Adelina Patti
Background information
Born	(1843-02-19)19 February 1843 Madrid, Spain
Died	27 September 1919(1919-09-27) (aged 76)
Genres	Opera, Traditional music
Occupations	Coloratura soprano
Years active	1859-1906
Labels	Gramophone and Typewriter Company

Adelina Patti (19 February 1843 – 27 September 1919) was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914. Along with her near contemporaries Jenny Lind and Thérèse Tietjens, Patti remains one of the most famous sopranos in history, owing to the purity and beauty of her lyrical voice and the unmatched quality of her bel canto technique.

The composer Giuseppe Verdi, writing in 1877, described her as being perhaps the finest singer who had ever lived and a "stupendous artist". (See J.F. Cone's biography Adelina Patti: Queen of Hearts; Amadeus Press, Portland, US, 1993.) Verdi's admiration for Patti's talent was shared by numerous music critics and social commentators of her era.

Biography[link]

She was born Adela Juana Maria Patti,^[1] in Madrid, the last child of tenor Salvatore Patti (1800–1869) and soprano Caterina Barilli (died 1870). Her Italian parents were working in Madrid, Spain, at the time of her birth. Because her father came from Sicily, Patti was born a subject of the King of the Two Sicilies. She later carried a French passport, as her first two husbands were French.

Her sisters Amalia and Carlotta Patti were also singers. Her brother Carlo Patti was a violinist who married actress Effie Germon. In her childhood, the family moved to New York City. Patti grew up in the Wakefield section of the Bronx,^[2] where her family's home is still standing. Patti sang professionally from childhood, and developed into a coloratura soprano with perfectly equalized vocal registers and a surprisingly warm, satiny tone. It is believed that Patti learned much of her singing technique from her brother-in-law Maurice Strakosch, who was a musician and impresario. Later in life Patti, like many famous singers with sizable egos, claimed that she was entirely self-taught.

Vocal development[link]

Adelina Patti made her operatic debut at age 16 on 24 November 1859 in the title role of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Academy of Music, New York.^[1] On 24 August 1860, she and Emma Albani were soloists in the world premiere of Charles Wugk Sabatier's Cantata in Montreal which was performed in honour of the visit of the Prince of Wales. In 1861, at the age of 18, she was invited to Covent Garden, to execute the role of Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula.^[1] She had such remarkable success at Covent Garden that season, she bought a house in Clapham and, using London as a base, went on to conquer the European continent, performing Amina in Paris and Vienna in subsequent years with equal success.

Then, in 1862, during an American tour, she sang John Howard Payne's Home, Sweet Home at the White House for the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and his wife, Mary Lincoln. The Lincolns were mourning their son Willie, who had died of typhoid. Moved to tears, the Lincolns requested an encore of the song. Henceforth, it would become associated with Adelina Patti, and she performed it many times as a bonus item at the end of recitals and concerts.

Portrait by Franz Winterhalter (1862)

Patti's career was one of success after success. She sang not only in England and the United States, but also as far afield in mainland Europe as Russia, and in South America as well, inspiring audience frenzy and critical superlatives wherever she went. Her girlish good looks gave her an appealing stage presence, which added to her celebrity status.

During the 1860s, Patti possessed a sweet, high-lying voice of birdlike purity and remarkable flexibility which was ideal for such parts as Zerlina, Lucia and Amina; but, as Verdi noted in 1878, her lower notes gained fullness and beauty when she grew older, enabling her to excel in weightier fare. Patti, however, turned into a conservative singer in the final phase of her operatic and concert career. She knew what suited her aging voice to perfection and she stuck to it. Typically, her recital programs during the 1890s featured an array of familiar, often sentimental, not-too-demanding popular tunes of the day, which were sure to appeal to her adoring fans.

But during her mature prime in the 1870s and '80s, Patti had been a more enterprising singer, proving to be an effective actress in those lyric roles that required the summoning forth of deep emotions, such as Gilda in Rigoletto, Leonora in Il trovatore, the title part in Semiramide, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Violetta in La traviata. She also had been prepared to tackle quite dramatic parts in operas like L'Africaine, Les Huguenots and even Aida. She never attempted to sing any verismo parts, however, because these became popular only in the twilight of her career, during the final decade of the 19th century.

Many years earlier, Patti had experienced an amusing encounter in Paris with the bel canto-opera composer Gioachino Rossini, who was a staunch upholder of traditional Italian singing values. It is related that when Patti's mentor (and brother-in-law), Strakosch, presented her to Rossini at one of his fashionable receptions during the 1860s, she was prevailed upon to sing "Una voce poco fa", from Rossini's The Barber of Seville—with embellishments added by Strakosch to show off the soprano's voice. "What composition was that?", asked the prickly Rossini. "Why, maestro, your own" replied Strakosch. "Oh no, that is not my composition, that is Strakoschonnerie", Rossini retorted. ('Cochonnerie' is a strong French idiom indicating "garbage" and literally meaning "that which is characteristic of or fit for pigs.")^[3]

Financial acumen and retirement[link]

In her prime, Patti demanded to be paid $5000 a night, in gold, before the performance. Her contracts stipulated that her name be top-billed and printed larger than any other name in the cast. Her contracts also insisted that while she was "free to attend all rehearsals, she was not obligated to attend any".

In his memoirs, the famous opera promoter "Colonel" Mapleson recalled Patti's stubborn personality and sharp business sense. She reportedly had a parrot whom she had trained to shriek, "CASH! CASH!" whenever Mapleson walked in the room. Patti enjoyed the trappings of fame and wealth but she was not profligate with her earnings, especially after losing a large proportion of her assets as a result of the break-up of her first marriage (see below). She invested wisely large sums of money and unlike some of her extravagant former colleagues, such as the star tenor Giovanni Mario, who died in penury, she saw out her days amid luxurious surroundings.

Patti caricatured by the French artist André Gill (1840-1885).

In 1893, Patti created the title role of Gabriella in a now-forgotten opera by Emilio Pizzi at its world premiere in Boston. Patti had commissioned Pizzi to write the opera for her.

Ten years later, she undertook one final singing tour of the United States; however, it turned out to be a critical, financial and personal failure, owing to the deterioration of her voice through age and wear and tear. From then on she restricted herself to the occasional concert here or there, or to private performances mounted at a little theater she had built in her impressive residence, Craig-y-Nos Castle in Wales. She last sang in public in October 1914, taking part in a Red Cross concert at London's Royal Albert Hall that had been organized to aid victims of World War I. She lived long enough to see the war end, dying in 1919 of natural causes.

Recordings[link]

Patti cut more than 30 gramophone recordings of songs and operatic arias (some of them duplicates) — plus one spoken voice recording (a New Year's greeting to her third husband, which she intended him to keep as a memento) — at her Welsh home in 1905 and 1906.^[4] By then she was aged in her 60s, with her voice well past its prime after a busy operatic career stretching all the way back to 1859.

Nonetheless, the limpid purity of her tone and the smoothness of her legato line remained uniquely impressive, compensating to some extent for the weakening of her breath control.^[1] The records also display a lively singing personality as well as a surprisingly strong chest voice and a mellow timbre. Her trill remains wonderfully fluent and accurate and her diction is excellent. Overall her discs have a charm and musicality that give us a hint of why, at her peak, she commanded $5,000 a night.

Patti's recorded legacy included a number of songs and arias from the following operas: Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Faust, Martha, Norma, Mignon and La sonnambula.

The records were produced by the Gramophone & Typewriter Company (the foreunner of HMV). Patti's piano accompanist, Landon Ronald, wrote thus of his first recording session with the diva, "When the little (gramophone) trumpet gave forth the beautiful tones, she went into ecstasies! She threw kisses into the trumpet and kept on saying, 'Ah! Mon Dieu! Maintenant je comprends pourquoi je suis Patti! Oh oui! Quelle voix! Quelle artiste! Je comprends tout!' [Ah! My Lord! Now I understand why I am Patti! Oh yes! What a voice! What an artist! I understand everything!] Her enthusiasm was so naïve and genuine that the fact that she was praising her own voice seemed to us all to be right and proper."

Thirty-two Patti recordings were reissued on CD in 1998 by Marston Records (catalogue number 52011-2).

Personal life[link]

Adelina Patti

Patti's personal life was not as successful as her professional life but it was not as disastrous as that of many operatic singers. She is thought by some to have had a dalliance with the tenor Mario, who is said to have bragged at Patti's first wedding that he had already "made love to her many times".^{[citation needed]}

Engaged as a minor to Henri de Lossy, Baron of Ville,^[5] Patti wed three times: first, in 1868, to Henri de Roger de Cahusac, Marquess of Caux (1826–1889). The marriage soon collapsed; both had affairs and de Caux was granted a legal separation in 1877 and divorced in 1885. The union was dissolved with bitterness and cost her half her fortune.

She then lived with the French tenor Ernesto Nicolini (1834–1898) for many years until, following her divorce from Caux, she was able to marry him in 1886. That marriage lasted until his death and was seemingly happy, but Nicolini cut Patti out of his will, suggesting some tension in the last years.

Patti's last marriage, in 1899, was to Baron Rolf Cederström (1870–1947), a priggish, but handsome, Swedish aristocrat many years her junior. The Baron severely curtailed Patti's social life. He cut down her domestic staff from 40 to 18, but gave her the devotion and flattery that she needed, becoming her sole legatee. After her death, he married a much younger woman. Their only daughter, Brita Yvonne Cederström (born 1924), ended up as Patti's sole heir. Patti had no children, but was close to her nieces and nephews. The Tony Award-winning Broadway actress and singer Patti LuPone is a great-grand niece and namesake. Drummer Scott Devours is her 3rd great nephew.

In her retirement, Patti, now officially Baroness Cederström, settled in the Swansea valley in south Wales, where she purchased Craig-y-Nos Castle.^[6] There she had her own private theatre, a miniature version of the one at Bayreuth,^[7] and made her gramophone recordings.

Patti also funded the substantial station building at Craig y Nos/Penwyllt on the Neath and Brecon Railway.^[8] In 1918, she presented the Winter Garden building from her Craig-y-Nos estate to the city of Swansea. It was re-erected and renamed the Patti Pavilion. She died at Craig-y-Nos and eight months later was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris to be close to her favourite composer Rossini in accordance with the wishes in her will.

Voice[link]

Adelina Patti had a warm, crystalline, and very agile high soprano voice.^[9] Her vocal emission was of perfect equality and her vocal range was wide, from low C to high F (C₄ - F₆).^[9] Regarding her technique, critic Rodolfo Celletti said, "Her voice was a technical marvel. The staccatos were marvels of accuracy, even in the trickiest intervals, her legato was impressively smooth and pure; she connects the voice from note to note, phrase to phrase, lifting and gliding with an exceptional virtuosity. Her chromatic scale was deliciously sweet, and her trill was wonderful and solid."^[10]

Citations and homages[link]

Adelina Patti is evoked in numerous works of literature and music among which are:

• La Vie parisienne by Jacques Offenbach, book by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, (1866):

"Je veux, moi, dans la capitale

Voir les divas qui font fureur

Voir la Patti dans Don Pasquale

Et Thérésa dans le Sapeur"

• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Nana by Émile Zola
• Boroña by Leopoldo Alas
• The Village in the Treetops by Jules Verne

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Cone, Frederick (2003). Adelina Patti: Queen of Hearts. New York: Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-931340-60-8. 
• Klein, Herman (1977). Andrea Hicks. ed. The Reign of Patti. Opera Biographies. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 0-405-09686-0. 
• Mapleson, James Henry (1966). Harold Rosenthal. ed. The Mapleson Memoirs; The Career of an Operatic Impresario, 1858-1888. New York: Appleton-Century. ISBN 0-370-00080-3. 
• Scott, Michael. The Record of Singing to 1914. Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-1030-9. 
• Stanley Sadie, ed. (1997). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. New York, New York: Macmillian Reference Limited. p. 918. ISBN 0-333-73432-7. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adelina Patti

• Adelina Patti on opera-singer.co.uk
• Biography on BBC Wales
• A digital collection of items relating to Adelina Patti
• Adelina Patti as Juliet (1878), one of many Patti-related documents housed in the Alfredo Barili Papers at the Georgia Archives.

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2012)

Saint Adelina (died 1125) was a French Benedictine nun honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She was a noblewoman of Normandy, the sister of Saint Vitalis, and a granddaughter of William the Conqueror.^{[dubious – discuss]} She became the abbess of the Benedictine convent in La Blanche in Normandy, a religious community founded by her brother. Her feast day is celebrated on October 20.

External links[link]

• Adelina

This article about a French saint is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

June Anderson (born December 30, 1952) is a Grammy Award-winning American coloratura soprano. Originally known for bel canto performances of Rossini, Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, she was the first non-Italian ever to win the prestigious Bellini d'Oro prize.^[1] Subsequently, she has extended her repertoire to include a wide variety of other roles, including those from the Russian repertoire and works by Richard Strauss. In 2008, Anderson was elevated to "Commandeur" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government^[2] and in 2007 received a "Victoire d'honneur" at the "Victoires de la Musique Classique" in Paris.^[3]

Anderson has performed in noted opera houses including La Scala, Covent Garden, La Fenice, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Colón Theater. She has collaborated with conductors Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kent Nagano and Michael Tilson Thomas, and has sung opposite Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Carlo Bergonzi, Roberto Alagna, Rockwell Blake, Jerry Hadley and Salvatore Fisichella. Anderson has had an extensive recording career, dating from the 1980s to the present.

Education and vocal training[link]

June Anderson was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Wallingford, Connecticut. She attended Lyman Hall High School where she was the 5th highest in academic standing among 505 graduates in the class of 1970. She began vocal studies at age 11 and at age 17 was the youngest finalist (at that time) in the Metropolitan Opera auditions.^[4]

She received a degree from Yale University in French, graduating cum laude ^[4] and then decided to pursue a career in singing. Anderson studied voice under Robert Leonard in New York City.^[1] She had numerous auditions but no engagements at first. She has said that she continued her pursuit as a challenge, giving herself a deadline of two years (after which she would, if unsuccessful, enter law school). "No one wanted to know my name. I was down to my last $50. That's when I decided I was going to be a singer if it killed me!" ^[5]

Early operatic career[link]

Anderson sang in several productions in the Yale/New Haven area while still a high school student. In 1968, she sang in a production of Haydn's "L'infedeltà delusa" at Yale University. In 1970 she appeared as Gilda with the New Haven Opera Company in a production of Verdi's Rigoletto.

She made her professional opera debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the New York City Opera in 1978.^[6] Several years later, she would voice the Queen of the Night in the Oscar-winning Amadeus, directed by Milos Forman. While at New York City Opera, she sang in a wide range of operas including The Golden Cockerel by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rigoletto and La Traviata by Verdi, Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Giulio Cesare by Handel, and Mozart's Don Giovanni (as Elvira). In 1981, she sang the three lead soprano roles in Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, the first soprano to do so at New York City Opera since Beverly Sills in 1973.^[7]

1980s[link]

Anderson left New York City Opera in 1982 and embarked on a European career.^[4] Anderson's career in this decade was marked by numerous debuts in quintessential bel canto roles in major European opera houses. She also participated in the recording of operatic works rarely heard in this era, including: Rossini's Mosè in Egitto, Wagner's Die Feen, Tomaso Albinoni's Il nascimento dell'Aurora, Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth, Adolphe Adam's Le postillon de Lonjumeau, Fromental Halévy's La Juive, and Daniel Auber's La muette de Portici.

After being recommended to an Italian agent by Sherill Milnes,^[4] she made her European performance debut in 1982 in the title role of Rossini's Semiramide in Rome. In 1983, Anderson debuted in Florence and Geneva in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, a part which became one of her most frequent portrayals. She also sang Die Feen by Wagner in Munich,^[6] and appeared in North America: Bellini's I puritani in Edmonton and Il barbiere di Siviglia in Seattle. In 1984, she performed her first Amina in Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula in Venice, opening 135 years to the day after Maria Malibran's final Amina in that same theatre.^[4] She also appeared as Marie in La fille du régiment by Donizetti in Parma. In 1985, Anderson debuted as Isabelle in Robert le diable by Meyerbeer in Paris.^[6] That year she also appeared in a rarely seen Verdi work, La battaglia di Legnano, in Pittsburgh.

In 1986, she performed her first Desdemona in Rossini's Otello in Venice. The same year, she made her debut at La Scala in Milan in La sonnambula, and her debut at Covent Garden in productions of Semiramide and Lucia di Lammermoor. She also appeared in La fille du régiment at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Anderson returned to the Opéra-Comique in 1987, appearing as Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani, and gave a recital at the Paris Opera with Alfredo Kraus. In Italy, she returned to La Scala for her debut as Giuletta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi and returned to Venice for her first performance of Beatrice di Tenda, also by Bellini.

Anderson also appeared in a 1988 concert version of Beatrice di Tenda at Carnegie Hall, with the Opera Orchestra of New York. The New York Times review of that performance noted:

The former New York City Opera artist has built a European career in recent years by taking on bel canto roles that other sopranos don't want to sing, mainly because they can't. Miss Anderson is made of braver stuff. The title role of Bellini's opera, written for Giuditta Pasta in 1833, lies extraordinarily high and probably was tailored for that legendary diva's voice. Miss Anderson...attacked Beatrice's brilliantly curlicued music with authority and a voice of piercing power.... In Beatrice's grand finale...Miss Anderson took off into the stratospheric area above high C, which justifiably set off a stomping, cheering ovation from the Carnegie audience.^[8]

Elsewhere in 1988, Anderson focused on Rossini roles: playing her first Armida in Aix-en-Provence, appearing in Otello at the Pesaro Festival, and debuting as Anna in Maometto II (an early version of Rossini's Le siège de Corinthe) at the San Francisco Opera (she had previously recorded this work with Samuel Ramey in 1983). She also appeared that year in Luisa Miller by Verdi at the Opéra National de Lyon.

In 1989, she made her long-awaited debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto, with Luciano Pavarotti. The New York Times review wrote of her Met debut:

Miss Anderson's debut as Gilda, although belated, could not have been more welcome. The Metropolitan is not rich in artists of this caliber. The tall soprano left America a decade ago to build a phenomenal European career, chiefly in the florid works of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. She demonstrated in a Caro nome of exquisite taste, effortless fluidity and pinpoint precision that she is a master of the bel canto style. She is comfortable above high C, but the lower ranges do not suffer in quality or power. The wide leaps of the Caro nome coda were taken effortlessly and squarely on the note. The Met audience does not often hear a trill as thrushlike and as precise as Miss Anderson's, nor a soprano who can soar as grandly over the ensemble in the quartet.^[9]

In July 1989, she sang at the inaugural gala of the new Opéra Bastille in Paris, performing "Ombre legere" from Le pardon de Ploërmel, by Meyerbeer. (Not a fan of the modernist space, Anderson was later quoted as saying, "The place looks like a gymnasium."^[10] )

Leonard Bernstein selected her to perform as Cunegonde in a December 13, 1989 London concert version of Candide conducted by the composer (for which she later shared an award for Best Classical Album at the 34th annual Grammy Awards (1992), given for the December 1989 Abbey Road Studios recording by the same cast and conductor).

Twelve days later, again with Bernstein, she appeared in Berlin for a Christmas Day performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral" at the Schauspielhaus, celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. The December 25, 1989 concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people, and was performed by an orchestra and chorus made up of many nationalities: from Germany, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Chorus of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and members of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden; from the Soviet Union, members of the Orchestra of the Kirov Theatre, from the United Kingdom, members of the London Symphony Orchestra; from the USA, members of the New York Philharmonic, and from France, members of the Orchestre de Paris. In addition to Anderson, the soloists were Sarah Walker, Klaus König, and Jan-Hendrik Rootering.

1990s[link]

In the next decade, Anderson continued to pursue traditional bel canto roles, but also expanded her repertoire. Anderson began with a January 1990 performance of the Berlioz song cycle Les nuits d'été at Carnegie Hall, with Giuseppe Sinopoli conducting London's Philharmonia Orchestra. Later that year, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in an opulent production of Rossini's Semiramide, with Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey. In 1990, Anderson also performed in Pesaro in a production of the rarely seen Ricciardo e Zoraide, also by Rossini, and visited the Lyric Opera of Chicago in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor directed by Andrei Şerban. She closed 1990 with her New Year's Eve gala concert with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic broadcast nationwide on Live from Lincoln Center on PBS.

In February 1991, she returned to Carnegie Hall to perform La sonnambula with the Opera Orchestra of New York.^[11] Also in 1991, she participated in the Gala celebrating the Silver Anniversary of the "new" house of Metropolitan Opera, performing "Je suis Titania" from Mignon, conducted by James Levine. She also sang with Pavarotti at a gala concert in Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, Italy to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his first stage appearance.

In 1992, she created her first Elena in La donna del lago at La Scala, the house's first production of the opera in 150 years, staged to mark the bicentenary of Rossini's birth. That same year, she appeared in a controversial new production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera staged by Francesca Zambello.^[12] Edward Rothstein wrote in The New York Times:

[S]ome of the audience's outrage may have been due to the contrast between the staging and the many musical virtues that survived in the performance, which was the most complete version of the score ever presented at the Met. June Anderson -- who must have had black-and-blue arms by the evening's end, so often was she grabbed and tossed about -- sang Lucia with more and more refined empathy as the opera proceeded....She delivered a mad scene that combined virtuosic control with a lovely, haunting innocence.^[13]

The following year, Anderson appeared as Maria in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa, in a concert performance at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York. In 1993, she also appeared in Verdi's La traviata at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Of that performance, the Chicago Tribune critic wrote:

The show belongs, of course, to Violetta Valery. Anderson quite simply has done nothing finer for Lyric Opera. She internalized every emotion of the role with her usual intensity and conviction, from desperate gaiety to startled joy at her first stirrings of love for Alfredo, right on through to her deathbed scene, which tugged mightily at the heartstrings of even the most jaded opera-goers Every dramatic gesture seemed careful thought out, yet nothing appeared mannered or merely gratuitous. . . .[H]er fiorature were uniformly true, she was able to project easily throughout the theater even when singing softly (how beautifully she floated the bel canto line of "Addio, del passato", giving us both verses of the aria), and she commanded the audience's sympathy like the canny singing actress she is. Anderson's Violetta lives up to the great Lyric tradition.^[14]

Anderson began 1995 by appearing in Paris with Roberto Alagna in another controversial production of Lucia di Lammermoor, staged by Andrei Şerban and designed by William Dudley. While the International Herald Tribune noted that Şerban and Dudley were greeted by a "chorus of boos", it wrote of Anderson's performance:

[T]here were nothing but cheers for the impressive cast. June Anderson is surely the Lucia of the moment, and although she lent herself heroically to the frenetic demands of the staging, she also sang the role with superb possession of her vocal means and understanding of the psychological subtext.^[15]

Later in 1995, Anderson returned to the Metropolitan Opera in a new production of La fille du régiment with Pavarotti, of which The New York Times wrote:

Ms. Anderson's take on Marie is a legitimate one. Winsome charm is at a minimum; tomboy toughness takes over. The role is, of course, one of the coloratura soprano's richest gold mines. Ms. Anderson takes its long series of hurdles with courage, adventure and cool beauty of singing. Wearing a uniform as well as she does is no small help to the evening.^[16]

After appearing as Desdemona in Rossini's Otello (Rossini) for many years, in 1995 Anderson debuted in the same role in Verdi's Otello in Los Angeles, opposite Plácido Domingo. She also created her first Lucrezia in Verdi's I due Foscari at Covent Garden and ended the year with her debut as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1996, Anderson portrayed Joan of Arc in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco, both in concert versions in New York and Barcelona, and in a stage production at Covent Garden. She returned to Tchaikovsky in 1996, portraying her first Tatiana in Eugene Onegin in Tokyo. She also appeared in La Traviata, alongside the Italian tenor Salvatore Fisichella, in Tokyo that same year. She participated in the Gala celebrating James Levine's 25th Anniversary at the Metropolitan Opera, singing with Carlo Bergonzi and Ferruccio Furlanetto a selection from I Lombardi alla prima crociata, a work she recorded in its entirety with Levine, Luciano Pavarotti, Samuel Ramey and the Metropolitan Opera orchestra that same year.

In 1997, Anderson made her first appearance in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Chicago Tribune noted that Anderson's "clear, bright upper range was at its clarion best, the soprano singing with strength and nuanced sensitivity" and hailed her acting as well: "[D]ramatically, Anderson was exceptional, drawing out all of the conflicting emotions with an intensity tempered by dignity."^[17] Later in 1997, she returned to the Opera Orchestra of New York to portray her first Elvira in Verdi's Ernani.^[18] In 1998, Anderson spoke in Opera News of her move away from light coloratura roles "into deeper water":

I wanted to put it off as long as possible. I kept saying, and it's been quoted so many times, I didn't want to do "Normina." I wanted to do Norma. And Leonora. I didn't want to sound like a soubrette trying to do these things. I've done things like Il Corsaro and La Battaglia di Legnano very early in my career, so Verdi's always been a presence. I did mostly Rigolettos and Traviatas, and then I added Desdemona a few years ago. ... So I suppose Leonora would be next in line."^[19]

Indeed, in 1998, Anderson played her first Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera, in a cast including Richard Margison and Dolora Zajick.

2000s[link]

In recent years, Anderson has returned occasionally to her prior roles – appearing in Lucia in São Paulo in 2000 and Athens in 2002, La traviata at the Metropolitan Opera in 2001, and new productions of La sonnambula (Opéra de Marseille, 2004) and Maometto II (Bilbao, 2005). She continues to appear as Norma, in Parma in and Teatro Colón 2001, and at the Opéra de Marseille and the Canadian Opera Company in 2006. Of that latter performance, Toronto's The Globe and Mail wrote:

Bel canto is a term too often bandied about, but it does mean what it says: beautiful singing, but beautiful as distinct from merely pretty; beautiful not only in its musical sensitivity and accuracy of pitch in the face of extreme vocal challenges devised by the composer, but also in its penetration and detailed communication of the emotions encompassed in the music and drama. It was all this that June Anderson's Norma comprehended and conveyed. . . . Anderson, [] also, as a bonus, looked the part: feminine, classy and dignified. I doubt there's been a markedly better Norma since Callas and Sutherland.^[20]

The Toronto Star wrote of Anderson's portrayal in Norma:

[T]he title role is a jewel for any soprano diva's crown. . . .And how very special that one of the great contemporary Normas, American soprano June Anderson, is present to bring down the house. . . . Anderson, a late addition to the cast, has a remarkable dramatic presence. . . Anderson captures the full conflict that besets Norma....The American soprano also captures the role's intimate side, first shown in the famous aria "Casta diva", which invokes the goddess of the moon. Anderson alone is worth the price of admission.^[21]

Anderson continues to claim new territory as well, with debut performances in Donizetti's Anna Bolena (Pittsburgh 2000) and Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Monte Carlo 2004), The Bassarids by Hans Werner Henze (Théâtre du Châtelet, 2005), Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims (Monte Carlo 2005), and the Richard Strauss operas Capriccio (Naples 2002) and Daphne (La Fenice 2005). Of her debut in Daphne a reviewer in Opera magazine wrote:

The performance seemed to me an absolute triumph for June Anderson. At a career stage where she could reasonably be expected to scale down effort, ambition and new projects, she has instead taken the admirable decision to continue expanding her artistic range - as this first-ever Daphne (follow-up to her recent first ever Capriccio Countess) demonstrated.... [T]he singing offered countless ravishments: crystalline timbre, clean-cut line-delineation, dead-on-target intonation, awesomely easy projection of one perilously exposed high phrase after another.^[22]

In 2007, Anderson performed Verdi's Requiem in Paris with conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestre de Paris, Norma in Leipzig, and at galas at La Fenice in Venice (June 2007), and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens (July 2007) honoring the 30th anniversary of the death of Maria Callas. She appeared as Anna Bolena in Bilbao in October 2007, and ended the year with Verdi's Requiem in Manchester and at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

In January 2008, Anderson was elevated from "Officier" to "Commandeur" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, the highest level of commendation within the Ordre recognizing "eminent artists and writers, as well as individuals who have contributed to the recognition of French culture in the world."^[2] Her 2008 schedule included recitals and concerts in Aix-en-Provence, Brussels, Bordeaux, Paris, a performance with conductor Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, at the Bel Canto Festival in Québec, and a Christmas concert in Geneva. In 2009, Anderson appeared in the title roles of Norma at Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Italy (February - March 2009), and Lucrezia Borgia at Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, Belgium (June 2009).

In the 2010-11 season, June Anderson added two new roles to her repertoire: Madame Lidoine, in Dialogues des Carmelites at the Opéra de Nice, and Salome (opera) at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie.

Her 2012 schedule includes a further role debut as Pat Nixon in John Adams' Nixon in China at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

Notable recordings[link]

Recordings include:

Vincenzo Bellini

• Norma (DVD), w/ Daniela Barcellona, conducted by Fabio Biondi, live - Teatro Regio di Parma, 2001 (Tdk DVD/Video)
• La sonnambula, conducted by Roberto Cecconi, live - La Fenice, Venice, 1984 (MFOH 10506)
• Beatrice di Tenda, conducted by Gianfranco Masini, live - La Fenice, Venice, 1987(OPD-1174)
• Bellini Opera Arias arias from: I Puritani - I Capuleti e i Montecchi - La sonnambula - Beatrice di Tenda, conducted by Nicola Rescigno (1987) (EMI - CDC 747561 2)

Gioachino Rossini

• Semiramide, w/ Marilyn Horne, Samuel Ramey, conducted by James Conlon, live - Metropolitan Opera, 1990 (Image Entertainment)
• Mosè in Egitto, conducted by Claudio Scimone (1981) (PHILIPS 420 109-2)
• Maometto II, w/ Samuel Ramey, conducted by Claudio Scimone (1983) (PHILIPS 412 148-2)
• Rossini - Soirées Musicales (La regata veneziana - Il rimprovero - L'orgia - La partenza - La serenata - La pastorella - La pesca - La gita in gondola - La danza - La promessa - L'invito - I marinai) (1987, 1988) (NIMBUS - NI 5132)
• Rossini Scenes (arias from: Ermione - Semiramide - La donna del lago - Otello - William Tell- Il viaggio a Reims), conducted by Daniele Gatti (1991) (LONDON - 436 377-2)
• La donna del lago, conducted by Riccardo Muti, live performance La Scala, Milan (1992) (PHILIPS 438 211-2)

Gaetano Donizetti

• Lucia di Lammermoor, w/ Alfredo Kraus, conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti, live - Florence (1983) (LS 1117/2)
• La fille du régiment, w/ Alfredo Kraus, conducted by Bruno Campanella, live - Opéra-Comique of Paris, 1986 (EMI CMS 763128 2)

Giuseppe Verdi

• Rigoletto, w/ Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci, Shirley Verrett, Nicolai Ghiaurov, conducted by Riccardo Chailly (1989) (LONDON 425 864-2)
• I Lombardi alla prima crociata, w/ Luciano Pavarotti, Richard Leech, Samuel Ramey, cond. by James Levine (1996) (London 455 287-2)
• Luisa Miller (DVD), w/ T. Ichihara, Paul Plishka, live - Lyon National Opera, 1988 (Kultur Video)

Leonard Bernstein

• Candide, w/ Jerry Hadley, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda, cond. by Leonard Bernstein, 1989 (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 429 734-2)
• White House Cantata, w/ Thomas Hampson, Barbara Hendricks, cond. by Kent Nagano, 1998 (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 463 448-2)

Other composers/recordings

• Adolphe Adam, Le postillon de Lonjumeau, conducted by Thomas Fulton, 1985 (EMI 557106-2)
• Tomaso Albinoni, Il Nascimento dell'Aurora, conducted by Claudio Scimone, 1983 (ERATO 751-522)
• June Anderson Dal Vivo In Concerto (arias from La battaglia di Legnano- Verdi, La sonnambula - Vincenzo Bellini, Lucia di Lammermoor - Donizetti, La traviata - Verdi, Semiramide - Rossini) conducted by Miguel Angel Gomez Martinez, live performance Parma, Italy (1984) (BONGIOVANNI - GB 2504-2)
• June Anderson and Alfredo Kraus live from the Paris Opera (arias from Rigoletto - Verdi, Faust - Gounod, Semiramide - Rossini, Lakmé - Delibes, La traviata - Verdi, L'elisir d'amore – Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor - Donizetti, La fille du régiment - Donizetti), conducted by Michelangelo Veltri, live performance Paris (1987) (EMI - CDC 749067 2)
• Daniel Auber, La muette de Portici, w/ Alfredo Kraus, conducted by Thomas Fulton (1986) (EMI 7492842)
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral" - "Ode an die Freiheit" w/ Sarah Walker, Klaus König, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, live performance on Christmas Day Schauspielhaus Berlin (1989) (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON - 429 861-2)
• Bizet, La jolie fille de Perth, w/ Alfredo Kraus, conducted by Georges Prêtre, 1985 (EMI 7475598)
• French Opera Arias (Arias from Hamlet - Ambroise Thomas, Robert le diable - Meyerbeer, Manon - Massenet, Roméo et Juliette - Gounod, Le pardon de Ploërmel - Meyerbeer, Ivan IV –Bizet, La vestale - Spontini, Les vêpres siciliennes – Verdi), conducted by Michel Plasson (1989) (EMI - CDC 754005 2)
• Fromental Halévy, La Juive, w/ José Carreras conducted by Antonio De Almeida (1986, 1989) (PHILIPS 420 190-2)
• Massenet, Chérubin, w/ Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey, Dawn Upshaw, cond. by Pinchas Steinberg (1991) (RCA 09026-60593-2)
• Meyerbeer, Robert le diable, w/ Samuel Ramey, cond. by Thomas Fulton, live performance Opéra de Paris (1985) (Legato LCD 229-3)
• Mozart, The Magic Flute, w/ Barbara Hendricks, Jerry Hadley, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras (1991) (TELARC CD-80302)
• Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, conducted by James Levine (1984) (DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON - 415 136-2)
• Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Stabat Mater and Salve Regina w/ Cecilia Bartoli, conducted by Charles Dutoit (1991) (LONDON - 436 209-2)
• Richard Strauss, Daphne (opera), conducted by Stefan Anton Reck, live performance La Fenice, Venice (2005) (Dynamic CDS 499/1-2)
• Ambroise Thomas, Hamlet, w/ Thomas Hampson, Samuel Ramey, Denyce Graves, cond. by Antonio de Almeida (1993) (EMI CDCC 7 54820 2)
• Wagner, Die Feen, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, live performance Munich Opera Festival (1983) (ORFEO C 062 833 F)

References[link]

External links[link]

• june-anderson.com
• June Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• June Anderson interview by Bruce Duffie (1986)
• An Hour with June Anderson by Kathy Petreré (February 15, 1994)

Sebastián Iradier Salaverri (Salaberri) (20 January 1809 – 6 December 1865),^[1] a.k.a. Sebastián Yradier, was a Spanish Basque composer.

Iradier was born in Lanciego, in the province of Álava. His publisher in Paris urged him to "universalize" his name, from Iradier to Yradier. He is known primarily for his habaneras, especially the one titled "La Paloma", written around 1860 after a visit to Cuba. "La Paloma" was extremely popular in both Spain and America (especially Mexico), where it was responsible for the great popularity achieved by the habanera.

A collection of 25 of Iradier's most popular songs was published in Paris in 1864, with French words, as "Fleurs d'Espagne".^[2]

Another of Iradier's compositions is "El Arreglito", an habanera used by Georges Bizet in his opera Carmen as a source of inspiration. Bizet, thinking it was a folk song, inspired by the melody of "El Arreglito" and recomposed what is known today as the "Habanera" from Carmen: the aria "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" which is another aria from "El Arreglito". When he discovered his mistake, he added a note to the vocal score of the opera, acknowledging its source.^[2]

Iradier died in obscurity in 1865.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Free scores by Sebastián Iradier in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Sebastián Iradier at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Sebastián Iradier in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

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