Giulia Grisi

Sitter in 24 portraits
Milan-born soprano Grisi dominated London opera in a career that spanned over three decades. From 1834 she performed in Rossini's La gazza ladra at the King's Theatre. She sang at the opening of the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden in 1847 (now the Royal Opera House), and again in 1857 when the Royal Opera House reopened after it had been devastated by fire. She was widely considered to be one of the leading sopranos of the nineteenth century. Her unhappy marriage with her first husband led to an affair with Frederick William Robert Stewart from which they had one son, George Frederick Ormsby. Her second husband, with whom she had six daughters, was Giovanni Matteo de Candia (Mario), the celebrated tenor. She died in Berlin on 29 November 1869. Her body was taken to Paris where she was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.