Eugenia Scarpa

{{Short description|Italian soprano, pianist, and composer}}

Eugenia Scarpa (12 May 1886 – 7 August 1961){{Cite web |title=Geni Sadero – Relationships – MusicBrainz |url=https://musicbrainz.org/artist/b13bc5cb-2b34-42dc-b069-69d2d5673709/relationships |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=musicbrainz.org}} was a composer, singer, and teacher from an Italian family who is best known by her pseudonym, Geni Sadero. She composed her own songs and arranged many Italian folk songs for voice and piano. Her students included soprano Marian Anderson.{{Cite web |title=ccm :: Scarpa, Eugenia Scarpa – Sadero, Geni Sadero |url=http://composers-classical-music.com/s/ScarpaEugenia-SaderoGeni.htm |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=composers-classical-music.com}}{{Cite book |last=Keiler |first=Allan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVi0eYa8GZgC&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=PA163 |title=Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey |date=2002 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-07067-9 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Wier |first=Albert E. |title=Macmillan Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians |publisher=MacMillan Company |year=1938 |location=New York |pages=1622}}

Conflicting sources{{Cite web |last=Godor |first=Daniele |date=2017-01-19 |title=Tenors & Italian Art Song – Focus Features |url=https://www.operavivra.com/features/focusfeatures/tenors-italian-art-song/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Opera Vivrà |language=en-US}} list Scarpa's birthplace as Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey){{Cite web |title=Drama Musica {{!}} Homage |url=http://www.drama-musica.com/Homage_sleevenotes.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=www.drama-musica.com}} or Trieste, Italy. Her father was a military commander in Trieste. Scarpa studied piano with Oscar Taverna. She debuted as an opera singer at Teatro Lirico in Milan in 1914. Five years later, she moved to Paris, where she sang and lectured about Italian folk songs. During World War I, Scarpa sang to entertain soldiers and also collected folk songs from them, which she later arranged for voice and piano.{{Cite book |last=Schwerké |first=Irving |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FV9vK5T5D4C&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=PA142 |title=Kings Jazz and David |date=1927 |publisher=Priv. print. for the author by Les Presses, modernes |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Wannamaker |first=Olin Dantzler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOzSAAAAMAAJ&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=PA91 |title=With Italy in Her Final War of Liberation: A Story of the "Y" on the Italian Front |date=1923 |publisher=Fleming H. Revell Company |language=en}} In 1920, she gave at least one well-reviewed vocal recital in England, with a program of Italian folk songs.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pl9JAAAAMAAJ&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=PA382 |title=Anglo-Italian Review |date=1920 |publisher=Constable and Company |language=en}} Scarpa visited the tenor Enrico Caruso shortly before his death in 1921.{{Cite book |last=Service |first=Thomas Dreier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-CPpoffB5TkC&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=PA2 |title=The Treasure Chest |date=1922 |publisher=Charles Francis Press |language=en}} Composer Fernando Liuzzi dedicated a group of his folk song settings to her in the mid 1920s.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4gAWAAAAIAAJ&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=PA114 |title=The Sackbut |date=1926 |publisher=Curwen. |language=en}} In 1927 she returned to Trieste, and later taught at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Scarpa sang for at least one recording by RCA Victor.{{Cite web |title=Geni Sadero |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/109460/Sadero_Geni |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings}} She appeared in the films Affairs of Maupassant {{Cite web |title=Geni Sadero |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1258382/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=IMDb |language=en-US}} and La Canzone dell'Amore (The Song of Love 1930).{{Cite web |title=Music |url=https://www.altothemovie.com/music.html |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Alto the Movie |language=en}} Her song "Fa la Nana Bambin" was used in the soundtrack of the film Två Människor.{{Cite web |title=Två människor (1945) – SFdb |url=https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/en/item/?type=film&itemid=4099 |access-date=2023-05-09 |language=en}} Scarpa's songs were performed and recorded by Marian Anderson, Victoria de Los Angeles, Erno Balogh, Dusolina Giannini, Tito Gobbi, Toti dal Monte, Gianna Pederzini, the Phillips Jenkins Singers, Rosa Ponselle, Mafalda Napolitana le Quaration, Tito Schipa, Ferruccio Tagliavini and Gil Valeriano.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PapytQF_mv8C&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=PA149 |title=The Musical Leader |date=1925 |publisher=J. French Demerath and E. French Smith |language=en}}

Scarpa's music was published by Allans Music, Carish e Janichen, Casa Musicale Francesco Bongiovanni, G. Schirmer Inc. and Società Anonima Notari.{{Cite journal |last=Sadero |first=Geni |title=UR Research – University of Rochester |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1802/14399 |access-date=8 May 2023 |website=UR Research|date=1921 |hdl=1802/14399 }}{{Cite book |last=Office |first=Library of Congress Copyright |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7iwhAQAAIAAJ&dq=Geni+Sadero&pg=RA2-PA170 |title=Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series |date=1952 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Stewart-Green |first=Miriam |title=Women composers : a checklist of works for the solo voice |date=1980 |publisher=G.K. Hall |isbn=0-8161-8498-4 |location=Boston, Mass. |pages=62 |oclc=6815939}} Her works include: