Mathilde Marchesi (1821-1913) studied with the famous exponent of bel canto Manuel Garcia the younger. She joined the Vienna conservatory in 1854, went to Paris in 1861, Cologne in 1865, back to Vienna in 1868, where Emma Wixom, later known as Emma Nevada showed up on her doorstep with the words: "I am an orphan; will you be my second mother?" Mathilde Marchesi was born Mathilde Graumann in Frankfurt-am-Main, and trained Calvé, Eames, Gerster, Melba, di Murska, and her own daughter Blanche. In 1881 she opened a school in Paris. According to Emma Eames, Madame Marchesi operated "the greatest school of her day." Eames called Madame Marchesi "the ideal Prussian drill master, a woman of much character and one to gain great ascendancy over her pupils. A thorough musician, she was an indefatigable worker. Her school was an example of discipline, order and organization. She herself, at her piano by nine in the morning every week day, was always perfectly and rather richly dressed and with never a hair out of place." Madame Marchesi's ideas can be found in the following works:

Eames, Emma. Some Memories and Reflections. New York: Arno Press, 1977. [reprint of 1927 edition]
Marchesi, Mathilde. Marchesi and Music: Passages from the Life of a Famous Singing-Teacher. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1897.
Marchesi, Mathilde."Correct Methods of Vocal Study." Pp. 159-60 in Anton Seidl, ed. The Music of the Modern World. Vol. 2: Music. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1893,

Mathilde (Graumann) Marchesi

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