Julius Radichi

Giulio Radicchi (also Julius Radichi) was an Italian-born operatic tenor and vocal pedagogue who later worked in the Austrian sphere; he is especially known as the first performer of the role of Florestan in the final 1814 version of Beethoven’s Fidelio. His operatic career included engagements in Milan (La Scala), Genoa, Florence and other Italian cities in the 1790s, and from 1808 until 1819 (with a later period until 1829) he sang at the Vienna Court Opera. Besides opera, he was celebrated for concert and oratorio singing, especially in works such as Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons. After retiring from the stage in 1829, he devoted himself to teaching. His students included influential singers such as Wilhelmine Schröder‑Devrient, to whom he imparted vocal technique and interpretive skill.

Born in 1763 and dying in Vienna on 16 September 1846, he was reportedly the son of the composer and conductor Giuseppe Radicchi, kapellmeister in Spoleto and Urbino. In addition to his early work in Milan, he also appeared in Urbino, Senigallia, Ravenna, Novara, Varese, Trieste and Ljubljana. His 1807 debut in Prague, for which he learned German, further expanded his career in the German-speaking world.

Radicchi was also noted for having sung the role of Florestan in Paër’s Leonore, premiered in 1809 at the Theater am Kärntnertor. His farewell concert took place on 23 March 1829, after which he continued his influential pedagogical activities. He later edited and expanded Ferdinando Bozzi’s Italian–German conversation book, which saw multiple editions during the 1830s and 1840s.

In his final years he lived at Franziskanerplatz No. 911 in Vienna, where he died of old age at 83.

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