Agostino Susini & Isabella Hinckley by Brady

AGOSTINO GIULIANO SUSINI & ISABELLA HINCKLEY

1825-1883 1840-1862
Italian Bass American Mezzo Soprano


Isabella Hinckley was one of the first Americans to win critical recognition as a serious operatic singer. Performing in a series of Italian operas staged in New York and Brooklyn in 1861 and 1862, Hinckley was acclaimed for her stirring renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hail Columbia”—both of which had been patriotically inserted in the librettos. Hinckley often sang the part of the page in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, a role that President-elect Abraham Lincoln saw her perform at New York’s Academy of Music on February 20, 1861.

In 1857 Hinckley made her Florence debut. Hinckley's opera debut was in Amsterdam in 1860 as Adalgisa in "Norma." In 1861 Hinckley made her New York debut as Lucia di Lammermoor at the Academy of Music. She was famous for her performances in "Il Trovatore," "Il Barbiere di Siviglia," and "Il Ballo in Maschera." In 1861 Hinckley married Augostino Susini , one of the great opera singers of the 1850s and 60s.

Susini made his American debut in 1854 in "Lucrezia Borgia" at the Castle Garden in New York. He starred for many opera seasons at the New York Academy of Music.

Both singers died tragically; she in childbirth at age 22 and he was run over by a carriage in London

iNFORMATION THANKS TO Bialystok-Stavenuiter