A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sedie, Delle-, Enrico
SEDIE, DELLE-, Enrico, baritone singer, son of Arcangelo Delle-Sedie, merchant of Leghorn, Italy, born 1826. In the year 1848 he volunteered in the army of Charles Albert of Piedmont, and fought against the Austrians in the war for Italian independence. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Curtatone but afterwards released, and at the close of the campaign of the following year retired from the army with the rank of lieutenant. Under the direction of his fellow-citizen, Orazio Galassi, he then devoted himself to the study of singing, and in 1851 made his début at Pistoia in Nabucco.
In 1854 he was engaged to perform Rigoletto at Florence: casting aside the traditional conception of Varesi, who had created the rôle at Venice, he adopted an entirely original rendering of the character, and at once asserted himself as an artist of high rank. From that time his position was secure; he appeared with unvarying success at Rome, Milan, Vienna, Paris, and London, and though possessed of so little voice as to gain the sobriquet of Il baritono senza voce, he made up by dramatic accent and purity of style for the shortcomings of nature. In 1867, at the earnest request of Auber, he accepted a professorship at the Conservatoire of Paris on the most advantageous terms hitherto offered. Under him a commission was appointed for the entire remodelling of that institution, but the death of Auber, and the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, compelled the government to abandon their intention. In 1874 he published a large work upon the art of singing and musical declamation, under the title of L'Art Lyrique, of which a lengthy critical notice appeared in the 'Westminster Review' of July 1876.
Signor Delle-Sedie is a Cavaliere of the Order of the Crown of Italy, for his military services in the campaigns of 1848, 1849; Cavaliere of the order of SS. Maurizio and Lazzaro; and member of many societies and academies both of Italy and France. He has now retired from the stage, lives in Paris, and devotes himself entirely to the teaching of his art.