Lives of Shakespearian Actors

Part eight of this ever-popular series sees the focus shift to nineteenth-century European actors: Tommaso Salvini, Ernesto Rossi and Charles Fechter.

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Part eight of this ever-popular series sees the focus shift to nineteenth-century European actors. Tommaso Salvini was so confident in his talents as an actor that he was once quoted as saying, "I can make an audience weep by reading them a menu." Born in Milan in 1829, he went on to act frequently in England, and made five visits to America, his first in 1873 and his last in 1889. Salvini's acting in Othello - to the Iago of Edwin Booth - greatly inspired the young Russian actor Constantin Stanislavski, who saw Salvini perform in Moscow in 1882 and who would, himself, go on to become one of the most important practitioners in the history of theatre. Stanislavski wrote that Salvini was the "finest representative" of his own approach to acting. Ernesto Rossi was born in Livorno to a middle class family and was intending to study at the university there when he substituted for an actor in the Calloud theatre company who had become ill. After his successful performance, he stayed with the company until it was dissolved in 1848. In 1852 he joined the Reale Sarda theatre company and became its leading actor.
Rossi went on to perform throughout Europe, including London, Vienna, Lisbon, and Moscow. He was particularly admired for his roles as Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Hamlet. Rossi also wrote several plays, the first of which, Adele, premiered with Adelaide Ristori in the title role. Charles Fechter originally had ambitions to be a sculptor, and did not begin acting in English until 1860. On 20 March 1861, he attempted Hamlet for the first time. The result was an extraordinary triumph, the play running for 115 nights. This was followed by Othello, in which he played alternately the Moor and Iago. The last three years of his life were spent in seclusion on a farm which he had bought at Rockland Centre, near Quakertown, Pennsylvania, where he died. A bust of the actor is in the Garrick Club, London.