Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Biscaccianti, Signora

Biscaccianti, Signora. Miss Eliza Ostinelli was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1825. Her father, Louis Ostinelli, a talented Italian musician, was for many years a resident of Boston, and leader of the orchestra in the principal theatres. Her mother was a native of New York, and a pianist of rare excellence for that time. Her voice in her girlhood was remarkable for its richness, beauty, and great compass, embracing more than two octaves and a half. With a quick ear and impassioned brilliant style, she sang the English and Italian songs that were in vogue, and which she caught pretty much by ear, to the great admiration of her friends, who anticipated in her a distinguished singer, and were anxious that she should cultivate the rare gift which she possessed without musical knowledge or habits of application. A subscription was easily raised, and in the latter part of the year 1843, at the age of eighteen, she left America in company with her father, for the direct purpose of cultivating her voice under the best Italian masters. An introduction from the American consul at Leghorn brought her to the notice of Giuditta Pasta, then in Como, the native city of Signor Ostinelli. She continued to receive instruction from Madame Pasta for ten months, and subsequently became a pupil of Vaccai, Nani, and Lamberti, three of the most celebrated masters of Italy. In May, 1847, Miss Ostinelli, who by this time had changed her name for that of Biscaccianti, a distinguished family of Milan, made her first public appearance in the difficult character of Elvira, in Verdi's "Ernani," at the Carcano, the same theatre at which Pasta, who, up to this time, had continued to evince the greatest interest in her success, had made, many years before, her debut. Her success was complete. She returned to America in the summer of the same year, had an enthusiastic welcome in her native city, and sang, with great success, in opera and concert, in all the principal cities of the Union. A few years since, Mme. Biscaccianti visited Europe a second time, sang several times, if we mistake not, in the opera at London, and then withdrew from the public for a year or more, which period she devoted to the most earnest studies, under the best teachers in Lon-don and Paris. On her return to the United States, a marvellous improvement appeared in the finish, style, and sentiment of her singing. She was in every sense an accomplished, refined artist, alike admirable for voice, method, execution, style, and expression. During the past year, Mme. Biscaccianti has been exciting great enthusiasm by her concerts in the principal cities of California. She was the first great singer that visited that golden land.