Mariano Padilla y Ramos

Francisco de Asís Mariano del Carmen Marco Padilla y Ramos;[1] 18 July 1843 – 21 November 1906),[2] known as Mariano Padilla y Ramos, was a Spanish operatic baritone who excelled in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Mariano Padilla y Ramos (photograph by Hansen, Schou & Weller)

Biography

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Padilla was born in Murcia, the son of city attorney Antonio Marco Padilla and Manuela Ramos Alba from Beniel. He had five brothers.[3]

He studied under Teodulo Mabellini in Florence and appeared in many European countries, including England, where he sang in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Dinorah in 1881. He appeared at Covent Garden in 1887. He appeared in Prague that year in the centenary performance of Don Giovanni.

He is perhaps best remembered as the man whom the Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt married, to the great surprise of her unofficial fiancé, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Artôt had been performing in Russia in 1868, where she met and fell in love with Tchaikovsky. Her feelings were reciprocated, and they discussed marriage, although they were never formally engaged. Nevertheless, there was an understanding of sorts between them. She had to continue on her touring schedule and left for Warsaw, but they planned to meet again at her estate near Paris in the summer of 1869.

However, without any warning or communication with Tchaikovsky (as the social conventions of the time would have demanded), Artôt married Padilla y Ramos - they were members of the same opera company - although she had earlier ridiculed him to Tchaikovsky, and he was seven years her junior (Tchaikovsky himself was five years her junior). The marriage occurred on 15 September 1869, either in Sèvres[4][5] or Warsaw. [6][7][8][9]

Their daughter, the soprano Lola Artôt de Padilla, also became a noted opera singer.

Mariano Padilla y Ramos died in Paris in November 1906, aged 63, just four months before Désirée Artôt died.

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References

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  1. ^ Francisco De Asís Mariano Del Carmen Marco; born and baptized 18 July 1843; son of Antonio Marco and Manuela Ramos; paternal grandson of Francisco Marco and Antonia Padilla; maternal grandson of Francisco Ramos and Margarita de Alba; baptized in San Juan parish, Murcia, Spain; Spain, Select Baptisms, 1502-1940
  2. ^ Mariano Pérez Gutiérrez (1985). Diccionario de la música y los músicos (in Spanish). Ediciones Akal. p. 9. ISBN 978-84-7090-138-6. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  3. ^ Benavente, José Cano (1986). Murcianos de otro tiempo: apuntes biográficos (in Spanish). Academia Alfonso X el Sabio. p. 258. ISBN 9788400061555. Retrieved 3 August 2017. Su padre, Antonio Marco Padilla, Procurador de los Tribunales, ejerciente en esta ciudad, y la madre Manuela Ramos Alba, de Beniel. Tuvo Mariano cinco hermanos
  4. ^ Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed. (1954)
  5. ^ Rupert Hughes, The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Vol. 2
  6. ^ Tchaikovsky Research
  7. ^ "Allentown Symphony Orchestra". Archived from the original on 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
  8. ^ John Warrack, Tchaikovsky
  9. ^ Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man