Blanche Marchesi

Blanche Marchesi (4 April 1863 – 15 December 1940) was a French mezzo-soprano and voice teacher best known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner.

As a voice teacher, Marchesi instructed notable singers, including British contraltos Muriel Brunskill and Astra Desmond.

[6] Her father was a key figure in the Italian Revolution of 1848 initiating the uprising at the Palazzo Raimondi in Milan.

Marchesi was first married to Baron Alexander Popper von Podhragy, Vienna, with whom she had three sons: Leopold, Fritz and Ernst.

Sadly, Jérôme was murdered by the National Socialists in February 1945, while serving as a Resistance and French intelligence officer in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.