In November 1882, Marcella Sembrich stayed with us, one of the great international sopranos of the late nineteenth century.
Born in the Polish region of Galicia, Sembrich had an exceptional musical training: besides being a singer, she had studied piano and violin. Her extraordinary technical command and her coloratura voice led her to triumph in the leading European theatres and, just a few months after her stay in Madrid, she would become one of the stars of the inaugural season of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
On arriving at the Hotel de la Paz, she chose the same rooms on the main floor that Adelina Patti had occupied two years earlier. The press described those quarters as a suite of sumptuous drawing rooms, luxuriously furnished and reserved for the most distinguished guests.
On 20 November, Sembrich hosted a private banquet there followed by a concert that went on late into the night. Among her guests were the singer Elena Sanz, the cellist David Popper, the violinist Émile Sauret, the music publisher Benito Zozaya and the critic Antonio Peña y Goñi.
For a few hours, that gathering turned the rooms of the Hotel de la Paz into one of the most exclusive musical salons in Madrid.
