Word: simionato
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Trovatore will be remembered for the debut of Giulietta Simionato, the great Italian mezzo-soprano who sang Azucene. Simionato is known to record collectors for her superb Rossini performances. Yet, her extraordinary range enables her to perform parts as diverse as Azucena and Santuzza with equal ease and brilliance. Her Trovatore could not have been bettered. In these days when dramatic singers with reliable techniques are rare, a good Azucena, so difficult a part, is harder to find than the "great American opera...
...past the Lyric has put on many a fine, star-heavy performance, and last week's cast was again impressive: Viennese Soprano Leonie Rysanek as Aïda, Italian Mezzo-Soprano Giulietta Simionato as Amneris, Swedish Tenor Jussi Bjoerling as Radames, Italian Baritone Tito Gobbi as Amonasro. But the stage sets looked as though they had been resurrected from an early copy of the Victor Book of Operas: cluttered scenes with every temple, tower and palm frond rendered in tedious detail. And Paris Opera Conductor Georges Sebastian throttled the tempo to a crawl, once even goaded Tenor Bjoerling into...
...alarming tendency to soar to high notes and then to wander around dazedly for several bars while she tried to come down again. Bjoerling's lyric tenor lacked the heroic style that the role of Radames demands, and Gobbi was far from his compelling best. Only Mezzo Simionato sang with the range, color and fire that her fans have come to expect of her. The voices of the supporting singers were lost in the huge house. "No wonder he can't sing," said one observer watching the messenger to the Pharaoh noiselessly moving his mouth. "The poor...
Champagne & Coke. Tebaldi's eminence in the world of international opera is made the more striking by a shortage of competition. Only Callas, Milanov and Italy's great mezzo, Giulietta Simionato, rank with her in the grand tradition. Below the leaders there is a substantial reservoir of fine veteran singers, all of them capable of turning in consistently competent and often inspired performances. They include Victoria de los Angeles, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Antonietta Stella, Eleanor Steber, Sena Jurinac, Lisa Delia Casa, Irmgard Seefried, Leonie Rysanek, Risë Stevens. Backing them up is a promising and fast-rising crop...
Ponchielli: La Gioconda (Anita Cerquetti, Franca Sacchi, Mario del Monaco, Cesare Siepi, Giulietta Simionato, Ettore Bastianini; conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni; London, 3 LPs). A first-rate cast gives a racy reading to Amilcare Ponchielli's old campaigner from Venice, proves that there is a lot more to it than its pop-concert Dance of the Hours. Mellow-voiced Soprano Cerquetti gives a superb performance as "the joyous female" of the title role who loses her blind mother and her lover before she plunges a dagger in her heart. Tenor del Monaco sings so gustily that he conceals the fact...