Radmila Bakočević (Serbian Cyrillic: Радмила Бакочевић) (born January 5, 1933, in Guča, Lučani, Kingdom of Yugoslavia), is a Serbian operatic soprano who had a major international opera career that began in 1955 and ended upon her retirement from the stage in 1982. During her career she sang at most of the world's important opera houses, including performances throughout Europe, North and South America. She forged important long-term artistic partnerships with two opera houses during her career: the National Theatre in Belgrade and the Vienna State Opera.

A spinto soprano, Bakočević sang a wide repertoire that encompassed works from the 17th through the 20th century. She particularly excelled in portraying Puccini and Verdi heroines and was also admired for a handful of roles in operas by Strauss and Wagner. She also sang in a number of Russian and Czech operas by composers like Rimsky-Korsakov, Smetana, and Tchaikovsky. Interestingly, she sang only two roles in French, Giulietta in Jacques Offenbach's ''Les Contes d'Hoffmann'' and Marguerite in Charles Gounod's ''Faust''. She did, however, possess a flexible enough voice to tackle several bel canto roles by Bellini and Donizetti.

Since retiring from the stage, Bakočević has worked as a professor of singing at several universities. She currently is a member of the voice faculty at the University of Arts in Belgrade where she also served as the school's Chancellor from 1998 to 2000. She is also a member of the Association of Musical Artists of Serbia.

Life and career

Bakočević studied singing at the Academy of Music in Belgrade (now the University of Arts) with Nikola Cvejić and then continued further studies at the school for young opera singers at La Scala. She made her professional opera debut in 1955 at the National Theatre in Belgrade as Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's ''La Bohème''. Earning rave reviews, she became a regular performer at that opera house up into the early 1980s.

In 1958 Bakočević earned Second Prize at the Belgrade International Competition of Young Artists. In 1962 she won the Geneva International Singing Competition and in 1964 she won the Lüttich International Singing Competition. These competition wins brought her to the attention of the international opera community and she was soon engaged to perform in the world's leading opera houses.

In 1967 Bakočević made her debut at the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Triest the Olga in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's ''The Maid of Pskov''. That same year she joined the roster at the Vienna State Opera where she sang regularly through 1982 in such roles as Minnie in Puccini's ''La fanciulla del West'', Elisabetta in Giuseppe Verdi's ''Don Carlos'' and Maddalena in Umberto Giordano's ''Andrea Chénier'' among many others. She made her San Francisco Opera debut on October 15, 1968 as Leonora in ''Il trovatore''. She joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for the 1968-1969 season, singing there Cio-Cio-San in ''Madama Butterfly'', Leonora, Marguerite in ''Faust'', Micaela in ''Carmen'', and Mimì. In 1969 she made her first appearance at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Maria in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ''Mazeppa''.

Bakocevic made her La Scala debut on December 31, 1972 in the title role of Bellini's ''Norma'' under the baton of Gianandrea Gavazzeni with Fiorenza Cossotto as Adalgisa, Gianni Raimondi as Pollione and Ivo Vinco as Oroveso. She returned the following season for several performances of the title role in Puccini's ''Tosca'', with Plácido Domingo and Vladimir Atlantov sharing the role of Cavaradossi and Mario Zanasi as Scarpia. Also in 1972, Bakočević made her first appearance in Paris at the Palais Garnier as Norma. She returned many times to Paris during the 1970s, performing in all of the major houses in that city. In 1973 she made her debut with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company‎ as Amelia in ''Un ballo in maschera'' with Plácido Domingo and Bernabé Martí alternating as Riccardo, Cornell MacNeil as Renato, Lili Chookasian as Ulrica, and Patricia Wise as Oscar. Her last opera performance was in 1982 in the title role of Puccini's ''Turandot'' at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Bakočević's many other appearances between 1965 and 1982 included performances at the Bavarian State Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Hamburg State Opera, the Hungarian National Opera, La Fenice, the Liceu, the Opéra National de Paris, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Polish National Opera, the Romanian National Opera, the Teatro Colón, the Teatro Comunale Florence, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Teatro di San Carlo, the Teatro Massimo, the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, the Teatro Regio di Parma, and the Teatro Regio di Torino to name just a few.

Other roles that Bakočević created on stage during her career including: Adriana in Francesco Cilea's ''Adriana Lecouvreur'', Aida in Verdi's ''Aida'', Amelia in Verdi's ''Simon Boccanegra'', Antonida in Mikhail Glinka's ''A Life for the Tsar'', Beatrice in Bellini's ''Beatrice di Tenda'', Cherubino in Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro'', Desdemona in Verdi's ''Otello'', Elisabetta in Gaetano Donizetti's ''Roberto Devereux'', Elisabeth in Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'', Elvira in Verdi's ''Ernani'', Giulietta in Jacques Offenbach's ''Les Contes d'Hoffmann'', Iolanta in Tchaikovsky's ''Iolanta'', Jaroslavna in Alexander Borodin's ''Prince Igor'', Leonora in Verdi's ''La Forza del destino'', Lisa in Tchaikovsky's ''The Queen of Spades'', Manon in Puccini's ''Manon Lescaut'', Marie in Bedřich Smetana's ''The Bartered Bride'', Mlada in Smetana's ''Dalibor'', Pauline in Sergei Prokofiev's ''The Gambler'', Poppea in Claudio Monteverdi's ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'', Salome in Richard Strauss's ''Salome'', Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin'', and Violetta in Verdi's ''La traviata''.

Sources

External links

Radmila Bakočević as a Chanchellor of the University of Arts in Belgrade

Association of Musical Artists of Serbia

Faculty of Music in Belgrade

Category:1933 births Category:Living people Category:People from Lučani Category:Operatic sopranos Category:University of Arts in Belgrade faculty Category:University of Pristina faculty Category:University of Arts in Belgrade alumni Category:Serbian opera singers Category:Serbian female singers

sr:Радмила Бакочевић sh:Radmila Bakočević

Dubravka Zubovic (b. in Zagreb, Croatia, formerly Yugoslavia) is an opera singer. She has lived in Orange County, California, USA since 1991.

History

Zubovic began her voice studies at the age of 14 and was soon discovered as a young prodigy, graduating from Zagreb Academy of Music with a B.A. degree. Shortly after, she became a leading mezzo of the Belgrade Opera in Belgrade, Serbia.

In 1977 Zubovic graduated with an M.A. degree from the University of Belgrade.

From 1977-1978, she studied at La Scala di Milano with Gina Cigna and Ettore Campogalliani. Her longtime mentor was renowned soprano Zinka Milanov.

Career

Zubovic is a recipient of many prestigious awards from singing competitions in Barcelona (Spain), Vienna (Austria), Ostend (Belgium), etc. During her 25-year career, she performed all over the world, including the USA, Australia, Latin America and on many stages in Europe. Her repertory includes opera, Lieder and oratorio.

In 1987, Zubovic made her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. She sang with the Pacific Opera at the Costa Mesa Performing Arts Center.

In January 2010, Zubovic joined the Saddleback College Music Department, as an adjunct professor of applied voice and a language coach. Zubovic is a member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing).

Recently, Zubovic opened her own private studio in Laguna Niguel, Orange County, California.

References

Crutchfield, Will, "Review: Giordano's 'Chenier' In Concert", ''New York Times'', March 18, 1988

Radio-televizija Srbije, "Osma vrata", December 25, 2008

Category:Croatian female singers Category:Croatian opera singers Category:Living people Category:Mezzo-sopranos Category:People from Zagreb Category:People from Orange County, California Category:University of Belgrade alumni

Coordinates	53°42′25″N16°23′39″N
name	Lady Macbeth
creator	William Shakespeare
play	''Macbeth''
date	c.1603–1607
source	''Holinshed's Chronicles'' (1587)
family	Macbeth (husband)
role	Goads her husband into committing regicide
quote	Out, damned spot! Out, I say! (5.1)
portrayed by	Sarah Siddons Helen Faucit Ellen Terry Francesca Annis Vivien Leigh Glenda Jackson Judith Anderson Judi Dench Jeanette Nolan Keeley Hawes
see also	}}

Lady Macbeth is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'' (c.1603–1607). She is the wife to the play's protagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, she becomes Queen of Scotland, but later suffers pangs of guilt for her part in the crime. She dies off-stage in the last act, an apparent suicide.

The character's origins lie in the accounts of Kings Duff and Duncan in ''Holinshed's Chronicles'' (1587), a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth appears to be a composite of two separate and distinct personages in Holinshed's work: Donwald's nagging, murderous wife in the account of King Duff, and Macbeth's ambitious wife in the account of King Duncan.

Lady Macbeth is a powerful presence in the play, most notably in the first two acts. Following the murder of King Duncan, however, her role in the plot diminishes. She becomes an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth's plotting, and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by her husband's hallucinations. Her fifth act sleepwalking scene is a turning point in the play, and her line, "Out, damned spot!," has become a phrase familiar to most speakers of the English language. The report of her death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech.

Analysts see in the character of Lady Macbeth the conflict between femininity and masculinity, as they are impressed in cultural norms. Lady Macbeth suppresses her instincts toward compassion, motherhood, and fragility — associated with femininity — in favour of ambition, ruthlessness, and the singleminded pursuit of power. This conflict colours the entire drama, and sheds light on gender-based preconceptions from Shakespearean England to the present.

The role has attracted countless notable actresses over the centuries, including Sarah Siddons, Helen Faucit, Ellen Terry, Vivien Leigh, Glenda Jackson, Francesca Annis, Judith Anderson, Judi Dench and Keeley Hawes. Jeanette Nolan played the character in Orson Welles' 1948 film adaptation.

Origins

Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth appears to be a composite of two personages found in the accounts of Kings Duff and Duncan in ''Holinshed's Chronicles'' (1587). In the account of King Duff, one of his captains, Donwald, suffers the deaths of his kinsmen at the orders of the King. Donwald then considers regicide at "the setting on of his wife" who "showed him the means whereby he might soonest accomplish it." Donwald abhors such an act but perseveres at the nagging of his wife. After plying the King's servants with food and drink and letting them fall asleep, the couple admit their confederates to the King's room who then commit the regicide. The murder of Duff has its motivation in revenge, rather than ambition.

In Holinshed's account of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is confined to a single sentence:

Not found in Holinshed are the invocation to the "spirits that tend on mortal thoughts," the sleepwalking scene, and various details found in the drama concerning the death of Macbeth.

Although Macbeth's wife can be traced to a real-world counterpart, Queen Gruoch of Scotland, Shakespeare's fictional character is tied so weakly to her that the bonds are virtually non-existent.

Role in the play

Lady Macbeth makes her first appearance late in scene five of the first act when she learns in a letter from her husband that three witches have prophesied his future as King. When King Duncan becomes her overnight guest, Lady Macbeth seizes the opportunity to effect his murder. Aware her husband's temperament is "too full o' the milk of human kindness" for committing a regicide, she plots the details of the murder, then, countering her husband's arguments and reminding him that he first broached the matter, she belittles his courage and manhood, finally winning him to her designs.

The King retires after a night of feasting. Lady Macbeth drugs his attendants and lays daggers ready for the commission of the crime. Macbeth kills the sleeping King while Lady Macbeth waits nearby. When he brings the daggers from the King's room, his Lady orders him to return them to the scene of the crime. He refuses. She carries the daggers to the room and smears the drugged attendants with blood. The couple retire to wash their hands.

Following the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth's role in the plot diminishes. When Duncan's sons flee the land in fear for their own lives, Macbeth is appointed King. Without consulting his Queen, Macbeth plots other murders in order to secure his throne, and, at a royal banquet, the Queen is forced to dismiss her guests when Macbeth hallucinates. In her last appearance, she sleepwalks in profound torment. She dies off-stage, with suicide being suggested as its cause when Malcolm declares that she died by "self and violent hands."

Sleepwalking scene

The sleepwalking scene is one of the most celebrated scenes from ''Macbeth,'' and, indeed, in all of Shakespeare. It has no counterpart in Shakespeare's source material for the play, ''Holinshed's Chronicles,'' but is solely the Bard's invention.

A.C. Bradley indicates that, with the exception of the scene's few closing lines, the scene is entirely in prose with Lady Macbeth being the only major character in Shakespearean tragedy to make a last appearance "denied the dignity of verse." According to Bradley, Shakespeare generally assigned prose to characters exhibiting abnormal states of mind or abnormal conditions such as somnambulism, with the regular rhythm of verse being inappropriate to characters having lost their balance of mind or subject to images or impressions with no rational connection. Lady Macbeth's recollections – the blood on her hand, the clock striking, her husband's reluctance – are brought forth from her disordered mind in chance order with each image deepening her anguish. For Bradley, Lady Macbeth's "brief toneless sentences seem the only voice of truth" with the spare and simple construction of the character's diction expressing a "desolating misery." Lady Macbeth's compulsive washing of her hands to rid them of blood is reminiscent of hand washing common among sufferers from Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Analyses of the role

Lady Macbeth as anti-mother

Stephanie Chamberlain in her article "Fantasizing Infanticide: Lady Macbeth and the Murdering Mother in Early Modern England" argues that though Lady Macbeth wants power, her power is “conditioned on maternity”, which was a “conflicted status in early modern England.” Chamberlain argues that the negative images of Lady Macbeth as a mother figure (like when she discusses bashing the brain of the babe that sucks her breast) reflect the image of motherhood in early modern England. In early modern England, mothers were often accused of hurting the innocent lives that were placed in their hands. Lady Macbeth then personifies all mothers of early modern England who were condemned for Lady Macbeth’s fantasy of infanticide. Lady Macbeth’s fantasy, Chamberlain argues, is not struggling to be a man, but rather struggling with the condemnation of being a bad mother that was common during that time.

Jenijoy La Belle takes a slightly different view in her article, "A Strange Infirmity: Lady Macbeth’s Amenorrhea." La Belle states that Lady Macbeth does not wish for just a move away from femininity; she is asking the spirits to eliminate the basic biological characteristics of femininity. The main biological characteristic that La Belle focuses on is menstruation. La Belle argues that by asking to be unsexed and crying out “make thick [her] blood / Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse” Lady Macbeth asks for her menstrual cycle to stop. By having her menstrual cycle stop Lady Macbeth hopes to stop any feelings of sensitivity and caring that is associated with females. She hopes to become like a man to stop any sense of remorse for the regicide. La Belle furthers her argument by connecting the stopping of the menstrual cycle with the infanticide present in the play. La Belle gives examples of "the strangled babe" whose finger is thrown into the witches’ cauldron (4.1.30); Macduff’s babes who are "savagely slaughter’d" (4.3.205); and the suckling babe with boneless gums whose brains Lady Macbeth would dash out (1.7.57–58) to prove that Lady Macbeth as the ultimate anti-mother who not only would smash in a baby’s brains but goes even further to wanting to stop her means of procreation.

Lady Macbeth as witch

Literary critics and historians argue that, not only does Lady Macbeth represent an anti-mother figure, but they classify her as a specific type of anti-mother: the witch. Critic Joanna Levin defines a witch as a woman who succumbs to Satanic force, a lust for the devil, and who, either for this reason or the desire to obtain supernatural powers, invokes (evil) spirits. English physician Edward Jorden published ''Briefe Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother'' in 1603, in which he speculated that this force literally derived from the female sexual reproductive organs. Because no one else had published any other studies on the susceptibility of women, especially mothers, to becoming both the witch and the bewitched (i.e. demonically possessed), Jorden's findings helped create the foundation for the views popularized during the Renaissance about the relationship between women and witchcraft. Levin refers to Marianne Hester's ''Lewd Women and Wicked Witches: A Study of Male Domination,'' in which Hester articulates a feminist interpretation of the witch as an empowered woman. Levin summarises the claim of feminist historians like Hester: the witch should be a figure celebrated for her nonconformity, defiance, and general sense of empowerment; witches challenged patriarchal authority and hierarchy, specifically "threatening hegemonic sex/gender systems." This view associates witchcraft — and by extension, Lady Macbeth — not with villainy and evil, but with heroism.

Jenijoy La Belle assesses Lady Macbeth's femininity and sexuality as they relate to motherhood, and witchhood as well: The fact that she conjures the spirits likens her to a witch, and the act itself establishes a similarity in the way that both Lady Macbeth and the Weird Sisters from the play "use the metaphoric powers of language to call upon spiritual powers who in turn will influence physical events — in one case the workings of the state, in the other the workings of a woman's body." Like the witches, Lady Macbeth strives to make herself an instrument for bringing about the future She proves herself a defiant, empowered nonconformist, and an explicit threat to a patriarchal system of governance in that, through challenging his masculinity, she manipulates Macbeth into murdering King Duncan. Despite the fact that she calls him a coward, Macbeth remains reluctant, until she asks: "What beast wasn't, then, that made you break this enterprise to me? / When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man." Thus Lady Macbeth enforces a masculine conception of power, yet only after pleading to be unsexed, or defeminised. The Weird Sisters are also depicted as defeminised, androgynous figures. They are bearded (1.3.46), (which is associated with Lady Macbeth's amenorrhea). Witches were perceived as an extreme type of anti-mother, even considered capable of cooking and eating their own children. Although Lady Macbeth may not express violence toward her child with that same degree of grotesqueness, she certainly expresses a sense of brutality when she states that she would smash the babe's head.

Lady Macbeth and gender stereotyping

While critics dispute that Lady Macbeth represents an anti-mother figure and hysteric they also claim the idea that she represents gender stereotyping.

Christina León Alfar discusses in her article "'Blood will have blood': Power, Performance, and the Trouble with Gender," that while scholars argue that Lady Macbeth violates the state of gender by asking the spirits to "unsex" her, she believes that Lady Macbeth has been falsely accused of being the source of violence in the play. Alfar contends that while it is viewed that Lady Macbeth was the driving force to Macbeth’s "bloody desire," she is also falling victim to the literary tendency of attacking strong female characters. She argues that Lady Macbeth never asserted her own desires or ambitions; she merely encouraged her husband's desire to be king.

Unlike Alfar, some critics claim that Lady Macbeth was in fact the source of violence in the play. Carolyn Asp explains in her article, "'Be bloody, bold and resolute': Tragic Action and Sexual Stereotyping in Macbeth" that Lady Macbeth openly attempts to reject her feminine traits and adopt a male mentality because she perceives that her society associates feminine qualities with weakness. Likewise, Robert Kimbrough argues in his article "Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender" that in Elizabethan literature, especially ''Macbeth,'' there is the idea that to be "manly" is to be aggressive, daring, bold, resolute, and strong, especially in the face of death. And to be "womanly" is to be gentle, fearful, pitying, wavering, and soft, a condition signified by tears. He also argues that Lady Macbeth wants to become cruel, which she considers to be a masculine trait. However, in order for her to become cruel she must cut off the flow of blood to her heart, which is the seat of love, the source of "remorse," pity and compassion which are all attributes of human nature.

According to Asp, societal stereotypes play a major role in Lady Macbeth’s issue with gender. She is convinced that she must divest herself of her femininity if she is to have any effect on her husband’s public life. However, in spite of her constant efforts to take on male traits, her unconscious feminine traits pull to the surface just before the murder of Duncan. When addressing her husband Lady Macbeth refers to him as “thy love” (1.7.39) and challenges his self-image as a male, the foundation of his other roles. When Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth’s manhood she is ultimately saying that in order to be king, the heroic warrior, he must take on the persona of a man, along with her. Therefore, only if Macbeth dares to kill Duncan will he be a man, in the eyes of Lady Macbeth; so much more than a man as she says "to be the same in [his] own act and valour / As [he is] in desire (1.7.40–41).

The British actress Sarah Siddons, one of the leading tragic actresses of the 18th century, wrote that in her interpretation, Lady Macbeth has at once subjugated all her femininity to ambition, and at the same time maintained her feminine attractiveness to Macbeth. "Such a combination only, respectable in energy and strength of mind, and captivating in feminine loveliness, could have composed a charm of such potency as to fascinate the mind of a hero so dauntless, a character so amiable, so honourable as Macbeth.

Performance history

John Rice, a boy actor with the King's Men, may have played Lady Macbeth in a performance of what was likely Shakespeare's tragedy at the Globe Theatre on 20 April 1611. The performance was witnessed and described by Simon Forman in his manuscript ''The Book of Plays and Notes thereof per Formans for Common Policy''. His account, however, does not establish whether the play was Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'' or a work on the same subject by another dramatist. The role may have been beyond the talents of a boy actor and may have been played by a man in early performances.

In the mid-18th century, Hannah Pritchard played Lady Macbeth opposite David Garrick's Macbeth. She was, in Thomas Davies' words, "insensible to compunction and inflexibly bent on cruelty."

Sarah Siddons starred in John Philip Kemble's 1794 production at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and offered a psychologically intricate portrait of Lady Macbeth in the tradition of Hannah Pritchard. Siddons was especdiaslly praised for moving audiences in the sleepwalking scene with her depiction of a soul in profound torment. Siddons and Kemble furthered the view established by Pritchard and Garrick that character was the essence of Shakespearean drama.

William Hazlitt commented on Siddons' performance:

Helen Faucit was critiqued by Henry Morley, a professor of English literature in University College, London, who thought the actress "too demonstrative and noisy" in the scenes before Duncan's murder with the "Come, you spirits" speech "simply spouted" and its closing "Hold! Hold!" shouted in a "most unheavenly manner." In the "I have given suck" speech, he thought Faucit "poured out" the speech in a way that recalled the "scold at the door of a gin-shop." Faucit, he believed, was "too essentially feminine, too exclusively gifted with the art of expressing all that is most beautiful and graceful in womanhood, to succeed in inspiring anything like awe and terror." He thought her talents more congenial to the second phase of the character, and found her "admirably good" in the banquet scene. Her sleepwalking scene, however, was described as having "the air of a too well-studied dramatic recitation."

In 1884 at the Gaiety Theatre, Sarah Bernhardt performed the sleepwalking scene barefoot and clad in a clinging nightdress, and, in 1888, a critic noted Ellen Terry was "the stormy dominant woman of the eleventh century equipped with the capricious emotional subltety of the nineteenth century."

In 1915 and 1918, Sybil Thorndike played the role at Old Vic and then at the Prince's Theatre in 1926. Flora Robson played the role in Tyrone Guthrie's Old Vic production in 1934. In 1955, Vivien Leigh played Lady Macbeth opposite Laurence Olivier at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1977 at The Other Place in Stratford, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen played the infamous husband and wife in Trevor Nunn's production. Notable Lady Macbeths in the late 20th century included Judith Anderson, Pamela Brown, Diana Wynyard, Simone Signoret and Janet Suzman.

In 2008, Pegasus Books published ''The Tragedy of Macbeth Part II'', a play by American author and playwright Noah Lukeman which endeavoured to offer a sequel to Macbeth and to resolve its many loose ends, particularly Lady Macbeth’s reference to her having had a child. Written in blank verse, the play was published to critical acclaim.

Jeanette Nolan performed the role in Orson Welles' 1948 film adaptation and was critiqued by Bosley Crowther in the ''New York Times'' of 28 December 1950: "The Lady Macbeth of Jeanette Nolan is a pop-eyed and haggard dame whose driving determination is as vagrant as the highlights on her face. Likewise, her influence upon Macbeth, while fleetingly suggested in a few taut lines and etched in a couple of hot embraces, is not developed adequately. The passion and torment of the conflict between these two which resides in the play has been rather seriously neglected in this truncated rendering." Michael Costello of ''Allmovie'' has described her performance as "uneven" and has also stated, "Her unique Lady Macbeth is either an exhibition of rank scenery-chewing or a performance of intriguingly Kabuki-like stylization."

See also

Female Gender roles

References

Further reading

Lady MacBeth and the Daemonologie of Hysteria

Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work

Women's Fantasy of Manhood: A Shakespearian Theme

External links

''Macbeth:'' Folio Version

''Macbeth:'' Full-text online

List of all appearances and all mentions of Lady Macbeth in the play.

Category:Female Shakespearean characters Category:Fictional queens Category:Fictional characters based on real people Category:Regicides Category:Characters in Macbeth Category:Fictional Scottish people Category:Fictional people who committed suicide

fr:Lady Macbeth it:Lady Macbeth no:Lady Macbeth pt:Lady Macbeth ro:Lady Macbeth sv:Lady Macbeth

Franco Corelli (8 April 1921 – 29 October 2003) was a famous Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, a very elegant and passionate singing and remarkable performances. Dubbed the "Prince of tenors", Corelli possessed handsome features and a charismatic stage presence which endeared him to audiences. He had a long and fruitful partnership with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City between 1961 and 1975. He also appeared on the stages of most of the major opera houses in Europe and with opera companies throughout North America.

Biography

Early life and education: 1921-1950

Corelli was born Dario Franco Corelli in Ancona into a family many have thought to have little or no musical background. While his parents were not particularly musical, his paternal grandfather Augusto had actually quit working at 35 to establish a successful career as an operatic tenor. His older brother Aldo subsequently quit school to become an operatic baritone, and two of his uncles sang in the Teatro delle Muse chorus in Ancona. His father was a shipbuilder for the Italian navy and the family lived along the Adriatic Sea. Corelli loved the sea and initially decided to follow in the footsteps of his father by pursuing a degree in naval engineering at the University of Bologna. While studying there he entered a music competition under the dare of a friend who was an amateur singer. While he did not win the competition, he was encouraged by the judges to pursue a singing career and Corelli entered the Pesaro Conservatory of Music to study opera.

At the conservatory, Corelli studied under Rita Pavoni and Arturo Melocchi but was unhappy with the results, saying these lessons basically destroyed his upper register. After this Corelli decided to become his own teacher, and referred to voice teachers as "dangerous people" and a "plague to singers". At first he tried to turn himself into a baritone, but quickly abandoned that pursuit. He then pursued learning the tenor repertoire by imitating the style and vocal effects of the recordings of great tenors like Enrico Caruso, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Aureliano Pertile, and Beniamino Gigli. ''Opera News'' stated that Corelli's technique used "a manipulation of the larynx downward that resulted in his cavernous sound even in high-flying passages, where it gained brilliance. Regulating the breath pressure, the tenor was able to reduce this sound while retaining the core of the voice in a diminuendo, or even a morendo on a high B-flat, the effect requested by Verdi at the end of 'Celeste Aida'."

Early career: 1951-1960

In the summer of 1951, Corelli won the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, earning a debut at Spoleto the following fall. He was originally scheduled to sing Radames in Verdi's ''Aïda'' and spent three months preparing the role with conductor Giuseppe Bertelli. However, Corelli eventually switched to Don José in Bizet's ''Carmen'', feeling that at this point he lacked the technical finesse and legato for the role of Radamès. In November 1951, he made his debut at the Rome Opera as Manrico in ''Il trovatore'' opposite Maria Caniglia as Leonora. The next year he appeared in operas with smaller opera houses throughout Italy and on the Italian radio. In 1953 he joined the Rome Opera's roster of principal tenors where he spent much of his time performing through 1958. His first role with the company in 1953 was that of Romeo in Zandonai's rarely heard opera ''Giulietta e Romeo''. Later that season he sang Pollione in Bellini's ''Norma'' opposite Maria Callas in the title role. It was the first time the two sang opposite one another and Callas immediately became a fan of Corelli. The two performed frequently with each other over the next several years in a partnership that lasted to the end of Callas's career.

While singing at the Rome Opera, Corelli also made numerous appearances with other opera houses both in Italy and internationally. He made his first appearance at La Scala in Milan in 1954, as Licinio in Spontini's ''La vestale'' opposite Callas's Julia for the opening of the 1954-1955 season. He returned several more times to that house over the next five years, singing opposite Callas in productions of ''Fedora'' (1956), ''Il pirata'' (1958) and ''Poliuto'' (1960). He also notably portrayed the role of Dick Johnson in a highly celebrated performance of ''La fanciulla del West'' at La Scala in 1956, opposite Gigliola Frazzoni and Tito Gobbi, which was broadcast live on Italian radio. Other important debuts for Corelli soon followed, including his first appearances at: the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence and the Arena di Verona Festival in 1955; the Vienna State Opera, as Radamès, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, as Cavaradossi, in 1957; the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera in 1958; and the Berlin State Opera in 1961. Among the many triumphs of the decade for Corelli were two highly celebrated performances at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, a 1958 appearance as Don Alvaro in ''La forza del destino'' opposite Renata Tebaldi as Leonora and a 1959 performance of Maurizio in ''Adriana Lecouvreur'' opposite Magda Olivero in the title role.

During his early career, Corelli sang in a number of rare operas in which he triumphed including performances of Spontini's ''Agnese di Hohenstaufen'', Handel's ''Giulio Cesare'' and ''Hercules'', Prokofiev's ''War and Peace'', and the world premiere of Guido Guerrini's ''Enea''. By 1960 his active repertory included some 30 roles including the title role in Giordano's ''Andrea Chénier'', Turiddu in Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana'', Rodolfo in Puccini's ''La bohème'', and the title roles in Verdi's ''Don Carlos'' and ''Ernani''.

In 1957 Corelli met soprano Loretta di Lelio when she came backstage after one of his performances at the Rome Opera House to get his autograph. They began seeing each other romantically and married in 1958. After their marriage, Loretta gave up her fledgling opera career to serve as her husband's business manager, secretary, public relations agent, cook, and English translator. Their marriage ended upon Corelli's death forty-five years later.

The Metropolitan Opera years: 1961-1975

Corelli made his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera on 27 January 1961 as Manrico in ''Il trovatore,'' opposite soprano Leontyne Price as Leonora who was also making her house debut at the Met that evening. He would sing to great acclaim at the Met until 1974 in roles such as Calaf (with Birgit Nilsson as Turandot), Cavaradossi, Maurizio, Ernani, Rodolfo and Edgardo. He also undertook French parts in new productions of ''Roméo et Juliette'' and ''Werther''. He sang at a number of historic nights at the Met including: the closing gala at the old Met, the concert honoring Sir Rudolf Bing's retirement, and Callas's legendary comeback Tosca. His last performance at the Met was on December 28, 1974 as Calàf with Ingrid Bjoner, also singing her last performance at the Met, as Turandot. However, Corelli did tour extensively with the Metropolitan Opera in 1975, singing in performances in cities throughout the United States and in Japan.

While singing at the Met, Corelli continued to be a presence on the international stage. In 1961 he made his debut with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He returned to La Scala in 1962, for a revival of Meyerbeer's ''Les Huguenots'', opposite Joan Sutherland, and that same year appeared as Manrico in a lauded production of ''Il trovatore'' at the Salzburg Festival under Herbert von Karajan and opposite Leontyne Price, Giulietta Simionato, and Ettore Bastianini. Also in 1962 he made his first appearance with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Mario Cavaradossi. He returned to Philadelphia almost every year through 1971 portraying close to a dozen different roles. He made his debut at the Paris Opéra in 1964 opposite Callas in Tosca and Norma.

In the early 1970s, Corelli's voice began to show some signs of wear after years of hard use in a demanding repertory. As a result, the resultant nerves surrounding performances became increasingly difficult to handle for the tenor. He made his last opera appearance as Rodolfo in 1976 in Torre del Lago at the age of 55. Corelli later said of the decision, "I felt that my voice was a little tired, a little opaque, less brilliant than before. The singer's life cost me a great deal. I was full of apprehension and mad at everyone. I was a bundle of nerves, I wasn't eating or sleeping."

Later life: 1976-2003

After retiring from the stage, Corelli became a popular voice teacher in New York City, somewhat ironic for a man who himself disdained voice teachers for much of his life. Corelli briefly served as mentor to ''America's Got Talent'' finalist Donald Braswell II, who has played many of the same roles as Corelli. He was briefly coaxed out of retirement for concerts in 1980 and 1981. He died in Milan in 2003, aged 82, having suffered a stroke earlier that year. He was buried in Milan's Cimitero Monumentale.

Critical reception

With a rich and ringing spinto tenor voice and movie-star good looks, Corelli won a wide public following from early on his career. However, while the public was enthralled with the tenor, music critics were divided, with some complaining about what they perceived as self-indulgence of phrasing and expression. During the 1960s the anti-Corelli sentiment among critics was epitomized by Alan Rich of the ''The New York Herald Tribune'' in a 1966 article which, while acknowledged the vibrancy and white heat of his singing, considered Corelli a throwback to an earlier era when, from Mr. Rich's perspective, musical compromises were common and stylistic refinement lacking. Rich said that, Corelli is "not employed by an opera, but employs it to serve purposes it was not meant to serve." Also, many critics did not look favourably upon of his performances in French opera, owing to the tenor’s exotic French diction and style. However, Corelli also had his admirers among several highly respected and notable critics, including Harold C. Schonberg of ''The New York Times'', who once defended the expressive liberties taken by Corelli as possessing "its own kind of logic".

Selected recordings

He left many recordings of solo arias and complete operas. These reveal the splendour of Corelli's voice in its prime during the late 1950s and 1960s. Many admirers prefer recordings of his live performances, finding Corelli's singing in front of an audience far more exciting than his studio performances. Fortunately, many of these are available.

!Year	!Opera	!Cast	!Conductor,Opera House and Orchestra	!Label
1956		Mary Curtis Verna, Franco Corelli,Miriam Pirazzini, Giangiacomo Guelfi,Giulio Neri	Angelo Questa Chorus and Orchestra of the RAI Turin	Cetra
1960	Vincenzo Bellini	[[Maria Callas, Christa Ludwig,Franco Corelli, Nicola Zaccaria		EMI
		Franco Corelli, Lucine Amara,Tito Gobbi, Mario Zanasi	Lovro von Matačić Coro e Orchestra Teatro alla Scala	EMI
1962		Victoria de los Ángeles, Franco Corelli,Mario Sereni		EMI
1963		Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli,Mirella Freni, Robert Merrill	Herbert von KarajanWiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Staatsopernchor	RCA
		Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella,Mario Sereni	Gabriele SantiniRome Opera Chorus and Orchestra	EMI
1964	Verdi - ''Il trovatore''	Franco Corelli, Gabriella Tucci,Giulietta Simionato, Robert Merrill,Ferruccio Mazzoli	Thomas SchippersRome Opera Chorus and Orchestra	EMI
1965		Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli,Renata Scotto, Bonaldo Giaiotti	Francesco Molinari-PradelliRome Opera Chorus and Orchestra	EMI
	Verdi - ''Aida''	Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli,Grace Bumbry, Mario Sereni, Bonaldo Giaiotti	Zubin MehtaRome Opera Chorus and Orchestra	EMI
1966	Charles Gounod	[[Joan Sutherland, Franco Corelli,Nicolai Ghiaurov
1966	Puccini - ''Tosca''	Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli,Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau	Lorin MaazelOrchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia	DECCA
1968	Gounod - ''Roméo et Juliette''	Franco Corelli, Mirella Freni,Xavier Dupraz		EMI
1970	Bizet - ''Carmen''	Franco Corelli, Anna Moffo,Helen Donath, Piero Cappuccilli	Lorin MaazelOrchester und Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin	RCA

References

''The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia'', edited by David Hamilton, (Simon and Schuster, 1987) ISBN 0-671-61732-X

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

Giancarlo Landini, Franco Corelli, L'uomo, la voce, l'arte, Viareggio, Idea Books, 2010, pagg.296, oltre 200 immagini.

External links

History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration

Category:1921 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Italian opera singers Category:Operatic tenors Category:People from Ancona Category:Burials at the Cimitero Monumentale di Milano

bg:Франко Корели ca:Franco Corelli de:Franco Corelli es:Franco Corelli fr:Franco Corelli hr:Franco Corelli id:Franco Corelli it:Franco Corelli he:פרנקו קורלי la:Franciscus Corelli mk:Франко Корели nl:Franco Corelli ja:フランコ・コレッリ pl:Franco Corelli pt:Franco Corelli ro:Franco Corelli ru:Корелли, Франко fi:Franco Corelli sv:Franco Corelli zh:弗兰科·科莱里

Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (28 August 1867 – 12 November 1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.

He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples. His first opera ''Marina'', was written for the competition staged by the music publishers Casa Sonzogno for the best one-act opera, remembered today because it marked the beginning of Italian ''verismo''; the winner was Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana''. Giordano, the youngest candidate, placed sixth among seventy-three with ''Marina'', which generated enough interest for Sonzogno to commission an opera to be staged in the 1891–92 season.

The result was ''Mala Vita'', a gritty ''verismo'' opera concerning a labourer who vows to reform a prostitute if he is cured of his tuberculosis. This caused something of a scandal when performed at the Teatro Argentina, Rome, in February 1892. It played successfully at Vienna, Prague and Berlin, and was re-written as Il Voto a few years later in an attempt to raise interest in the work again.

Giordano tried a more romantic approach with his next opera, ''Regina Diaz'', to a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci (1894), but this was also a failure, taken off the stage after just two performances.

Giordano then moved to Milan, and returned to ''verismo'' with his best-known work, ''Andrea Chénier'' (1896), based on the life of the French poet, André Chénier. ''Fedora'' (1898), based on Victorien Sardou's play, featured a rising young tenor named Enrico Caruso; it was also a success, and is still performed today. His later works are much less known, but occasionally revived. He died in Milan at the age of 81.

The most important theater in Foggia has been dedicated to Umberto Giordano. A square in Foggia is also dedicated to him, with many statues representing his most famous works.

Operas

''Marina'' (1888)

''Mala Vita'' (21 February 1892, Teatro Argentina, Rome)

''Regina Diaz'' (5 March 1894, Teatro Mercadante, Naples)

''Andrea Chénier'' (28 March 1896, Teatro alla Scala, Milan)

''Fedora'' (17 November 1898, Teatro Lirico, Milan)

''Il Voto'' (revision of ''Mala Vita'') (6 September 1902, Teatro Bellini, Naples)

''Siberia'' (19 December 1903, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, rev. 1927)

''Marcella'' (9 November 1907, Teatro Lirico, Milan)

''Mese mariano'' (17 March 1910, Teatro Massimo, Palermo)

''Madame Sans-Gêne'' (25 January 1915, Metropolitan Opera, New York)

''Giove a Pompei'' (6 July 1921, Teatro La Pariola, Rome)

''La cena delle beffe'' (20 December 1924, Teatro alla Scala, Milan)

''Il re'' (12 January 1929, Teatro alla Scala, Milan)

''La festa del Nilo'' (incomplete)

References

Category:1867 births Category:1948 deaths Category:People from Foggia (city) Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Italian composers Category:Members of the Royal Academy of Italy Category:Opera composers Category:Romantic composers

ca:Umberto Giordano cs:Umberto Giordano da:Umberto Giordano de:Umberto Giordano es:Umberto Giordano eo:Umberto Giordano fr:Umberto Giordano hy:Ումբերտո Ջորդանո hr:Umberto Giordano it:Umberto Giordano he:אומברטו ג'ורדאנו la:Humbertus Giordano hu:Umberto Giordano nl:Umberto Giordano ja:ウンベルト・ジョルダーノ pl:Umberto Giordano pt:Umberto Giordano ru:Джордано, Умберто sk:Umberto Giordano sl:Umberto Giordano fi:Umberto Giordano sv:Umberto Giordano tr:Umberto Giordano uk:Умберто Джордано zh:翁贝托·焦尔达诺