ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a biography of mid- to late-19th-century vocalist Giovanni Battista Belletti. One of the outstanding baritone singers of the Victorian era, reckoned by many equal or superior to Tamburini and Ronconi in opera and second to no other in oratorio, Belletti has been somewhat diminished in too many 20th-century writings by his connections ('as a subordinate') with the much hyped Jenny Lind. Belletti's theatrical career moved on to its decisive arc when he took up his first job in the Italian theatre. In the Carnevale and Quaresima seasons at the Pergola in Florence, he appeared as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Signora Marziali, in La figlia del reggimento, as Rodolfo opposite Henriette Nissen and as Graziani in La sonnambula, and seemingly in L'assedio di Corinto, Il birraio di Preston and I due Foscari.
