Eva Dell'Acqua

Eva Dell'Acqua (also Dall'Acqua, 28 January 1856, Schaerbeek – 12 February 1930, Ixelles) was a Belgian singer and composer of Italian ancestry. She wrote fifteen operas and operettas, as well as orchestral works, pieces for chamber orchestra, and other works for piano and solo voice. Dell'Acqua's song "Villanelle" for coloratura soprano has been widely performed and recorded, and has appeared on film soundtracks including Get Hep to Love (1942) and I Married an Angel (1942).

Biography

Eva Dell'Acqua was born in 1856 in Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of the Italian painter Cesare Dell'Acqua and his wife Carolina van der Elst.^[1]

Dell'Acqua composed in the Romantic style and produced orchestral works, pieces for chamber orchestra, and other works for piano and solo voice, opera and stage.^[2][3] She mostly composed vocal works, including fifteen operas and operettas.^[3] Her work used 'characteristic dance rhythms'.^[3] Her earlier work was often performed privately at the time, in Brussels and Paris, although five works are recorded to have been performed widely in Belgium. Those five include the 1890 La ruse de Pierrette (translated as Pierrot the Liar), in which Dell'Acqua sang the title role of Pierrette.^[3][4]

Dell'Acqua's song "Villanelle" for coloratura soprano has been widely performed and recorded, and has appeared on film soundtracks including Get Hep to Love (1942) and I Married an Angel (1942).^[5][6] Dell'Acqua died on 12 February 1930 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium.^[3]

Works

Selected works of Dell'Acqua's include:

• "Villanelle" (1893)
• "La bachelette" (1896)
• "Le tambour battant" (1900)
• "Je donnerais" (1908)
• "Swallow's Waltz" (1909)
• "Chanson Provençale" (1912)
• "Le clavecin" (1917)
• "Pierrot the Liar" (1918)