She was born in
Cividale del Friuli, the daughter of strolling players and appeared as a child on the stage. At fourteen she made her first success as
Francesca da Rimini in
Silvio Pellico's tragedy. At eighteen she was playing
Mary Stuart in an Italian version of
Friedrich Schiller's play of the same name. She had been a member of the
Sardinian company and also of the
Ducal company at
Parma for some years before her marriage to the
marchese Giuliano Capranica del Grillo. After a short retirement for her career, she returned to the stage and played regularly in
Turin and the provinces.
It was not until 1855 that she paid her first professional visit to
Paris, where the part of
Francesca was chosen for her début. In this she was rather coldly received, but she took Paris by storm in the title role of
Alfieri's Myrrha. Furious partisanship was aroused by the appearance of a rival to the great
Rachel. Paris was divided into two camps of opinion. Humble playgoers fought at gallery doors over the merits of their respective favourites. The two famous women never actually met, but the French actress seems to have been convinced that Ristori had no ill feelings towards her, only admiration and respect.
A tour in other countries was followed (1856) by a fresh visit to Paris, when Ristori appeared in
Montanelli's Italian translation of
Legouvé's Medea. She repeated her success in this in
London. In 1857 she visited
Madrid, playing in Spanish to enthusiastic audiences, and in 1866 she paid the first of four visits to the
United States, where she won much applause, particularly in
Paolo Giacometti's Elisabeth, an Italian study of the English sovereign. She finally retired from professional life in 1885, and died on the
9 October 1906 in Rome. She left a son, the
marchese Giorgio Capranica del Grillo.
Her publication,
Studies and Memoirs (1888), provides a lively account of an interesting career, and is particularly valuable for the chapters devoted to the psychological explanation of the characters of
Mary Stuart,
Elizabeth,
Myrrha,
Phaedra and
Lady Macbeth, in her interpretation of which, Ristori combined high dramatic instinct with the keenest and most critical intellectual study.
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