“Un bel di” May 11, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Italian, Opera, Renata Scotto, Theater.add a comment
Renata Scotto, in her final performance of the role for which she was best-known: as Cio-Cio-San in her own staging of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, at the Arena di Verona in 1987:
“Si, mi chiamano Mimì” May 10, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Italian, La Boheme, Opera, Renata Scotto, Theater.1 comment so far
Many opera singers have sung Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme early in their careers and gone on to sing Mimì, but Renata Scotto went in the other direction.
“Vissi d’arte” May 9, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Italian, Opera, Renata Scotto, Theater.add a comment
Renata Scotto in the title role of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, in Act I with Nicolo Martinucci as Cavaradossi, and singing “Vissi d’arte” in Act II.
My favorite soprano May 8, 2007
Posted by Jeff in Giuseppe Verdi, Italian, Opera, Renata Scotto, Theater.2 comments
My favorite soprano (of those I have heard live) is a housewife from New Rochelle, N. Y., short and not entirely svelte (although considerably skinnier than when she was younger). When she married Lorenzo Anselmi in 1960, she decided to eschew the life of an international opera star, and she signed a long-term contract with the Met. So, when I got the opera bug in college, I got to see a lot more of her than I might have if she had lived a more transient life.
I guess I have heard better voices, but I’m not sure I’ve seen better acting, either in opera or anywhere on stage. I never saw Callas, but I’m content to say that I have seen Renata Scotto.
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