Eva Dell'Acqua

Eva Dell’Acqua (also Dall’Acqua, 28 January 1856, Schaerbeek12 February 1930, Ixelles) was a Belgian singer and composer of Italian ancestry. She wrote fifteen operas and operettas, as well as orchestral works, pieces for chamber orchestra, and other works for piano and solo voice. Dell’Acqua’s song “Villanelle” for coloratura soprano has been widely performed and recorded, and has appeared on film soundtracks including Get Hep to Love (1942) and I Married an Angel (1942). Biography Eva Dell’Acqua was born in 1856 in Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of the Italian painter Cesare Dell’Acqua and his wife Carolina van der Elst. Dell’Acqua had a younger sister, Aline, born July 18th, 1857. Dell’Acqua’s name does not appear in documents from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, suggesting that her formal music education took place at home through private instruction. Given her father’s connections within Brussels’ artistic circles, she may have had access to influential musicians in the city, though no specific teacher has been definitively identified. Dell’Acqua composed in the Romantic style and produced orchestral works, pieces for chamber orchestra, and other works for pia