Autograph letter signed.
12mo. 3 pp. on bifolium.
$499.00
To a friend, possibly Louise Amélie Silny, the wife of Adolphe Crémieux, apologizing for not having written earlier and explaining that she will be unable to see the recipient before going on a trip to Bordeaux: "Je savais que vous n’avez pas besoin de moi chère et aimable Mme Crémieux [?], et c’est ce qui me consolait un peu de ne pouvoir aller a votre belle soirée ! Au reste vous pouvez juger de la multiplicité de mes occupations, puisque je n’ai pas encore vous écrit un mot, et qu’il me sera impossible d’aller vous faire ma petite visite avant mon départ pour Bordeaux! [...]".
Laure Cinti-Damoreau entered the Paris Conservatory aged 7 as a piano student. When she was not allowed to attend singing classes, she switched to the school of the Opéra. At a private soirée she was introduced to the Italian coloratura soprano Angelica Catalani, who became her mentor. Catalani gave Cinti-Damoreau her first small roles at the Théâtre Italien, her stage debut was in Martín y Solar's "Una cosa rara" on 8 January 1816. When Manuel Garcá discovered the young singer, he gave her her first lead in his opera "Il califfo di Bagdad". Her stage debut at the Paris Opéra in 1825 was an immediate success. At that point Cinti-Damoreau had studied with Gioachino Rossini, rising to become his prima donna. Cinti-Damoreau created the female leads in the Paris premieres of "Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra" and "Mosè in Egitto" and in the world premieres of "Le comte Ory" (1828) and "Guillaume Tell" (1829), Rossini's last opera. She was also the first Isabelle in Meyerbeer's "Robert le diable" (1831). Laure Cinti-Damoreau was one of the first French opera singers to master the range of a coloratura soprano. Her private diary is an important source for music historians.
On stationery with embossed monogram. With some browning to the margins and collector's number in pencil (on recto).