Trebelli, ZELIA

Trebelli, ZELIA, opera-singer, was born of German parents called Gilbert at Paris in 1838, and made her début at Madrid under the name of Trebelli (? Gillebert transposed) in 1859. The next year she entered on a series of triumphs at Berlin, and in 1862 passed to London, where her success was also immediate. In the years that followed, marked by tours in Scandinavia, Russia, and the United States (1884), she held the position which she had at once assumed of the greatest mezzo-soprano of her day, winning applause equally on the stage or in the concert-room for her rich, brilliant voice and wonderful executive power, and for the marvellous range of expression that touched at one extremity an 'almost manly vigour' and at the other the most perfect womanly tenderness and delicacy. She died 18th August 1892.