MADAM CATALANI'S WALTZ. English, Waltz (3/8 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Angelica Catalani [1] (1780-1849) was a famous Italian soprano who debited 1797 in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice in Johann Simon Mayr's opera Lodoïska. Her first London performance was in December, 1806, at the King's Theatre in the title role of the opera La morte di Semiramide by Portuguese composer Marcos António Portugal. She remained in the city for six years. A British newspaper, the Carlisle Patriot, printed this notice in 1844, getting both her age wrong, and apparently mistakenly reporting her death, as she is known to have survived until 1849 when she died in Paris of cholera:
Madame Catalani, c. 1821, by Rolinda Sharples
MADAME CATALANI. -- The celebrated Madame CATALANI, who for 22 years held with so much éclat the sceptre of song, has justdied, after a short illness at her villa, near Sinigaglia (Roman States), at the age of 59. Angelica CATALANI was born in1784, at Sinigaglia. She made her début on the stage at Venice when only fifteen, and retired in 1831. She had married M. deVALEBRIQUE, a native of Burgundy who died in 1828, and by whom she had three children. Madame CATALANI has left a fortune,which is rated at about £320,000.
Madame Catalani in the title role of Semiramide, 1806
A tune called "Madam Catalani's Waltz" can be found in Fentum's For the Year 1791. Eight Cotillions, Six Country Dances and a favorite new Minuet, "Dedicated to the Nobility & Gentry", issued in London in 1791, although the soprano singer would have been only aged 11 at the time of publication, making her an unlikely candidate for the title. The earliest verified printing was in Hodsoll's Collection of the Most Fashionable Country Dances for the Year 1807 (London, 1807), and in G. Walker's Collection of the Most Favorite and Fashionable Dances, No. 15 (c. 1807), followed by John Paff's The Gentlemens Amusement No. 2 (New York, 1812, p. 3), George Forrester's The Flute Player's Pocket Companion (Edinburgh, c. 1817, p. 81, arranged as a duet for two German flutes), and J. Munro's Waltziana: A Selection Of The Most Popular & Admired Waltzes Arranged For The German Flute, Violin Or Flageolet (London, c. 1820's).
See also the jig "Madame Catalani's Favourite," and "Madam Catalani", a 2/4 country dance in George Willig's Willig's Collection of Popular Country Dances, No. 4 (New York, 1812). Dance instructions for a "Madam Catalani's Fancy" can be found in dancing master Thomas Wilson's The treasures of Terpsichore; or A Companion to the Ballroom (1816, p. 71).
Additional notes Source for notated version : - a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman].
Printed sources : - Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 65a, p. 26.
