Portrait of the singer Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865)

Giuditta Pasta (Saronno, 26 October 1797 –Como, 1 April 1865) played the lead role on that difficult evening in 1831 that saw the premiere of the opera Norma by the Sicilian composer Vincenzo
Bellini. The performance was a complete disaster due to illness on the part of the performer but also because of a group opposed to the composer, which influenced the audience’s reception. The opera later
went on to be a success and is today amongst the most important operas of the first half of the nineteenth century.
The singer was in fact a mezzo soprano. According to reports, however, she had a tendency to sing flat on high notes. Because of this Bellini was obliged to lower by a whole-tone the pitch of the renowned aria “Casta diva” from Norma, to bring it more into line with her vocal abilities. A diadem and two bracelets worn by the singer at that first, stormy performance of Norma have found their way to us and are displayed in a case in Room 2. Pasta also performed in the premiere of La sonnambula, another of Bellini’s masterpieces, at the Teatro Carcano. A lady of character, Giuditta Pasta was also patriotic.
Her importance was such that there are two portraits of her in this room. One by François Gérard and the other, with her eyes turned upward, in the little window next to Malibran, by Gioacchino Serangeli. In the painting by Serangeli,
the singer is seen holding the score for Rossini’s Tancredi open at the page of the famous aria “Di tanti palpiti”, while in the painting by Gérard she is depicted in her costume as Norma. The Museum houses the handwritten manuscript
for Tancredi, as well as a ceremonial sword given to the singer by Napoleon Bonaparte, which can be seen in the case in Room 4.