''Ernani'' is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play ''Hernani'' by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844. In 1904 it became the first opera to be recorded complete.

Performance history

The UK premiere took place at Her Majesty's Theatre in London on 8 March 1845 followed on 13 April 1847 by its US premiere in New York.

Today, ''Ernani'' is a seldom-heard work, although it appeared on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera as early as 1903 and has been given eighty-eight performances up to the March/April stagings in 2008. It regained some popularity from the early-1980s onward and was revived in a series of new productions at the San Francisco Opera (1982), Lyric Opera of Chicago (1984), at La Scala (1984) and the Met (1985), the 2008 stagings being the first since that time. It was given as part of the 1997 season of the Sarasota Opera's "Verdi Cycle" which plans to present all of Verdi's operas before the bi-centenary of his birth in 2013. The Teatro Regio di Parma, another company with a similar aim, gave it in October 2005.

Recently, it was given in May 2008 by Opera Boston, a company which presents unusual or rarely staged works, and the Melbourne City Opera presented it in late March and early April 2009. It was also is presented by the Lyric Opera of Chicago's in October/November 2009.

Roles

!Role	!Voice type	!Premiere Cast, 9 March 1844(Conductor: - Gaetano Mares)
Ernani, ''the bandit''	tenor	Carlo Guasco
Don Carlo, ''later Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor''	baritone	Antonio Superchi
Don Ruy Gomez de Silva		Antonio Selva
Elvira, ''his niece and fiancée''	soprano	Sophie Loewe
Giovanna, ''her nurse''	soprano	Laura Saini
Don Riccardo, ''Don Carlo's equerry''	tenor	Giovanni Lanner
Jago, ''Don Ruy's equerry''	bass	Andrea Bellini

Synopsis

:Time: 1519. :Place: Aragon, Aachen, and Zaragoza.

Act 1

''Mountains of Aragon''

The bandits demand the reason for Ernani's gloom. (Chorus: ''Eviva! Beviam! Beviam!'' / "To you we drink" and ''Ernani pensoso!'' / "Ernani, so gloomy? Why, oh strong one, does care sit on your brow?"). Ernani replies (Recitative: "Thanks, dear friends"; Cavatina: ''Come rugiada al cespite'' / "As the flower turns to the sun") that he loves Elvira, who is about to be married against her will to old Gomez de Silva (''O tu che l'alma adora''). He asks the bandits to abduct her.

''In Elvira's chamber''

Elvira worries about her upcoming marriage (Scena: "Now sinks the sun and Silva does not return"; Cavatina: ''Ernani, Ernani involami'' / "Ernani, Ernani, save me") as servants deliver Silva's wedding presents to her. She reaffirms her love for Ernani (''Tutto sprezzo che d'Ernani'' / "I scorn everything which does not speak to my heart of Ernani"). King Carlos, disguised as a peasant, enters, but Elvira recognizes him and rejects the love that he offers her. As he attempts to use force, she grasps a dagger, but Ernani suddenly arrives and stops Carlos (Trio: "A friend comes quickly to your aid"). Carlos recognizes Ernani as the leader of the bandits. Ernani replies that Carlos robbed him of his lands and forced him into a life of banditry. As he invites Carlos to fight, Silva appears and sees Ernani (''Infelice!..e tu credevi''..''che mai vegg'io!'' / "Dreadful sight"; Silva's cavatina: "Unhappy man! You thought this lovely...was yours"). Ernani offers to fight them both when Riccardo approaches and recognises the king. Ernani whispers to Elvira to prepare to flee.

Act 2

''A hall in Silva's palace''

Ernani enters disguised as a pilgrim. He asks for shelter, which Silva grants him, and then learns from Silva that he about to marry Elvira who believes Ernani to be dead. Ernani reveals his true identity to Elvira and she tells him that she plans to kill herself at the altar (Duet: ''Ah, morir potessi adesso'' / "Ah, if I could die now"). Silva walks in at that moment, discovers the pair, but agrees to keep his word to Ernani and protect him from the king, for which Ernani will owe him a perpetual debt. (Trio: ''No, vendetta piu tremenda'' / "No, I want to keep a greater revenge"). Carlos arrives and wishes to know why the castle is barred. Silva refuses to surrender Ernani (Carlos' aria: ''Lo vedremo, veglio audace'' / "We shall see, you bold old man") and Don Carlos's men cannot find Ernani's hiding place. Silva keeps his word, even when the king secures Elvira as a hostage. Silva releases Ernani, and then challenges him to a duel. Ernani refuses to fight, but unites with Silva in his plans to free Elvira from the king. Ernani swears to appear at the summons of Silva, wherever he may be at that time (''Odi il voto o grande Iddio'' / "Oh God, hear the vow") and the act ends with Ernani's aria of vengeance (''Sprezzo la vita ne più m'alletta'' / "Life means nothing to me, only hope of vengeance").

Act 3

''In the burial vault of Charles the Great at Aachen''

Carlos visits the grave of the emperor Charlemagne (Carlo Magno), whose successor, the new Holy Roman Emperor, is being elected by delegates from the relevant countries. Carlos resolves to change his life if he is crowned (Cavatina: ''Oh, de'verd'anni miei''/ "Oh, the dreams and deceits of my youth"). Hiding behind the vault, he overhears a gathering of conspirators including Silva and Ernani. Ernani swears to murder Carlos. The conspiracy is foiled when Carlos's attendants enter and surprise the conspirators. The king commands that all the traitorous noblemen be executed. Ernani steps forward, declaring that thus he must die too; he is not the bandit Ernani, but Don Juan of Aragon, whose lands were taken from him. Elvira, who had been brought to Carlos as his intended empress, begs mercy for her lover, and Carlos, whose mood has changed, forgives them both and places Elvira's hand in that of Ernani.

Act 4

''Ernani's Castle''

Elvira and Ernani have just been married, when, in consternation, Ernani hears a bugle call. Silva arrives and silently hands Ernani a dagger. Ernani asks for time to "sip from the cup of love" (''Ascolta, ascolta un detto ancor''/ "Listen, just one word...") but, cursed by Silva as coward, Ernani keeps his oath and stabs himself in the heart. (Trio with Silva: ''E' vano, o donna, il piangere, e vano'' / "Your weeping is in vain, woman"). He dies in Elvira's arms, telling her to live.

Recordings

The first complete recording of an opera was the 1904 recording of ''Ernani'', on 40 single-sided discs, by HMV in England. Later recordings include:

Antonio Melandri,Iva Pacetti,Gino Vanelli,Corrado ZambelliGino Penno,Caterina Mancini,Giuseppe Taddei,Giacomo VaghiEttore Bastianini,Mario del Monaco,Anita Cerquetti,Athos CesariniCarlo Bergonzi (tenor)Plácido DomingoRaina KabaivanskaCarlo MelicianiNicolai GhiaurovPlácido DomingoMirella FreniRenato BrusonNicolai Ghiaurov Marco BertiSusan NevesCarlo GuelfiGiacomo Prestia

!Year	Cast (Ernani, Elvira, Don Carlo, Silva)	!Conductor,Opera House and Orchestra	!Label
1930	|	Lorenzo Molajoli,Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano	78 rpm: Columbia GQX 10069-10073LP: Cat: 4407
1950	|	Fernando Previtali,Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della Rai	Audio CD: Warner Fonit Cat: 8573 82650-2
1957	|	Dimitri Mitropoulos,Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino	Audio CD: Hr 4400 Cat: HR 4400/01
1967	Carlo Bergonzi,Leontyne Price,Mario Sereni,Ezio Flagello ||	Thomas Schippers,RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra	Audio CD: RCA VictorCat: GD 86503 (UK); 6503-2 (USA)
1969	|	Antonino Votto, Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Chorus	Audio CD: Opera D'Oro Cat: ODO 1468
1983	Luciano PavarottiLeona MitchellSherrill MilnesRuggero Raimondi		DVD: Pioneer Classics Cat: PC-99-102-D
1983	|	Riccardo Muti,Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Chorus (Production by Luca Ronconi)(Recording of a performance in the Teatro alla Scala, 4 January)	DVD: Kultur Video Cat: D72913
1987	Luciano PavarottiJoan SutherlandLeo NucciPaata Burchuladze		Richard Bonynge, Orchestra and Chorus of Welsh National Opera	CD: Decca/London
2005	|	Antonello Allemandi,Teatro Regio di Parma(Production by Pier' Alli, Video direction by Matteo Ricchetti)(Audio and video recordings of a performance(s) May)	Dynamic (record label)>Dynamic 33496University of Chicago Critical Edition

References

;Notes ;Sources

Budden, Julian, ''The Operas of Verdi, Volume 1: From'' Oberto ''to'' Rigoletto. London: Cassell, 1984. ISBN 0-304-310581.

Holden, Amanda (Ed.), ''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-140-29312-4

Melitz, Leo, opera synopsis in ''The Opera Goer's Complete Guide'', 1921 version.

Creative Commons MP3 Recording

External links

Libretto

Modern English translation of Victor Hugo's ''Hernani'', the inspiration for ''Ernani'' on www.giuseppeverdi.it. Retrieved 10 April 2011.

Category:Operas by Giuseppe Verdi Category:Italian-language operas Category:Operas Category:Operas set in Iberia Category:Zaragoza Category:Aachen Category:1844 operas Category:La Fenice world premieres Category:Adaptations of works by Victor Hugo

bg:Ернани (опера) ca:Ernani cs:Ernani da:Ernani de:Ernani es:Ernani fr:Ernani ko:에르나니 hy:Էրնանի (օպերա) it:Ernani he:ארנאני la:Ernani hu:Ernani ms:Ernani nl:Ernani ja:エルナーニ pl:Ernani pt:Ernani ro:Ernani sr:Ернани (опера) fi:Ernani

Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 - March 9, 2006) was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation. She possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agility, and was an affecting singing-actress of great physical beauty.

Biography

She was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania to Italian parents, Nicola Moffo (a shoemaker) and his wife Regina Cinti. After graduating from Radnor High School, she turned down an offer to go to Hollywood and went instead to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Eufemia Giannini-Gregory, sister of soprano Dusolina Giannini. In 1954, on a Fulbright Program scholarship, she left for Italy to complete her studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome where she was a pupil of Mercedes Llopart and Luigi Ricci. Moffo made her official operatic debut in 1955 in Spoleto as Norina in ''Don Pasquale''.

Shortly after, still virtually unknown and little experienced, she was offered the challenging role of Cio-Cio-San in an Italian television (RAI) production of ''Madama Butterfly''. The telecast aired on January 24, 1956, and made Moffo an overnight sensation throughout Italy. Offers quickly followed and she appeared in two other television productions that same year, as Nannetta in ''Falstaff'' and as Amina in ''La Sonnambula''. She appeared as Zerlina in ''Don Giovanni'', at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and made her recording debut for EMI as Nannetta (''Falstaff'') under Herbert von Karajan, and as Musetta in ''La Bohème'' with Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano and Rolando Panerai. The following year (1957) saw her debut at the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, at La Scala in Milan and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

Moffo returned to America for her debut there, as Mimì in ''La Bohème'' next to Jussi Björling's Rodolfo, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on October 16, 1957. Her Metropolitan Opera of New York debut took place on November 14, 1959 as Violetta in ''La traviata'', a part that would quickly become her signature role. She performed at The Metropolitan Opera for seventeen seasons in roles such as Lucia, Gilda, Adina, Mimi, Liù, Nedda, Pamina, Marguerite, Juliette, Manon, Mélisande, Périchole, the four heroines of ''Les contes d'Hoffmann'', etc.

Moffo was also invited at the San Francisco Opera where she made her debut as Amina on October 1, 1960. During that period she also made several appearances on American television, while enjoying a successful international career singing at most major opera houses around the world (Stockholm, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, etc.). She made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London, as Gilda, in a Franco Zeffirelli production of ''Rigoletto'', in 1964.

In the late 1950s, she recorded Susanna in ''Le nozze di Figaro'', opposite Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Giuseppe Taddei, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, and recitals of Mozart arias and coloratura arias with EMI, and then became an exclusive artist with RCA Victor with whom she recorded most of her best operatic roles.

Moffo remained particularly popular in Italy and performed there regularly. She hosted a weekly program on Italian television "''The Anna Moffo Show''" from 1960 until 1973 and was voted one of the ten most beautiful women in Italy. She appeared in film versions of ''La traviata'' (1968) and ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (1971), both directed by her first husband Mario Lanfranchi, as well as a few non-operatic films. In the early 1970s, she began appearing on German television and in operetta films such as ''Die Csárdásfürstin'' and ''Die schöne Galathee''. She also recorded with Eurodisc the title roles in ''Carmen'' and ''Iphigenie in Aulis'', as well as the role of Hansel in ''Hänsel und Gretel''.

Such a heavy workload however led to physical exhaustion and a serious vocal-breakdown in 1974, from which she never fully recovered. Although she was able to resume her career in 1976, she appeared only sporadically. Her last appearance at the Met was during the 1983 Centennial celebrations, where she sang the Sigmund Romberg duet "Will You Remember?" with Robert Merrill. After retiring from singing Moffo remained active in the opera community as a Board Member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild and by hosting several tributes and giving occasional masterclasses.

Moffo was married twice, first to stage and film director Mario Lanfranchi, on December 8, 1957. The couple divorced in 1972. Her second marriage was to RCA executive Robert Sarnoff, on November 14, 1974. Sarnoff died on February 22, 1997.

Anna Moffo spent the last years of her life in New York City, where she died at the age of 73, of a stroke following a decade-long battle with breast cancer.

Selected RCA recordings

1957 - Puccini - ''Madama Butterfly'' - Anna Moffo, Cesare Valletti, Rosalind Elias, Renato Cesari - Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf.

1960 - Anna Moffo - Arias from ''Faust'', ''La bohème'', ''Dinorah'', ''Carmen'', ''Semiramide'', ''Turandot'', ''Lakmé'' - Rome Opera Orchestra, Tullio Serafin.

1960 - Verdi - ''La traviata'' - Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill - Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fernando Previtali.

1961 - Puccini - ''La bohème'' - Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Mary Costa, Robert Merrill, Giorgio Tozzi, Philip Maero - Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf.

1962 - Pergolesi - ''La serva padrona'' - Anna Moffo, Paolo Montarsolo - Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, Franco Ferrara

1962 - Recital of Verdi Heroines - The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Franco Ferrara

1963 - Verdi - ''Rigoletto'' - Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, Alfredo Kraus, Rosalind Elias, Ezio Flagello - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Georg Solti.

1963 - Puccini - ''Manon Lescaut'' (Highlights) - Anna Moffo, Flaviano Labò, Robert Kerns - The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus, René Leibowitz.

1963 - Massenet - ''Manon'' (Highlights) - Anna Moffo, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Robert Kerns - The RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra and Chorus, René Leibowitz.

1964 - Canteloube - ''Songs of the Auvergne: Bailero'' - Anna Moffo - American Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski

1964 - Verdi - ''Luisa Miller'' - Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Shirley Verrett, Cornell MacNeil, Giorgio Tozzi, Ezio Flagello - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Fausto Cleva.

1965 - Gluck - ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' - Shirley Verrett, Anna Moffo, Judith Raskin - Polyphonic Chorus of Rome, I Virtuosi di Roma, Renato Fasano.

1965 - Donizetti - ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' - Anna Moffo, Carlo Bergonzi, Mario Sereni, Ezio Flagello - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Georges Prêtre.

1966 - Puccini - ''La Rondine'' - Anna Moffo, Daniele Barioni, Graziella Sciutti, Piero de Palma, Mario Sereni - The RCA Italiana Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli.

1974 - Massenet - ''Thais'' - Anna Moffo, Gabriel Bacquier, José Carreras - Ambrosian Opera Chorus, New Philarmonia Orchestra, Julius Rudel.

1976 - Montemezzi - ''L'Amore dei tre re'' - Anna Moffo, Plácido Domingo, Pablo Elvira, Cesare Siepi - Ambrosian Opera Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Nello Santi.

Sources

''The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia'', edited by David Hamilton, (Simon and Schuster, New York 1987). ISBN 0-671-16732-X

''The Metropolitan Opera Guide to recorded Opera'', edited by Paul Gruber, (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993). ISBN 0-393-03444-5

External links

News'' obituary

Anna Moffo – The Internet Movie Database.

Category:1932 births Category:2006 deaths Category:American opera singers Category:Operatic sopranos Category:Deaths from breast cancer Category:Deaths from stroke Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:People from New York City Category:People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni

ca:Anna Moffo de:Anna Moffo el:Άννα Μόφο es:Anna Moffo eo:Anna Moffo fr:Anna Moffo it:Anna Moffo he:אנה מופו nl:Anna Moffo ja:アンナ・モッフォ pt:Anna Moffo simple:Anna Moffo fi:Anna Moffo

Anna Tomowa-Sintow (, by official transliteration ''Anna Tomova-Sintova'', born September 22, 1941, in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian soprano who has sung to great acclaim in all the major opera houses around the world in a repertoire that includes Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, and Strauss. She enjoyed a particularly close professional relationship with conductor Herbert von Karajan from 1973 until the conductor's death in 1989.

Tomowa-Sintow began studying piano at age six. At sixteen she won a national singing competition. She later attended the National Conservatory of Sofia, where she studied voice with Professor Georgi Zlatev-Tcherkin and soprano Katia Spiridonowa and graduated with diplomas in voice and piano, making her stage debut, for her master class finals, as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin''. Upon graduation, she joined the Opera Studio of the Leipzig Opera, where, in 1967, she made her professional debut as Abigaille in Verdi's ''Nabucco''. While with this company she built up her repertoire with the leading roles in Puccini's ''Madama Butterfly'' and ''Manon Lescaut''; Verdi's ''La traviata'', ''Il trovatore'', and ''Otello''; Mozart's ''Don Giovanni''; Strauss's ''Arabella''; and Werner Egk's ''Die Zaubergeige''. For many of these roles she studied with the company's music director, Professor Peter Schmitz, who had studied with Richard Strauss.

In 1972, she was invited to join the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, where she was named ''Kammersängerin'' during her very first year. In Berlin she continued to expand her repertoire with leading roles in Mozart's ''The Marriage of Figaro'' and ''Così fan tutte'', Verdi's ''Aida'', Puccini's ''Tosca'', Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin'', Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' and ''Lohengrin'', and Strauss's ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' and ''Der Rosenkavalier''.

She is also a ''Kammersängerin'' of the Vienna Staatsoper.

In 1973, Tomowa-Sintow auditioned for conductor Herbert von Karajan for the upcoming world premiere of Carl Orff's ''De temporum fine comœdia'' at the Salzburg Festival. He hired her immediately, and for the next seventeen years (until Karajan's death) the two worked frequently together in opera houses, concert halls, and recording studios around the world. Karajan called Tomowa-Sintow "the greatest talent I have encountered over the past years." From 1973 through 1991, Tomowa-Sintow was a permanent guest of the Salzburg Festival. With that maestro, she recorded ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (1978), ''Lohengrin'' (opposite René Kollo and Dunja Vejzovic, 1976-81) and ''Der Rosenkavalier'' (with Agnes Baltsa and Janet Perry, 1982).

Tomowa-Sintow made her San Francisco Opera debut in 1974, as Donna Anna in ''Don Giovanni''; her Covent Garden debut in 1975, as Fiordiligi in ''Così fan tutte''; her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1976 and her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in 1980, both as Donna Anna; and her La Scala debut in 1982, as Elsa in ''Lohengrin''.

Her recording of ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' with James Levine and the Vienna Philharmonic won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

External links

Anna Tomowa-Sintow: Primadonna with Heart

Her page on the Stars of Bulgarian Opera site with 4 mp3 audio clips of selected arias

Interviews

Anna Tomowa-Sintow interview by Bruce Duffie

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:Bulgarian female singers Category:Bulgarian opera singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Operatic sopranos Category:People from Stara Zagora

bg:Анна Томова-Синтова de:Anna Tomowa-Sintow es:Anna Tomowa Sintow fr:Anna Tomowa-Sintow ja:アンナ・トモワ＝シントウ

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture – such as "La donna è mobile" from ''Rigoletto'', "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from ''Nabucco'', "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from ''La traviata'' and the "Grand March" from ''Aida''. His work has sometimes been criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom and for being essentially melodrama during his early years. He was an atheist.

Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.

Early life

Verdi was born the son of Carlo Giuseppe Verdi and Luigia Uttini in Le Roncole, a village near Busseto, then in the Département Taro which was a part of the First French Empire after the annexation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. The baptismal register, on 11 October lists him as being "born yesterday", but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. The next day, he was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in Latin as Joseph Fortuninus Franciscus. The day after that (Tuesday), Verdi's father took his newborn the three miles to Busseto, where the baby was recorded as Joseph Fortunin Francois; the clerk wrote in French. "So it happened that for the civil and temporal world Verdi was born a Frenchman."

When he was still a child, Verdi's parents moved from Piacenza to Busseto, where the future composer's education was greatly facilitated by visits to the large library belonging to the local Jesuit school. Also in Busseto, Verdi was given his first lessons in composition.

Verdi went to Milan when he was twenty to continue his studies. He took private lessons in counterpoint while attending operatic performances, as well as concerts of, specifically, German music. Milan's beaumonde association convinced him that he should pursue a career as a theatre composer. During the mid 1830s, he attended the ''Salotto Maffei'' salons in Milan, hosted by Clara Maffei.

Returning to Busseto, he became the town music master and, with the support of Antonio Barezzi, a local merchant and music lover who had long supported Verdi's musical ambitions in Milan, Verdi gave his first public performance at Barezzi’s home in 1830.

Because he loved Verdi’s music, Barezzi invited Verdi to be his daughter Margherita's music teacher, and the two soon fell deeply in love. They were married on 4 May 1836 and Margherita gave birth to two children, Virginia Maria Luigia (26 March 1837 – 12 August 1838) and Icilio Romano (11 July 1838 – 22 October 1839). Both died in infancy while Verdi was working on his first opera and, shortly afterwards, Margherita died of encephalitison 18 June 1840, aged only 26. Verdi adored his wife and children, and he was devastated by their untimely deaths.

Initial recognition

The production by Milan's La Scala of his first opera, ''Oberto'' in November 1839 achieved a degree of success, after which Bartolomeo Merelli, La Scala's impresario, offered Verdi a contract for two more works.

It was while he was working on his second opera, ''Un giorno di regno'', that Verdi's wife died. The opera, given in September 1840, was a flop and he fell into despair and vowed to give up musical composition forever. However, Merelli persuaded him to write ''Nabucco'' and its opening performance in March 1842 made Verdi famous. Legend (and Verdi's own "An Autobiographical Sketch" of 1879 has it) that it was the words of the famous ''Va pensiero'' chorus of the Hebrew slaves that inspired him to write music again. A large number of operas – 14 in all – followed in the decade after 1843, a period which Verdi was to describe as his "galley years". These included his ''I Lombardi'' in 1843, and ''Ernani'' in 1844. For some, the most original and important opera that Verdi wrote is ''Macbeth'' in 1847. For the first time, Verdi attempted an opera without a love story, breaking a basic convention in 19th century Italian opera.

In 1847, ''I Lombardi'', which was revised and renamed ''Jérusalem'', was produced by the ''Paris Opera''. Due to a number of Parisian conventions that had to be honored (including extensive ballets), it became Verdi's first work in the French Grand opera style.

Middle years

Sometime in the mid-1840s, after the death of Margherita Barezzi, Verdi began an affair with Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano in the twilight of her career. Their cohabitation before marriage was regarded as scandalous in some of the places they lived, but Verdi and Giuseppina married on 29 August 1859 at Collonges-sous-Salève, near Geneva. While living in Busseto with Strepponi, Verdi bought an estate two miles from the town in 1848. Initially, his parents lived there, but, after his mother's death in 1851, he made the Villa Verdi at Sant'Agata in Villanova sull'Arda his home until his death.

As the "galley years" were drawing to a close, Verdi created one of his greatest masterpieces, ''Rigoletto'', which premiered in Venice in 1851. Based on a play by Victor Hugo (''Le roi s'amuse''), the libretto had to undergo substantial revisions in order to satisfy the epoch's censorship, and the composer was on the verge of giving it all up a number of times. The opera quickly became a great success.

With ''Rigoletto'', Verdi sets up his original idea of musical drama as a cocktail of heterogeneous elements, embodying social and cultural complexity, and beginning from a distinctive mixture of comedy and tragedy. ''Rigoletto'''s musical range includes band-music such as the first scene or the song La donna è mobile, Italian melody such as the famous quartet "Bella figlia dell'amore", chamber music such as the duet between Rigoletto and Sparafucile and powerful and concise declamatos often based on key-notes like the C and C# notes in Rigoletto and Monterone's upper register.

There followed the second and third of the three major operas of Verdi's "middle period": in 1853 ''Il Trovatore'' was produced in Rome and ''La traviata'' in Venice. The latter was based on Alexandre Dumas, fils' play ''The Lady of the Camellias'', and became the most popular of all Verdi's operas, placing second in the Operabase list of most performed operas worldwide.

Later compositions

Between 1855 and 1867, an outpouring of great Verdi operas followed, among them such repertory staples as ''Un ballo in maschera'' (1859), ''La forza del destino'' (commissioned by the Imperial Theatre of Saint Petersburg for 1861 but not performed until 1862), and a revised version of ''Macbeth'' (1865). Other somewhat less often performed include ''Les vêpres siciliennes'' (1855) and ''Don Carlos'' (1867), both commissioned by the Paris Opera and initially given in French. Today, these latter two operas are most often performed in their revised Italian versions. ''Simon Boccanegra'' followed in 1857. In 1869, Verdi was asked to compose a section for a requiem mass in memory of Gioachino Rossini and proposed that this requiem should be a collection of sections composed by other Italian contemporaries of Rossini. The requiem was compiled and completed, but it was cancelled at the last minute (and was not performed in Verdi's lifetime). Verdi blamed this on the lack of enthusiasm for the project by the intended conductor, Angelo Mariani, who had been a longtime friend of his. The episode led to a permanent break in their personal relations. The soprano Teresa Stolz (who later had a strong professional – and, perhaps, romantic – relationship with Verdi) was at that time engaged to be married to Mariani, but she left him not long after. Five years later, Verdi reworked his "Libera Me" section of the Rossini Requiem and made it a part of his ''Requiem Mass'', honoring the famous novelist and poet Alessandro Manzoni, who had died in 1873. The complete Requiem was first performed at the cathedral in Milan on 22 May 1874.

Verdi's grand opera, ''Aida'', is sometimes thought to have been commissioned for the celebration of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, but, according to one major critic, Verdi turned down the Khedive's invitation to write an "ode" for the new opera house he was planning to inaugurate as part of the canal opening festivities. The opera house actually opened with a production of ''Rigoletto''. Later in 1869/70, the organizers again approached Verdi (this time with the idea of writing an opera), but he again turned them down. When they warned him that they would ask Charles Gounod instead and then threatened to engage Richard Wagner's services, Verdi began to show considerable interest, and agreements were signed in June 1870.

Teresa Stolz was associated with both ''Aida'' and the ''Requiem'' (as well as a number of other Verdi roles). The role of Aida was written for her, and although she did not appear in the world premiere in Cairo in 1871, she created Aida in the European premiere in Milan in February 1872. She was also the soprano soloist in the first and many later performances of the ''Requiem''. It was widely believed that she and Verdi had an affair after she left Angelo Mariani, and a Florence newspaper criticised them for this in five strongly worded articles. Whether there is any truth to the accusation may never be known with any certainty. However, after Giuseppina Strepponi's death, Teresa Stolz became a close companion of Verdi until his own death.

Verdi and Wagner, who were the leaders of their respective schools of music, seemed to resent each other greatly. They never met. Verdi's comments on Wagner and his music are few and hardly benevolent ("He invariably chooses, unnecessarily, the untrodden path, attempting to fly where a rational person would walk with better results"), but at least one of them is kind: upon learning of Wagner's death, Verdi lamented, "Sad, sad, sad! ... a name that will leave a most powerful impression on the history of art." Of Wagner's comments on Verdi, only one is well-known. After listening to Verdi's ''Requiem'', the German, prolific and eloquent in his comments on some other composers, stated, "It would be best not to say anything."

Final years and death

During the following years, Verdi worked on revising some of his earlier scores, most notably new versions of ''Don Carlos'', ''La forza del destino'', and ''Simon Boccanegra''.

''Otello'', based on William Shakespeare's play, with a libretto written by the younger composer of ''Mefistofele'', Arrigo Boito, premiered in Milan in 1887. Its music is "continuous" and cannot easily be divided into separate "numbers" to be performed in concert. Some feel that although masterfully orchestrated, it lacks the melodic lustre so characteristic of Verdi's earlier, great, operas, while many critics consider it Verdi's greatest tragic opera, containing some of his most beautiful, expressive music and some of his richest characterizations. In addition, it lacks a prelude, something Verdi listeners are not accustomed to. Arturo Toscanini performed as cellist in the orchestra at the world premiere and began his friendship with Verdi (a composer he revered as highly as Beethoven). Verdi's last opera, ''Falstaff'', whose libretto was also by Boito, was based on Shakespeare's ''Merry Wives of Windsor'' and Victor Hugo's subsequent translation. It was an international success and is one of the supreme comic operas which shows Verdi's genius as a contrapuntist.

In 1894, Verdi composed a short ballet for a French production of ''Otello,'' his last purely orchestral composition. Years later, Arturo Toscanini recorded the music for RCA Victor with the NBC Symphony Orchestra which complements the 1947 Toscanini performance of the complete opera.

In 1897, Verdi completed his last composition, a setting of the traditional Latin text ''Stabat Mater''. This was the last of four sacred works that Verdi composed, ''Quattro Pezzi Sacri'', which are often performed together or separately. The first performance of the four works was on 7 April 1898, at the Grande Opéra, Paris. The four works are: ''Ave Maria'' for mixed chorus; ''Stabat Mater'' for mixed chorus and orchestra; ''Laudi alla Vergine Maria'' for female chorus; and ''Te Deum'' for double chorus and orchestra.

On 29 July 1900, King Umberto I of Italy was assassinated, a deed that horrified the aged composer.

While staying at the Grand Hotel et de Milan in Milan, Verdi had a stroke on 21 January 1901. He grew gradually more feeble and died six days later, on 27 January. Arturo Toscanini conducted the vast forces of combined orchestras and choirs composed of musicians from throughout Italy at the state funeral for Verdi in Milan. To date, it remains the largest public assembly of any event in the history of Italy.

Verdi was initially buried in Milan’s Cimitero Monumentale. A month later, his body was moved to the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, a rest home for retired musicians that Verdi had established.

Role in the Risorgimento

Music historians have long perpetuated a myth about the famous ''Va, pensiero'' chorus sung in the third act of ''Nabucco''. The myth reports that, when the ''Va, pensiero'' chorus was sung in Milan, then belonging to the large part of Italy under Austrian domination, the audience, responding with nationalistic fervor to the exiled slaves' lament for their lost homeland, demanded an encore of the piece. As encores were expressly forbidden by the government at the time, such a gesture would have been extremely significant. However, recent scholarship puts this to rest. Although the audience did indeed demand an encore, it was not for ''Va, pensiero'' but rather for the hymn ''Immenso Jehova,'' sung by the Hebrew slaves to thank God for saving His people. In light of these new revelations, Verdi's position as the musical figurehead of the Risorgimento has been correspondingly downplayed.Claudio, ''Verdi'', Milan: Rusconi, 1982

On the other hand, during rehearsals, workmen in the theater stopped what they were doing during ''Va, pensiero'' and applauded at the conclusion of this haunting melody while the growth of the "identification of Verdi's music with Italian nationalist politics" is judged to have begun in the summer 1846 in relation to a chorus from ''Ernani'' in which the name of one of its characters, "Carlo", was changed to "Pio", a reference to Pope Pius IX's grant of an amnesty to political prisoners.

After Italy was unified in 1861, many of Verdi's early operas were re-interpreted as Risorgimento works with hidden Revolutionary messages that probably had not been intended by either the composer or librettist. Beginning in Naples in 1859 and spreading throughout Italy, the slogan "Viva VERDI" was used as an acronym for ''Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re ''D'Italia'' (Victor Emmanuel King of Italy), referring to Victor Emmanuel II, then king of Sardinia.

The ''Chorus of the Hebrews'' (the English title for ''Va, pensiero'') has another appearance in Verdi folklore. Prior to Verdi's body being driven from the cemetery to the official memorial service and its final resting place at the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, Arturo Toscanini conducted a chorus of 820 singers in "Va, pensiero". At the Casa, the ''Miserere'' from ''Il trovatore'' was sung.

Verdi was elected as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1861 following a request of Prime Minister Cavour but in 1865 he resigned from the office. In 1874 he was named Senator of the Kingdom by King Victor Emanuel II.

Style

Verdi's predecessors who influenced his music were Rossini, Bellini, Giacomo Meyerbeer and, most notably, Gaetano Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante. With the exception of ''Otello'' and ''Aida'', he was free of Wagner's influence. Although respectful of Gounod, Verdi was careful not to learn anything from the Frenchman whom many of Verdi's contemporaries regarded as the greatest living composer. Some strains in ''Aida'' suggest at least a superficial familiarity with the works of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, whom Franz Liszt, after his tour of the Russian Empire as a pianist, popularized in Western Europe.

Throughout his career, Verdi rarely utilised the high C in his tenor arias, citing the fact that the opportunity to sing that particular note in front of an audience distracts the performer before and after the note appears. However, he did provide high Cs to ''Duprez'' in ''Jérusalem'' and to Tamberlick in the original version of ''La forza del destino''. The high C, often-heard in the aria "Di quella pira" from ''Il trovatore'' , does not appear in Verdi's score.

Some critics maintain he paid insufficient attention to the technical aspect of composition, lacking as he did schooling and refinement. Verdi himself once said, "Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned." He hastened to add, however, "I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music."

However, it would be incorrect to assume that Verdi underestimated the expressive power of the orchestra or failed to use it to its full capacity where necessary. Moreover, orchestral and contrapuntal innovation is characteristic of his style: for instance, the strings producing a rapid ascending scale in Monterone's scene in ''Rigoletto'' accentuate the drama, and, in the same opera, the chorus humming six closely grouped notes backstage portrays, very effectively, the brief ominous wails of the approaching tempest. Verdi's innovations are so distinctive that other composers do not use them; they remain, to this day, some of Verdi's signatures.

Verdi was one of the first composers who insisted on patiently seeking out plots to suit his particular talents. Working closely with his librettists and well aware that dramatic expression was his forte, he made certain that the initial work upon which the libretto was based was stripped of all "unnecessary" detail and "superfluous" participants, and only characters brimming with passion and scenes rich in drama remained.

Many of his operas, especially the later ones from 1851 onwards, are a staple of the standard repertoire. With the possible exception of Giacomo Puccini, no composer of Italian opera has managed to match Verdi's popularity.

Works

Verdi's operas, and their date of première are:

''Oberto'', 17 November 1839

''Un giorno di regno'', 5 September 1840

''Nabucco'', 9 March 1842

''I Lombardi alla prima crociata'', 11 February 1843

''Ernani'', 9 March 1844

''I due Foscari'', 3 November 1844

''Giovanna d'Arco'', 15 February 1845

''Alzira'', 12 August 1845

''Attila'', 17 March 1846

''Macbeth'', 14 March 1847

''I masnadieri'', 22 July 1847

''Jérusalem'' (a revision and translation of ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata'') 26 November 1847

''Il corsaro'', 25 October 1848

''La battaglia di Legnano'', 27 January 1849

''Luisa Miller'', 8 December 1849

''Stiffelio'', 16 November 1850

''Rigoletto'', 11 March 1851

''Il trovatore'', 19 January 1853

''La traviata'', 6 March 1853

''Les vêpres siciliennes'', 13 June 1855

''Simon Boccanegra'', 12 March 1857

''Aroldo'' (A major revision of ''Stiffelio''), 16 August 1857

''Un ballo in maschera'', 17 February 1859

''La forza del destino'', 10 November 1862

''Don Carlos'', 11 March 1867

''Aida'', 24 December 1871

''Otello'', 5 February 1887

''Falstaff'', 9 February 1893

Political Significance

Unlike most of the visual arts, opera was commercially profitable, accessible to most classes of society, and thus an effective means of reaching the 19th-century public. Verdi used musical theater to contrast noble ideals with the corrosive effects of power, love of country with the inevitable call for sacrifice and death, and the lure of passion with the need for social order.

Media

Cultural depictions and references

The 1985 play ''After Aida'' is a play-with-music similar to ''Amadeus''. It is an accurate and learned, yet dramatic and humorous, depiction of Verdi's relationship with his librettist Arrigo Boito, and the attempts of Giulio Ricordi and Franco Faccio to get the two to collaborate on a project, ''Otello''.

Eponyms

There are many theatres named after Verdi in Italy.

The Verdi Inlet on the Beethoven Peninsula of Alexander Island just off Antarctica

Verdi Square at Broadway and West 72nd Street in Manhattan features the Giuseppe Verdi Monument.

Asteroid 3975 Verdi

Verdi Football Club, an association football club founded in Parma in July 1913, is after a series of name changes known today as the internationally successful Parma Football Club.

Verdi's name literally translates as "Joseph Green" in English (although ''verdi'' is the plural form of "green"). Musical comedian Victor Borge often referred to the famous composer as "Joe Green" in his act, saying that "Giuseppe Verdi" was merely his "stage name". The same joke-translation is mentioned in Agatha Christie's ''Evil Under the Sun'' by Patrick Redfern to Hercule Poirot – a prank which inadvertedly gives Poirot the answer to the murder.

References

;Notes ;Cited sources

Casini, Claudio, ''Verdi'', Milan: Rusconi, 1982

De Van, Gilles (trans. Gilda Roberts), ''Verdi’s Theater: Creating Drama Through Music''. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1998 ISBN 0-226-14369-4 (hardback), ISBN 0-226-14370-8

Newman, Earnest, ''Stories of the Great Operas''. Philadelphia: The Blakinson Company, 1930

Tintori, Giampiero, ''Guida all'ascolto di Giuseppe Verdi'', Milano: Mursia, 1983.

Werfel, Franz and Stefan, Paul, ''Verdi: The Man and His Letters'', New York: Vienna House 1973 ISBN 0844300888

;Other sources

(IT) Polo, Claudia, ''Immaginari verdiani. Opera, media e industria culturale nell'Italia del XX secolo'', Milano: BMG/Ricordi, 2004

;Verdi's life in and around Busseto

Associazione Amici di Verdi (ed.), ''Con Verdi nella sua terra'', Busseto, 1997, (in English)

Maestrelli, Maurizio, ''Guida alla Villa e al Parco'' (in Italian), publication of Villa Verdi, 2001

Mordacci, Alessandra, ''An Itinerary of the History and Art in the Places of Verdi'', Busseto: Busseto Tourist Office, 2001 (in English)

''Villa Verdi': the Visit'' and ''Villa Verdi: The Park; the Villa; the Room'' (pamphlets in English), publications of the Villa Verdi

External links

Giuseppe Verdi Official Site

Stanford University list of Verdi operas, premiere locations and dates, etc.

"Album Verdi" from the Digital Library of the National Library of Naples (Italy)

Detailed listing of "complete" recordings of Verdi's operas and of extended excerpts

"Verdi and Milan", lecture by Roger Parker on Verdi, given at Gresham College, London 14 May 2007

Verdi cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library

Category:1813 births Category:1901 deaths Category:People from Busseto Category:Opera composers Category:Italian composers Category:Italian atheists Category:Romantic composers Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:Senators of the Kingdom of Italy Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society

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Rosa Ponselle (January 22, 1897 – May 25, 1981), was an American operatic soprano with a large, opulent voice. She sang mainly at the New York Metropolitan Opera and is generally considered by music critics to have been one of the greatest sopranos of the past 100 years.

Early life

She was born Rosa Ponzillo on January 22, 1897, in Meriden, Connecticut, the youngest of three children. The family lived on the city's west side in a neighborhood chiefly populated by immigrants from the south of Italy, first at the corner of Lewis Avenue and Bartlett Streets, then on Foster Street, where Ponselle was born, moving when she was three to Springdale Avenue. Her parents were Italian Neapolitan immigrants. Rosa had an exceptionally mature voice at an early age and, at least in her early years, sang on natural endowment with little, if any, vocal training. Instead, her early prowess as a piano student (which was cultivated by a local music teacher, Anna Ryan, the organist of a nearby Catholic church), seemed to incline Rosa to instrumental rather than vocal music. But with the influence and example of her older sister, Carmela, who was then pursuing a career as a cabaret singer, Rosa began to augment her engagements as a silent-movie accompanist in and around Meriden by singing popular ballads to her audiences while the projectionist changed film reels. By 1914, her reputation as a singer led to a long-term engagement at the San Carlino theater, one of the largest movie houses in New Haven, near the Yale campus.

Vaudeville

By then, Carmela was already an established singer in vaudeville after her debut in ''The Girl from Brighton,'' a 1912 Broadway musical. Three years later, in 1915, Carmela brought Rosa to audition for her vaudeville agent. In spite of being markedly overweight (a stark contrast to the fashion-model physique of her older sister), Rosa impressed with her voice, and she was hired to perform with Carmela as a "sister act". Between 1915 and 1918, the Ponzillo Sisters (also known as "Those Tailored Italian Girls") became a headlining act on the Keith Vaudeville Circuit, appearing in all the major Keith theaters and earning a substantial income in the process. The sisters' act consisted of traditional ballads, popular Italian songs, and operatic arias and duets.

In 1918, Carmela and Rosa demanded a substantial fee increase from the Keith Vaudeville Circuit, as a result of which their act was dropped. At the time, Carmela was studying in New York with a well-connected voice teacher/agent named William Thorner. Thorner auditioned Rosa, and agreed to give her lessons. (Rosa later denied that Thorner had ever given her voice lessons, but her statements on the subject are contradictory.) Although initially less impressed with Rosa's future prospects than with Carmela's, Thorner changed his opinion after the legendary baritone Victor Maurel, whom Giuseppe Verdi had chosen to create Iago in ''Otello'', auditioned both sisters at his friend Thorner's request. Soon afterward, Thorner persuaded the great tenor Enrico Caruso, star of the Metropolitan Opera, to his studio to hear Carmela and Rosa sing. Caruso was deeply impressed with Rosa's voice and arranged for an audition with the Met, as a result of which the Met's general manager, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, offered Rosa a contract for the 1918-19 season.

Metropolitan Opera debut and early operatic career

Rosa Ponselle made her Metropolitan Opera debut on November 15, 1918, as Leonora in Verdi's ''La forza del destino'', opposite Caruso. It was her first performance on any opera stage. In spite of an almost paralyzing case of nerves (which she suffered from throughout her operatic career), she scored a tremendous success, both with the public and with the critics. ''New York Times'' critic James Huneker wrote:

''What a promising debut! Added to her personal attraciveness, she possesses a voice of natural beauty that may prove a gold mine. It is vocal gold, anyhow, with its luscious lower and middle tones, dark, rich and ductile, brilliant in the upper register.''

In addition to Leonora, Ponselle's roles in the 1918-19 season included Santuzza in ''Cavalleria rusticana'', Rezia in Weber's ''Oberon'', and Carmelita in the (unsuccessful) world premiere of Joseph Carl Breil's ''The Legend'' (a role and opera that Ponselle loathed so much that she later burned the score and said the opera "would stink up a cat box").

In the following Met seasons, Ponselle's roles included the lead soprano roles in ''La Juive'' (opposite Caruso's Eléazar, his last new role before he died), ''William Tell'', ''Ernani'', ''Il trovatore'', ''Aida'', ''La Gioconda'', ''Don Carlos'', ''L'Africaine'', ''L'amore dei tre re'', ''Andrea Chénier'', ''La vestale'', and in 1927 the role that many considered her greatest achievement, the title role in Bellini's ''Norma''. In addition to her operatic activities, which were centered at the Met, Ponselle had a lucrative concert career. A tour of the West coast included an appearance at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara on March 14, 1927 in the Artist Series of the Community Arts Association's Music Branch, accompanied by pianist Stuart Ross.

Appearances abroad and later operatic career

Outside the USA, Ponselle sang only at Covent Garden in London (for three seasons) and in Italy (in order, so she said, to honor a promise she had made to her mother that she would one day sing in Italy). In 1929, Ponselle made her European debut in London, at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. Up until that time, her career had been concentrated entirely in America. Ponselle sang two roles at Covent Garden in 1929: Norma and Gioconda. She had great success and was tumultuously acclaimed by the normally staid London audiences. She returned to London in 1930 in ''Norma'', ''L'amore dei tre re'', and ''La traviata'' (her first performances as Violetta). In her final London season in 1931, she sang in ''La forza del destino'', ''Fedra'' (an opera by her coach and long-time friend, Romano Romani), and a reprise of ''La traviata''.

In 1933 Ponselle sang her only performances in Italy, as Giulia in ''La vestale'', with the Maggio Musicale in Florence. As in London, the audiences were wildly enthusiastic. At the second performance, Ponselle had to encore the aria, "O nume tutelar". Her success was such that she considered an engagement at Milan's La Scala, but after witnessing a Florence audience's brutal treatment of a famous tenor, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, who cracked on a high note, she decided not to press her luck further with the notoriously difficult Italian operagoing public. Other than her appearances in London and Florence, Ponselle never sang outside the United States.

Ponselle continued in the 1930s to add roles to her repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1930 she sang Donna Anna in ''Don Giovanni'' to great acclaim, but her first New York appearances in 1931 as Violetta, a role she had sung with such success in London, received a more mixed reception from the New York critics, some of whom found her interpretation too forceful and dramatic. (W.J. Henderson complained of her "assaults" on the vocal line.) In 1931 she sang in another unsuccessful world premiere, Montemezzi's ''La notte di Zoraima'', which sank without a trace. Like many other opera singers of that time, she made a brief trip to Hollywood and made screen tests for M-G-M and Paramount, but nothing came of them.

In 1935, Ponselle sang her first Carmen at the Met. In spite of a great popular success with the role, for which she had prepared meticulously, Ponselle received a drubbing from most of the New York critics, especially Olin Downes in the New York Times, whose savagely caustic review hurt Ponselle deeply. The only roles Ponselle sang during her last two seasons at the Met were Santuzza and Carmen, roles that did not tax her upper register. Differences with the Met management regarding repertoire led her not to renew her contract with the company for the 1937-38 season. Her last operatic performance was as Carmen on April 22, 1937, in a Met tour performance in Cleveland.

Retirement

Ponselle did not consciously or purposely retire after that Cleveland ''Carmen'' in 1937; she just let her career slip away. A variety of factors contributed to this: her receding upper register, which made singing her signature roles increasingly nerve-wracking; her bitterness over the Met management's refusal to accede to her requests regarding repertoire (she wanted to sing Cilea's ''Adriana Lecouvreur'', another part with a congenial low tessitura, and general manager Edward Johnson said no); mental and physical exhaustion, after a non-stop, intense 21-year career with continual bouts of performance nerves; her marriage in 1936 to Baltimore socialite Carle Jackson; and her enjoyment of the relaxed life she now had without the demands of performing. Ponselle later said that she never missed performing after she retired. She and Jackson built a luxurious home near Baltimore, Maryland, the Villa Pace, where she lived the rest of her life.

Her marriage to Jackson was rocky and they divorced in 1949. The breakup was traumatic for Ponselle, and she suffered a nervous breakdown. Although she never again appeared on the concert or opera stage, Ponselle continued to sing at home for friends, who reported that her voice was as magnificent as ever. This was confirmed in 1954, when RCA Victor came to Villa Pace and recorded Ponselle singing a wide variety of songs. In the late 1940s, Ponselle became the guiding force of the fledgling Baltimore Civic Opera Company, providing coaching and voice lessons for the young singers who appeared with the company. Among those who coached with her during their Baltimore Civic Opera appearances at the start of their careers were Beverly Sills, Sherrill Milnes, Plácido Domingo and James Morris.

Death

Ponselle died at her estate, Villa Pace, near Baltimore, Maryland on May 25, 1981, aged 84, after a long battle with bone marrow cancer. She is buried in nearby Druid Ridge Cemetery.

Quotations

''"When discussing singers, there are two you must first set aside: Rosa Ponselle and Enrico Caruso. Then you may begin."'' - Geraldine Farrar, soprano.

''"In my lifetime, there have been three vocal miracles: Caruso, Ruffo and Ponselle. Apart from these there have been several wonderful singers."'' - Tullio Serafin, conductor.

''"When you hear the voice of Rosa Ponselle, you hear a fountain of melody blessed by the Lord."'' - Mary Garden, soprano.

''"The most glorious voice that ever came from any woman's throat."'' - Walter Legge, record producer.

''"The greatest singer of us all."'' - Maria Callas, soprano.

''"The Queen of Queens in all of singing."'' - Luciano Pavarotti, tenor.

The voice

Rosa Ponselle's voice was one of extraordinary beauty and voluptuousness. In its richness and depth, it has been compared by commentators at various times to port wine, maroon velvet and dark chocolate. Luciano Pavarotti, who visited Villa Pace and vocalized with Ponselle when she was nearly 80 years old, likened her still-intact voice to "the color of amber." The voice was absolutely even in its scale, from top to bottom, with all vocal registers seamlessly integrated and no audible changes of gear. Her legato singing was exemplary. She could sing at all dynamic levels, from a powerful forte to a gossamer pianissimo that carried to all corners of the opera house, and she could execute a perfect messa di voce in all parts of her range. In her early years, she had a three-octave range from low C to high C. She possessed an exceptionally rich and mellow middle and lower register.

In weight and caliber Ponselle's voice was a true dramatic coloratura soprano, capable of encompassing all the demands of roles like La Gioconda and Norma. Although not a coloratura soprano in the mould of Tetrazzini or Galli-Curci, she had unusual flexibility for such a large and powerful voice and could negotiate fast scale passages with ease and accuracy, the proverbial "string of pearls". She possessed a fine trill that she could sustain seemingly forever: when she sang the trill in the cabaletta "Tutto sprezzo" in Act I of Verdi's Ernani, the story was that the conductor would simply fold his arms and wait for her to finish, picking up his baton only when she indicated that she was ready to come out of the trill.

The principal flaw in Ponselle's voice, past the earliest years of her operatic career, was a problematic top register. Even in her earliest days, she had a phobia of the high C. In an interview in 1955, Ponselle said that the first thing she did when looking over a prospective role was flip through the score and count the high Cs. (The exposed high C in "O patria mia" in ''Aida'' terrified Ponselle and was the reason she did not sing more often a role that otherwise fitted her, vocally, like a glove.) Throughout her career Ponselle availed herself freely of transpositions. Apparently, she never sang any of the high Cs in Norma but transposed them all down to a B. Her "Sempre libera" in the live recording of ''La traviata'' is taken down a whole tone.

In the later years of her career, but while she was still relatively young, her top register receded, and she was increasingly drawn to roles like Santuzza, Carmen and Adriana that did not tax her upper register. Some have speculated that Ponselle was by nature a mezzo-soprano. This theory is bolstered by the dark richness and solidity of her lower register. Ponselle herself once told mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne that she might have studied as a mezzo had she not begun singing so young. More likely, however, Ponselle, like Horne and Regina Resnik, started out as a true soprano, but as her voice matured it darkened and settled into a lower placement. Had Ponselle continued to sing into the 1940s, she would probably have done so as a mezzo-soprano.

The following recordings best demonstrate the various aspects of Ponselle's voice discussed above:

Range, timbre, pianissimo: "Suicidio!"

Trill and coloratura: "Ernani, involami" and "Mercè, diletti amiche" ("Bolero")

Legato: "Tu che invoco" and "O nume tutelar"

Dynamic control and messa di voce: "Pace, pace, mio Dio"

Recordings

Martin Bernheimer, writing in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', had this to say about Ponselle's voice and recordings:

Ponselle's voice is generally regarded as one of the most beautiful of the century. She was universally lauded for opulence of tone, evenness of scale, breadth of range, perfection of technique and communicative warmth. Many of these attributes are convincingly documented on recordings. In 1954 she made a few private song recordings, later released commercially, revealing a still opulent voice of darkened timbre and more limited range.

Rosa Ponselle's recording career began with the acoustic horn, continued with electric recording, and ended on magnetic tape. Over her career, she made 166 commercial recordings (not including alternate takes), either in the studio or at Villa Pace. These are supplemented by live recordings from the 1930s, which include three complete operas and numerous songs and arias from her appearances on radio. Additionally, there are numerous "private" recordings made by Ponselle herself and others at the Villa Pace, from 1949 through the late 1970s. The Italian critics however found and find her voice "una voce fissata" lacking vibrancy and life with an almost supernatural dullness in interpretation.

Columbia Recordings. Shortly before her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1918, Ponselle signed a 5-year contract with the Columbia Graphophone Company. Although at that time Victor was the more prestigious label, and the one for which Caruso recorded, Ponselle was advised by William Thorner and his assistant and accompanist, Romano Romani, to sign a contract with Columbia because she would become the company's leading soprano and not just one in a stable of great singers. Romani, a young composer whose opera ''Fedra'' had earned favorable attention in Italy, was conducting recording sessions for Columbia at the time. Under his baton, Ponselle made 44 discs for Columbia, including arias from many operas in which she never sang, such as ''Lohengrin'', ''Tosca'', ''La bohème'', ''Madama Butterfly'', and ''I vespri siciliani''. All her Columbia discs were acoustical recordings. Her 1923 Columbia recording of "Selva opaca" from ''William Tell'' was her personal favorite among all her acoustic recordings, because she felt that it was the most accurate representation of her voice and style at the time. Of particular interest among the Columbia discs are three duets she made with Carmela of some of their vaudeville hits, including a version of "Comin' Thro' the Rye" that features an elaborate coloratura cadenza that would not be out of place in Bellini's ''Norma'' but sounds a bit strange in the Scottish Highlands. One of Ponselle's regrets about signing with Columbia was that it deprived her of the opportunity to record with Caruso, who was an exclusive Victor artist.

Victor Recordings. When her Columbia contract expired in 1923, Ponselle immediately signed with Victor. Her recordings from 1923 until mid-1925 are all acoustics; from 1925 on, they are electrical recordings. Among the latter, Ponselle's most admired Victor recordings include "Pace, pace mio Dio", "Suicidio!", "Casta Diva", and the two arias from ''La vestale.'' She also recorded several ensembles, including the complete Tomb Scene from ''Aida'' with Giovanni Martinelli, "Mira, o Norma" with Marion Telva, the Adalgisa of her first Normas in 1927, and a trio from ''La forza del destino'' with Martinelli and Ezio Pinza. Ponselle made no studio recordings after 1939. In 1954 RCA Victor, unable to persuade Ponselle to return to the recording studio, took its recording equipment to the Villa Pace and set up a microphone in the foyer. Ponselle, with piano accompaniment by conductor Igor Chichagov, recorded alternate versions of 53 songs, many of which were released on two LP discs, ''Rosa Ponselle Sings Today'' and ''Rosa Ponselle in Song''. They show that Ponselle's voice was in magnificent condition even at age 57, with extraordinary richness and depth (including a low D in ''Der Tod und das Mädchen'').

Live Recordings. Ponselle sang often on the radio in the early 30s, and she generally had her broadcasts recorded on 78 rpm acetate disks. Many of these have been released since on LP and CD. There are five complete opera performances from the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts: ''Don Giovanni'' (1934), ''La traviata'' (1935), and three performances of ''Carmen'' (03.28.1936 Boston, 01.09.1937 New York and 04.17.1937 Cleveland). The April 1937 ''Carmen'' is the Cleveland tour performance that was Ponselle's farewell to the operatic stage. The ''Traviata'' and ''Carmen'' performances are in good sound (for a mid-30s radio broadcast transcription); the ''Don Giovanni'' is in very poor sound. Ponselle's live recordings also include many songs and arias from her radio concerts. Finally, there are private recordings made at the Villa Pace of Ponselle singing various songs and arias accompanying herself on the piano, some of which are items she never recorded elsewhere. There is a particularly moving and very freely-rendered performance of the aria "Senza Mamma" from ''Suor Angelica.

For an example of Rosa Ponselle's voice as she sings "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, click here.

Compact discs

Rosa Ponselle RCA Victor Vocal Series.

Rosa Ponselle: The Columbia Acoustic Recordings; Pearl.

Rosa Ponselle: The Victor Recordings 1923-25; Romophone.

Rosa Ponselle: The Victor Recordings 1925-29; Romophone.

Rosa Ponselle: The 1939 Victor and 1954 "Villa Pace" Recordings; Romophone.

Rosa Ponselle in Opera and Song; Nimbus Prima Voce (available separately on 3 *CDs - Rosa Ponselle vv. 1, 2 & 3; Nimbus).

Rosa Ponselle On the Air Volume 1 1934-36; Marston.

Rosa Ponselle On the Air Volume 2; Marston.

Rosa Ponselle: When I Have Sung My Songs 1922-1957; Biographies in Music, Cantabile.

Notes

References

American Association of University Women, (Towson, Maryland, Branch), "Baltimore County Women, 1930-1975", (Baltimore: The Sunpapers, 1976) [The book is a collection of profiles of forty Baltimore County women "who distinguished themselves" in diverse fields (including artist Jane Frank and golfer Carol Mann), compiled as part of a project celebrating the 1976 United States Bicentennial ] OCLC 7441013

Drake, James A., ''Rosa Ponselle: A Centenary Biography'' (Amadeus Press: Portland 1997) ISBN 0-385-15641-3

Fitzgerald, Gerald ed., ''Annals of the Metropolitan Opera'' (G. K. Hall & Co.: Boston 1989) ISBN 0-8161-8903-X

Jackson, Paul, "Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Matinee Broadcasts, 1931-1950" (Amadeus Press: Portland 1992)

Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane, ''Rosa Ponselle: American Diva'' (Northeastern University Press: Boston 1997) ISBN 1-55553-317-5

Ponselle, Rosa & Drake, James A., ''Rosa Ponselle: A Singer's Life'' (Doubleday & Sons: New York 1982) ISBN 0-385-15641-3

Scott, Michael, "The Record of Singing, Vol. 2" (Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd.: London 1979)

Steane, J.B., ''The Grand Tradition'' (Amadeus Press: Portland, 1993) ISBN 0-684-13634-1

Category:1897 births Category:1981 deaths Category:American opera singers Category:Cancer deaths in Maryland Category:American people of Italian descent Category:Operatic sopranos Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Musicians from Connecticut

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