ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 brings to light the propitious, but eventually compromised, career of Giuseppina Strepponi. Musically and intellectually talented daughter of a professional musician, Strepponi soon found herself sole breadwinner for her mother and siblings. Her vocal and dramatic gifts saved them from penury, but entangled her in the exploitation and temptations about which she wrote to her impresario, Alessandro Lanari. Under the ‘fatherly’ protection of Camillo Cirelli, father of her son, and possibly another of her illegitimate children, Strepponi worked herself to exhaustion. She achieved operatic success despite multiple pregnancies and confinements, always optimistic that a romantic ‘saviour’ would appear.
