Barbi, Alice (1862–1948)

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Barbi, Alice (1862–1948)

Italian mezzo-soprano, lieder singer, and close friend of Johannes Brahms. Born on June 1, 1862, in Modena, Italy; died in Rome, Italy, on September 4, 1948; married second husband Pietro della Torretta (Italian ambassador to Great Britain); retired early after a brilliant concert career.

Alice Barbi is largely remembered for having been "the last love of Johannes Brahms"—a platonic friendship that brightened the final years of the lonely bachelor composer. Described by Max Graf, who often heard her perform in Vienna in the late 1880s and early 1890s, as "a dark Italian beauty with dreamy black eyes," Barbi grew up in her native city of Modena where she first studied violin, an instrument she thoroughly mastered. During these years, she received a solid training in musical theory and learned several foreign languages.

Deciding not to become an instrumentalist, Barbi studied voice and quickly reached a high level of professionalism. Her concert debut as a singer took place in Milan in 1882, which was soon followed by a highly successful appearance in Rome. Before long, she was known throughout Italy, enjoying star status as a concert performer in a country where virtually all singers based their careers on singing opera. Barbi, however, recognized that her strength lay in song recitals and never performed in opera. Early in her career, she decided to specialize in the lieder repertoire, her programs regularly consisted of the songs of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. Many decades later, Max Graf would describe her art in the most glowing terms: "The combination of Italian sense of melody, southern beauty, true musical form and deep expression flowing from the soul was never more perfect than in this singer."

By 1884, Alice Barbi was appearing in Great Britain, where she drew large crowds at London's Popular Concerts series. Within a few years, she was performing in Russia, Germany and Austria. At her first concert in Vienna in 1888, she was a virtually unknown foreign artist, and her audience was limited to 50 individuals, several of them influential critics whose tickets were supplied gratis by the concert management. The powerful impression Barbi made on her select audience led to a second concert, which was sold out and brought rave reviews in the Viennese press. All of her subsequent appearances in Vienna would prove artistic and popular triumphs.

Soon after her initial success in the Austrian capital, Barbi met Johannes Brahms. Captivated by her poise, rich contralto voice, and radiant beauty, the bearded, portly composer soon was observed regularly escorting her to restaurants and other places of interest. On one occasion, Brahms took Barbi to an establishment that featured a "Schrammel" ensemble that performed popular Viennese music. After playing several traditional Viennese pieces, the group struck up an American popular tune of the day, "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay." As the "boom" was sounded it was customary to strike the table with one's walking stick or thump it with one's beer stein. One observer of the evening recalled that Brahms, buoyed up in the company of Alice Barbi, could be seen exuberantly rapping his umbrella on the table, "a little boy with a gray beard." Those who knew the details of Brahms' life history of unrequited loves suggested that Barbi, "his last love," perhaps served to remind him of another great singer with whom he had been in love in his youth, Hermine Spiese .

In her early 30s, Barbi decided to marry and end her fabulously successful concert career. Shortly before her farewell recital in Vienna, on December 21, 1893, Johannes Brahms appeared unannounced at her dressing room door, astonishing Barbi by requesting that in place of the scheduled accompanist he wished to accompany her at the piano. On that emotion-laden evening, a favored audience not only heard the most beautiful of Brahms' lieder sung by a great artist but also superbly performed on the keyboard by the composer himself.

Barbi was deeply moved by the death of her friend Johannes Brahms in 1897 and was among the most enthusiastic supporters of the committee that collected funds to erect a monument in his honor in his adopted city of Vienna. Although retired from active concertizing, she remained passionately interested in music and the arts, and her elegant home in Rome became a major center of cultural activities. Barbi wrote poetry during these years, some of which was set to music by the composer Antonio Bazzini. She also composed some small-scale works and edited a collection of ancient Italian airs. No doubt relishing her reputation as a brilliant singer of a great epoch of music, she was for many decades a major celebrity in the highest strata of European diplomacy and the arts, having chosen as her second husband Pietro della Torretta, the Italian ambassador to Great Britain. Alice Barbi died at age 86 in Rome on September 4, 1948.