Born: 29 January 1822, Italy
Died: 9 October 1906
Country most active: Italy
Also known as: Marchesa Capranica del Grillo, Marquise Ristori
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Adelaide Ristori, a celebrated Italian tragic actress, the daughter of strolling players. As a child she appeared upon the stage, and at fourteen was playing important parts.
After her marriage in 1846 to the Marchese del Grillo (died 1861), she retired for a short time, but soon returned to the stage.
In 1855 she took Paris by storm in the title role of Alferi’s Myrrha. Furious partisanship was aroused by the appearance of a rival to the great Rachel. Paris was divided into two camps of opinion. Humble play-goers fought at gallery-doors over the merits of their respective favorites. The two famous women never actually met, but the French actress seems to have been convinced that Ristori had no feelings towards her but those of admiration and respect. After appearing successfully in Madrid and London, she paid the first of four visits to the United States, where she won much applause, particularly in Giacometti’s Elizabeth, Queen of England. She finally retired from professional life in 1885, and died in Rome at the age of eighty-four.
Her Studies and Memoirs provide a lively account of an interesting career, and are valuable for her psychological explanation of the characters of Mary Stuart, Queen Elizabeth, Myrrha, Phaedra and Lady Macbeth, in her interpretation of which Ristori combined high dramatic instinct with the keenest of intellectual study.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
A great actress, born on January 26, 1821 at Cividale del Friuli, died on October 8, 1906 in Rome, Her parents were strolling players, and she almost began life in the theatre. At the age of 14, she played as Francesca da Rimini in Silvio PelHco’s tragedy, and in a few years became the leading Italian actress. In 1847 her marriage with the Marquis Giuliano Capranica del Grillo (died 1861) temporarily interrupted her dramatic career; but she soon returned to the stage. After having acted in Italy for some years with immense applause, she presented herself before a French audience (Paris) in 1855, when Rachel (Elisa Rachel Felix) was at the height of her fame. But Ristori won a complete triumph; and thereafter gained fresh laurels in nearly every country of Europe, in the United States (1866; 1875; 1884; 1885), and in South America, where her magnificent tragic acting roused the greatest enthusiasms. The roles in which she especially shone were: Myrrha (Alfieri’s) ; Elizabeth (Giacometti’s); Mary Stuart (Schiller’s); Medea and Marie Antoinette (Legouve’s); Lady Macbeth, and Adrienne Lecouvreur (Scribe’s).
Her Studies and Memoirs (1888) contain valuable studies in the psychological explanation of the characters of Mary Stuart, Elizabeth, Myrrha, Phaedra, and Lady Macbeth, in her interpretation of which Ristori combined high dramatic instinct with the keenest intellectual study.
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
RISTORI, ADELAIDE, is a tragic actress, whose powerful delineations of passion have placed her, as many think, on an equality with Rachel and Siddons. She is a native of Civitale di Friuli, in Lombardo-Venetia, and wan born In 1822. Her introduction into theatrical circles took place at a very early age; when only four years old, she was accustomed, at Rome, to play children’s parts in simple dramas; and when fourteen, was enabled to sustain the part of Francesca de Rimini in the sad though sweet tragedy of that name. She studied with great care and diligence, and seems thoroughly to have imbued her soul with the noble sentiments and lofty asperations of her assumed characters. In 1846, while performing at Rome, her hand was solicited in marriage by an Italian nobleman, and shortly after she became the Marquise Capranica del Grillo. After this union she relinquished the stage for awhile, but, like a dethroned monarch, she sighed to return to her seat of dominion, and the opportunity, or the excuse, for doing so soon came. An old friend and patron of hers fell into distress, and she offered to give three performances for his benefit. The success of these was so great, and the solicitations for a continuance of her dramatic career became so urgent, her own wishes, too, were so strongly urged, that her husband consented, notwithstanding the objections of his noble relations, that she should return to the stage; and this she did after a two years’ retirement, which seems to have much enriched and improved her faculties.
After a long series of triumphs in Italy, she made her first public appearance in Paris in the summer of 1855, when the Great Industrial Exhibition was open, and the city unusually full of foreigners. She met with an enthusiastic reception from the public, and the critics were loud in their praise. In 1856, she came to London, and performed at the Lyceum Theatre such characters as Mary Queen of Scots, Medea, etc., displaying in each high tragic power and rare knowledge of human nature. Her acting is simple and majestic, and she depends little on meretricious ornament or display of any sort. Her figure is tall and well rounded; she has an intelligent face, lit up with lustrous black eyes, and thrown out by a setting of hair, dark and abundant. Such is “the Ristori,” which is still her stage name, although in private circles she claims the title of an Italian marquise.