Théatre-Italiens

The following paragraph is taken from Elizabeth Anne McCauley's A.A.E.Disdéri and the Carte de Visite Portrait Photograph (1985):

‘A seated portrait of Ristori in Maria Stuarda also appears in a composite print of the members of the Théatre-Italiens which was sold by Disdéri in 1862. The idea of grouping the members of a particular theatre or the stars of a particular play on a single carte appears to have originated with Disdéri. Individual portraits of the actors [sic] Alboni, Tamberlinck, Borghi-Mamo, and others had appeared with biographies in the Galerie; a composite photograph exploited them a second time, with the advantage to the buyer of purchasing twelve portraits for the price of one. Here Disdéri cropped the portraits into an oval format borrowed from miniature painting and alternated male and female performers; he could not resist including his own bald profile in the lower right corner.’

In fact, only one theatrical celebrity is featured on this carte, Adelaide Ristori, at the upper left corner of the composition. All the other sitters seen here are opera singers, namely: Enrico Tamberlinck, Marietta Alboni, Italo Gardoni, Giulia Grisi, Giovanni Mario, Adelaide Borghi-Mamo, Carlo Beaucardé, Rosine Penco, Graziani (probably the baritone Francesco or possibly his brother, the tenor Lodovico), Constance Nantier-Didiée and Gian Francesco Angelini.