Word: renata
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...choice is harrowing. In the dream, Bing hems and haws, but a decision must be made. The three divas' pet dogs advance on him. Zinka's spitz, Nickie, growls; Maria's poodle, Toy, nips at his ankles; and Renata's poodle, New, crouches to jump. "Choose, choose, choose!" sing the divas, to some nightmare melody that sounds like Alban Berg played backwards...
...three dazzling prima donnas. For sheer beauty of voice, the prize might go to Milanov, who at 52 still offers many a superb performance. For excitement, versatility and dramatic power, the apple would easily go to Maria Callas. But for sustained excellence of singing, it would go to Renata Tebaldi...
...woman, would probably take a bite out of the apple. Soprano Callas would coolly accept it as her due and have it mounted in diamonds. Soprano Tebaldi, if she followed form, would place it on her dressing table amid her collection of toy animals. On the surface, at least, Renata Tebaldi is that rarest of phenomena in the posturing, wigged-and-powdered world of grand opera-a soprano without apparent temper, temperament or obtrusive...
...repertoire, by God's will and nature's blessing, is complete. I have contributed to the history of music. I have taken music that has long been dead and buried and have brought it back to life again. If the time comes when my dear friend Renata Tebaldi will sing, among others, Norma or Lucia or Anna Bolena one night, then La Traviata or Gioconda or Medea the next-then, and only then, will we be rivals. Otherwise it is like comparing champagne with cognac. No-champagne with Coca-Cola...
...competition. "I was born with very normal cries-different from one of my celebrated colleagues, whose very first cries were musical and admirable." Tebaldi's first raucously normal cries sounded 36 years ago, in the fishing town of Pesaro on Italy's Adriatic coast. Renata's father, Teobaldo Tebaldi, was a theater-orchestra cellist of dashing good looks. His wife, Giuseppina, six years older than he and a former volunteer nurse, was an iron-willed woman. When Renata was only three months old, Teobaldo deserted his family, and Giuseppina returned with the baby to her family...