Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi (November 2, 1886 – July 18, 1974) was a French operatic soprano from Paris. Her brother Marcel Ciampi was a pianist, and she was the niece of Théodore Ritter. She first trained as a pianist and began taking singing lessons at age 16 with her parents: her Italian father, tenor Enzo Ciampi-Cellai, and her French mother, Cécile Ritter-Ciampi.

She made her stage debut in 1917 as Violetta in La Traviata, and two years later joined Opéra-Comique, where she became famous for Mozart roles. Most of her work was in France, but she sang at the Salzburg Festival in 1932 in Mozart roles as well. She was known as a light lyric soprano with good technique, able to reach high notes easily, and was sometimes compared to Adelina Patti.

She made many recordings between 1923 and 1929, mostly arias from different works, but she did not record full operas. She sang the title role in Esclarmonde at the Opéra Garnier during a revival from 1931 to 1934. Her career faded after World War II, with her last stage engagement in 1949 in Reynaldo Hahn's operetta Le oui des jeunes filles. She died in 1974.