Marietta Zanfretta (Madame Siegrist) (31 August 1832 – 8 February 1898) was an Italian tightrope dancer who found success in the United States. One of the greatest female tight-rope dancers in the world, she was known for performing en pointe on the tightrope, a rare feat.
Early life
She was born as Marie Catherine Charlotte Marietta Zanfretta in 1832 in Venice in Italy into a family of tightrope performers and acrobats in northern Italy. The oldest of eleven children, her parents were Jeanne Giovanna née Catania (1814–1875) and Barthélémy Bartholomé Bartholoméo Zanfretta (1809–1893), an acrobat. As a child she had received tightrope, acrobatic and ballet training, performing with her parents and siblings in circuses in Europe including in Franconi's Theatre in Paris.
In 1852 she was in the United States where she appeared as a featured rider with E. F. and J. Mabie's Circus before performing for Den Stone's Circus in 1854. In about 1855 the Zanfettta family were hired as part of the troupe of performers of Antoine Ravel (1812-1872) with whom Marietta Zanfretta also did solo and ensemble dancing. She quickly became popular with audiences because of her beauty, charm and skill on the tightrope on which she performed en pointe in addition to doing pirouettes and somersaults. For the Ravel Troupe the Zanfrettas played 300 performances at Niblo's Garden in New York during 1857–59. As her father's joints began to stiffen with age, and finding himself unable to perform, he returned to Paris where, because of his physique, he became an artists' model.
Performing career
After her booking with Ravel ended Zanfretta appeared in variety and theatres where she performed her signature tightrope descent. She toured the United States with the Caron and Ravel troupes which included the trapeze artists François and Auguste Siegrist and appeared at The Boston Theatre in Boston (1858). In that year she had a severe fall from which she soon recovered and resumed performing. With the Zanfretta Troupe she also performed in a number of circuses across the United States including in an equestrian act in which she danced and balanced on the back of a horse as it circled the ring. She also appeared with her brothers, with the clown Alexander Zanfretta (1830-1899) regularly appearing on playbills with her.
Of her performance at The Boston Theatre in Boston in 1858 Ballou's Pictorial reported: MARIETTA ZANFRETTA, THE CELEBRATED TIGHT-ROPE DANCER
The design given on this page was sketched for us by Mr. Champney, from one of the proscenium boxes of the Boston Theatre, during the performance of Marietta Zanfretta, now attached to the Ravel Troupe, and one of the greatest female tight-rope dancers in the world. La Zanfretta is very young–only twenty-one– and very pretty, with those black, lustrous Italian eyes that pierce like an arrow. Her form is exquisitely symmetrical, and while the exercises of her speciality have strengthened her muscles, they have not impaired its grace. Her movements are as lithe as those of a panther. She never uses the balance-pole, but poises herself on the rope without any adventitious aid.
She performs the same feats on the corde tendue, which we think surprising in a dancer on the firm floor. She runs backwards and forwards, turning with incredible rapidity, dances on the rope, stands on the point of one toe, descends the angle of the rope into the parterre, and re-ascends unfaltering and fearless. Indeed her doings are unexampled. She would, like Madame Saqui, have ascended from the stage to the gallery, had she been permitted by the management.
Zanfretta is a Venetian by birth. Her parents pursued the same line, and her earliest steps were on the rope. It is thus only that such confidence, ease and grace could have been attained. The various great theatres of continental Europe have been the scenes of her ambition and triumphant displays, and she was the star of Franconi's, in Paris. She debuted in this country at Niblo's, and created the greatest enthusiasm by her performances. Her first appearance in Boston was a complete triumph. The first sight of her performances creates an uneasy sensation of extreme danger, but her perfect aplomb and self-possession soon banish that feeling, and your anxiety is lost in admiration of the witching and wonderful display.
Undoubtedly the extraordinary skill of Zanfretta is owing partly to her coming of a race of rope-dancers, for aptitude for particular exercises is unquestionably transmissible, and it is very possible to be "to the manor born."