Word: tebaldi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...People. No matter what they performed, it would be hard to resist a show that included Pianist Artur Rubinstein, Violinist Isaac Stern, Cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, and such vocalists as Marian Anderson, Renata Tebaldi, Zinka Milanov, Risë Stevens, Blanche Thebom, Roberta Peters, Mildred Miller. Jan Peerce, Jussi Bjoerling, Leonard Warren. What they performed was aimed at the millions-arias from Pagliacci, The Tales of Hoffmann, Tosca, Carmen, a Chopin Polonaise, a movement from the Mendelssohn violin concerto. It was seen or heard by an estimated 23 million people...
...show, thought it would be a good idea to load the program with RCA recording stars. As it worked out, RCA succeeded in adding two of its performing artists to Hurok's original list of ten. Hurok managed to keep Violinist Stern, who records for Columbia, and Soprano Tebaldi, who records for London, in the show. Hurok and RCA then faced an onslaught by the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager Rudolf Bing, who refused to allow Tebaldi to do a 15-minute version of Traviata for fear that it might take the edge off her performance...
There is a unique quality about Italian sopranos that makes their singing especially exciting. On Wednesday night Renata Tebaldi provided an excellent example of Italian singing at its best. Her voice is more sensuous and passionate than Elizabeth Schwarzkopf's, but lacks the cool perfection of the Viennese singer's style...
...Tebaldi excells in the delicate spinning out of a phrase with a lovely, floating mezza-voce (half-voice). She loves to linger over each tone color much in the manner of the tenor Gigli. There is no doubt that she is a true diva; even her faults are majestic. Her voice is accustomed to soaring over an orchestra, and the bare accompaniment of a piano could not hide her steely, shrill quality at full voice, another common trait of Italian sopranos...
...program was almost all Italian arias songs. The only composer of the German school represented was Mozart, and he by an Italian aria from The Marriage of Figaro. The most successful song was Bellini's Dolente Immagine, in which Tebaldi lingered over every vowel, almost caressing the notes with her voice. Another highlight was the magnificent Ave Maria from Verdi's Otello, which despite one shrill phrase was memorable for a ravishing final high note in mezza-voce. The audience went wild, and called Tebaldi back for three Puccini arias as encores. She didn't mind the tiring program...