Piccolomini, Marietta. (1834-1899) Lithograph Portrait by Grozzelin24. 5 X 33 cm. Piccolomini was the first soprano to achieve international success as Violetta and many contemporaries noted the emotional impact of her portrayals of this and other roles. One London critic wrote: We cannot attempt to describe it, made up as it is of a thousand minute traits of nature and feeling which went at once to the heart of every one. In his memoirs, Luigi Arditi commented that Piccolominis attraction lay not so much in her