Alice Barbi

Alice Laura Barbi (1 June 1858 – 4 September 1948) was an Italian mezzo-soprano and violinist. She had a short, yet successful career as a concert performer. She was a close friend of Johannes Brahms.

Biography

Alice Barbi was born in Modena, Duchy of Modena and Reggio on 1 June 1858. In addition to singing, she performed as a violinist on occasion. Barbi spent considerable time abroad, traveling to Austria, Germany, England, and Russia.

Barbi found an ardent admirer in German composer Johannes Brahms and the pair were close friends in his final years.

Barbi's career was short. She retired from the stage on 21 December 1893 to marry Baron Boris von Wolf-Stomersee (1850–1917). Brahms provided piano accompaniment for her farewell concert's entire program. Barbi had two daughters, Alexandra (1894–1982), who became a psychoanalyst and married Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, and Olga (1896–1984), who married diplomat Augusto Biancheri Chiappori and was the mother of Boris Biancheri.

Following Stomersee's death in 1917, Barbi married Pietro della Torreta, the Italian Ambassador to Great Britain, in 1920.