Madama Europa was the nickname of Europa Rossi (fl. 1600), a soprano opera singer, the first Jewish opera singer to achieve widespread fame outside of the Jewish community.Don Harran, "Madama Europa, Jewish singer in late Renaissance Mantua", in Festa musicologica: essays in honor of George J. Buelow ed. Thomas J. Mathiesen Benito V. Rivera, George J. Buelow, 1995 p197Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry & Cheryl Tallan, The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E.to 1900 C.E., 2003
She was the sister of the Jewish violinist and composer Salamone Rossi who is known to have been employed at Mantua from 1587 to 1628.
Some scholars argued that she took her name from appearances in the mythical role of Europa in an intermezzo before 1600 at the court of the Dukes of Mantua.Eduard Birnbaum, Judith Cohen, Jewish musicians at the court of the Mantuan dukes (1542–1628) (1978) However, Newman points out that the name "Madama Europa" is listed already before 1600 among the salaried employees of the Mantuan court; he therefore assumes that Rossi's sister had already appeared as "Europa" in an earlier Intermezzo".Eduard Birnbaum, Judith Cohen, Jewish musicians at the court of the Mantuan dukes (1542–1628) (1978). Liza Malamut has recently proven that her name was indeed Europa.Liza Malamut, "Europa Rossi: A Question of Identity," Min-Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology 22 (2024): https://min-ad.org.il/min-ad/article/view/190/176.
She probably died with her brother in the War of the Mantuan Succession, when, following the fall of Mantua to the Austrian troops of the Holy Roman Empire, imperial soldiers sacked the Jewish ghetto.Shlomo Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977)
References