Word: freni
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Freni is familiar to American audiences from several excellent popular opera recordings-La Bohème and Madama Butterfly with Supertenor Luciano Pavarotti, Aida and Don Carlos with Tenor José Carreras, all conducted by Herbert von Karajan-as well as from films of Bohème and Butterfly shown here in 1965 and 1976. She captivated audiences at her U.S. debut as Mimi at the Metropolitan Opera in 1965 with her technical accomplishment and winsome vocal timbre. But Freni's talent still far outshines her American reputation. Her career has been primarily European: between...
...When my daughter was a little girl, I try to stay in Europa, to stay home with her," says the reluctant diva in her own Italo-English. Indeed, Freni temporarily quit the stage after the birth in 1956 of her daughter Micaela, born the year after Mirella's professional operatic debut and named for her role in Bizet's Carmen. It took two years of appeals by her husband, Pianist Leone Magiera, her coach and accompanist, to persuade her to resume her career. "Later, I am singing with La Scala, Covent Garden, Paris, Vienna, and it is difficult...
...recital, the Freni voice was heard in its full splendor, as tonally pure as ever, colored with a golden sheen but possessing that greater richness that comes with age to singers who have taken care of their voices. In a program of opera arias and art songs, this new texture enhanced what was already a remarkable instrument. Her impassioned performance of Tu che la vanità from Don Carlos showed that she can sing more demanding music with out forcing her tone or altering the quality of her voice...
This has come as a surprise to those who have always thought of her as essentially a lyric soprano, including Freni. Says she: "When I started, I thought Mozart and La Bohème would be the maximum for me." For challenging her to expand her range she credits Karajan, the controversial, magisterial Austrian conductor who has played Svengali to her Trilby. It was with Karajan at La Scala that she came to international attention, singing Mimi in Franco Zeffirelli's 1963 production of La Bohème, and it has been with Karajan at his Salzburg Festival that...
People have been applauding Freni since she was five years old. First to recognize her talent was her uncle, who noticed that little Mirella could sing along with his recording of Lucia di Lammermoor. Later, Freni recalls: "When I was 10½, my uncle remembered that I could do this, and he put on the record for my father. He said, 'Please, Mirella,' and they discovered I had the voice." Two years later, she won a national competition with her singing of Puccini's Un bel di. One of the judges, Tenor Beniamino Gigli, advised...