Word: muzio
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There are few names that oldtime opera lovers care to mention in the same breath with Caruso and Scotti, but Claudia Muzio (1892-1936) is one of them. The daughter of an Italian operatic stage manager, she grew up backstage in London's Covent Garden, Manhattan's Metropolitan. Caruso, with whom she made a stunning U.S. debut as Tosca in 1916, once said that Claudia "knew all of our stage tricks before she wore long skirts." She had a voice to match her acting: she could, and did, sing coloratura, lyric and dramatic soprano parts with equal ease...
...Records release, The Duse of Song (2 sides LP), out this month, younger opera lovers can hear the voice their elders have been talking about. Even though Esoteric has re-recorded its nine arias (including the Vissi d'Arte from Tosca) from 32-year-old cylinders, and Claudia Muzio's luscious voice is heard through a fog of needle scratch, her tones are full, even and velvety from top to bottom...
...full of needy stars. In Milan, in Vienna and in Paris, they signed up; they all wanted to make their fame & fortune in the U.S. For singing with the official-sounding "United States Opera Company," Ottavio Scotto, a Chicago opera impresario who once managed Enrico Caruso and Claudia Muzio, offered salaries up to $1,000 a performance and first-class passage on the Queen Elizabeth...
...more exacting role of Violetta in Traviata, it began to sprout melodious expletives. The coloratura of her Sempre libera was passionate, accurate, brilliant. She was undoubtedly a rarity: a lyric soprano with dramatic oomph and coloratura glitter, the best Violetta heard in Manhattan since the late, great Claudia Muzio...
...Claudia Muzio: Operatic Recital (with orchestra conducted by Lorenzo Molajoli; Columbia; 8 sides). One of the ironies of music is that as modern high-fidelity recording reached near perfection, the number of operatic voices really worth recording dwindled to a handful. One great voice that lasted long enough to be well recorded was Soprano Claudia Muzio's. Probably no living soprano (she died in 1936) approaches the vocal assurance and dramatic power recorded here in arias from Norma, Traviata, Forza del Destino, etc. Recording: good...