact on audiences.