ABSTRACT
This chapter reads English soprano Adelaide Kemble’s self-descriptions of her performance and artistry with particular attention to her portrayal of performances outside the opera house. The latter took place both in concert and in drawing rooms, embracing a variety of public and private performance venues and spanning the years when she was preparing for her operatic career (the late 1830s), to her time on the stage (December 1838 to December 1842), to her retirement (the last performance described in the correspondence occurred in 1868). The essay seeks to characterize the reflections on her identity as a singer prompted by non-operatic versus operatic performances, and thereby contribute an example of the notions of opera held by a nineteenth-century English prima donna.
