#Tu verdi opera crossword plus#

‘But Maestro, the critics will kill us.’ ‘Nonsense,’ he said, ‘no one will know.’ And they didn’t. He had the high line, I had the low, so Maestro had us switch the lines.

At a certain point in the “Traviata” Act I duet, my tenor, Jan Peerce, couldn’t sing the mezza voce Maestro wanted. “Let me tell you a story few people know or realize. The following December, she returned to sing Violetta for him in the historic “Traviata” broadcast.

On the spur of the moment, as she knocked on the door, she sang the same phrase Mimi sings at her entrance, when she knocks at the door of the Bohemians’ garret: “ Scusi !'-'Excuse me.”Īlbanese went through the entire part with Arturo Toscanini accompanying her at the piano. She would sing this, her most often-performed role, 92 times at the house and on tour.Īt the beginning of 1946, Walter Toscanini, the maestro’s son, called her in New York and asked her to audition for his father in the part of Mimi for a “Boheme” to be broadcast at the end of February. Miss Albanese’s is one of the great ones.”

with skill, with art, with conviction, with beauty, and with all loveliness. I use the word create for her achievement, because that is what she really did. She used her limpid voice, her delicate person, and her excellent musicianship to equal effect in creating the character Violetta. she was as deeply touching in her gaiety as in her heartbreaks. Albanese was engaged for the ’39-40 season and decided to risk it. When war broke out, most of the Italian singers were afraid to come to New York. Her reputation was growing outside Italy. In the meantime, she sang Liu in “Turandot” for the Coronation performances at Covent Garden in London in 1937. The great Italian tenor told Edward Johnson, the director of the Metropolitan, about this brilliant young girl. She sang with Gigli for the first time, at La Scala in “La Boheme.” He was so impressed that he insisted she be engaged for his recording of the opera. Adjustment meant achieving transparency in the supporting sound from the pit, the simple knowledge that a wind instrument using a round tone is enough to eat up even a substantial voice.”ġ935 was a crucial year for her future career. “The ability of a conductor to realize the difference between an orchestral forte for a light voice, like Tito Schipa’s, as opposed to the stentorian one of a (Giacomo) Lauri-Volpi. That beautiful smile of Tullio Serafin looking up at you from the pit, supporting you, encouraging you.”

#Tu verdi opera crossword plus#

That, plus my technique, is why I could do some of the parts I did. “All the conductors in my day could adjust to the voices in a cast. I’m not sure Beniamino Gigli and Schipa could. But the sound! Where is the qualita ? I don’t know if I could do it today. “I had timing and luck in my career, but most important, I had qualita. At her La Scala debut she sang Sophie in “Werther” opposite Tito Schipa and Gianna Pederzini. Soon, the young soprano found herself engaged all over Italy. She appeared on that occasion against the advice of the conductor, Antonino Votto, who thought she was too young for the part. The locale was the often-ferocious opera town of Parma. She found a good teacher and, almost as important, a mentor in Rosetta Pampanini, who taught her tricks of resting the voice during performance, which enabled her, even at the early stages of her career, to take on relatively heavy parts such as Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, even Maddalena in “Andrea Chenier.” She entered a competition in Bologna (her initial offering was an aria from Mascagni’s “Iris”) and won.Īlbanese made her debut 50 years ago in what probably was to become her most famous role, Butterfly. That does not deny the hard work and study she constantly applied, but recognition was quick and virtually universal. Things were relatively easy for Albanese at the beginning. One can always tell when she is exercised on a subject, for she switches to Italian, the vowels glowing and the consonants snapping, much as they did when she sang. She also looks at least 15 years younger than she is. Reminiscing over lunch recently at her club on Manhattan’s East Side, the diva looks beautiful and as trim as she ever was on stage. She more than holds her own in a cast that includes Barbara Cook, Lee Remick, Carol Burnett and Elaine Stritch. The audience, filled with show-business personalities, gives Albanese an ovation.