Marie Castello

Castello is best known for her collaboration with Richard Wagner in the 1850s. She was an Italian soprano, who had studied with Giuditta Pasta. She had been a successful singer in Italy from 1837 onwards, and there had been plans to bring her to Paris in 1841. Her long tenure in Vienna (1842–1847) was also marked.

In 1851 Castello was auditioned by Richard Wagner for the part of Isolde in his then unfinished opera Tristan and Isolde. She offered a powerful rendition of a section of the libretto text while sitting at the piano, to Wagner's great delight. However, a year later Wagner aborted work on the opera and abandoned Vienna, partly because he had failed to secure public funding. He will finish Tristan and Isolde only in 1859, and the opera it will be performed in Munich (1865).

After leaving Vienna, she performed in Pest (now Budapest), Leipzig, and Dresden. During her time in Dresden, she appeared at the inauguration of the Semperoper on 13 April 1841, as Norma. She then retired from public life for good.

Wagner was completely drawn to her, musically and emotionally, and their collaboration had been cordial and fruitful. Castello represented a return for him to proper Italian opera, and its influence can be seen in Tristan and Isolde.

Of Castello, who lived in Dresden, documents exist, including at this time she also reconciled with her husband, who left Gisela as a wonderful memory of her performances. Castello suffered from depression from 1865 onwards and retired from public life. The following 16 years were marked by a series of hospitalizations, from which she would no longer recover.