Virginia Zeani - Angela Gheorghiu talks about her favourite Soprano & Zeani sings Violetta


Title:
Virginia Zeani - Angela Gheorghiu talks about her favourite Soprano & Zeani sings Violetta

Description:
Angela Gheorghiu talks about her favourite soprano Virginia Zeani in a conversation on BBC Radio Three with Natalie Wheen, Virginia Zeani was the first soprano she ever heard on CD and she often speaks of her as her idol and role model. In recent years they have met and become very close friends. It is gratifying that Angela Gheorghiu, a singer with almost unprecedented international fame, is keen to bring Zeani's wonderful, but far too little known, singing to a wider audience. Being very familiar with Zeani's singing I was immediately struck by some similarities in Gheorghiu's phrasing and interpretation and was delighted to hear later on how much of an influence Zeani was and continues to be on her own singing.

Author:
CharlotteinWeimar

Tags:
Virginia, Zeani, Angela, Gheorghiu, Italian, Opera, La, Traviata, Verdi, Dumas, Natalie, Wheen,

Related Videos:

Virginia Zeani - 'Caro nome' - Rigoletto - Verdi
Virginia Zeani's early career began with lyric coloratura roles such as Lucia, Amina and Violetta. She is heard here in 1955 at the age of 29 singing Gilda's aria from Act One of Rigoletto. To hear how her superb voice matured, unblemished, listen to recordings made some fifteen years on of 'Tu che le vanita' and 'To this we've come', and, on Google Video, to 'L'altra notte' from Mefistofele in 1981. This recording is from a live transmission by Italian Radio.
Virginia Zeani - 'Papers, papers' - The Consul - Menotti
Virginia Zeani enjoyed one of the greatest triumphs of her career when she was cast against type in Menotti's opera 'The Consul' . She played Magda Sorel, a down trodden political refugee in a totalitarian country, desperately trying to get the right papers. More usually associated with fatefully beautiful heroines such as Violetta and Manon, Zeani, in flat shoes and a drab mackintosh, stunned audiences with her riveting portrayal of a despairing woman driven to suicide. The recording is ...
Virginia Zeani - La Traviata [5] Act ii Sc2 "Invitatoi"
Virginia Zeani as Violetta in a broadcast performance in Rome in 1965 with Luigi Infantino as Alfredo and Antonio Boyer as Giorgio. No photographs were available of this performance, so the photographs show Peter Glossop as Giorgio Germont and Andre Turp as Alfredo, The paintings are from performances at Covent Garden, London in 1962..
Virginia Zeani - Willow Song - Otello - Verdi
Virginia Zeani first portrayed the character of Desdemona in Rossini's opera Otello of 1816, She later added the Verdi Desdemona to her repertoire, singing with distinguished colleagues James mccracken and Tito Gobbi, celebrated for their interpretations of Otello and Iago. This recording is from a performance in Bari in 1968.
Virginia Zeani - Ave Maria - Otello - Verdi
Virginia Zeani sings the Ave Maria from the last act of Verdi's Otello. From a live performance in Bari in 1968.
Virginia Zeani - Thais "Ah, je suis seule"
Virginia Zeani sings Massenet's seductive heroine Thais, who here asks Venus to say she will be eternally beautiful. The opera tells the story of a monk, Athanael, who persuades Thais to give up her immoral life and become a nun. But despite his honourable intentions he finds himself consumed by passion for her and seeks her out at her convent only to find that she is near to death. To his great distress, she dies in his arms.
Virginia Zeani-La Traviata [6] Act III - Addio" Live Met NY
Virginia Zeani as Violetta in a broadcast performance from the Metropolitan Opera New York in 1966. Zeani sang rarely at the Met., as at that time their popular resident Violetta was Anna Moffo. However this did not prevent the audience responding spontaneously to their visitor with applause at the end of "Addio del passato" which lasted for over two minutes, The tenor singing is Bruno Prevedi but the photo shows Alfredo Kraus. The paintings are from performances at the Royal Opera House ...
Virginia Zeani - Desdemona's Willow Song
Rossini's Otello was first performed in Naples at the Teatro del Fondo on the 4th December 1816, ten months after "Il Barbiere di Siviglia". This RAI [Italian Radio] performance dates from 1960, and mostly the same cast. It was in this opera that Maria Malibran was said to have thought her father, singing Otello, was actually gong to kill her on stage, so realistic was the drama. The opera is seldom performed nowadays, partly due to the difficulty of finding three principal tenors with very ...
Virginia Zeani -The Tales of Hoffmann 1 - Olympia's aria
Virginia Zeani was one of the first sopranos to sing all three principal roles in "The Tales of Hoffman". Three different "voices" are needed, coloratura soprano, lyric soprano and lyrico spinto soprano, Here in the first scene she sings the song of Olympia, a life size mechanical doll, which needs frequent winding up . The photographs are from the production at La Scala Milan. The poor quality live recording is from the Grand Theatre Geneve in 1966. Despite technical inadequacies I am ...
Virginia Zeani - The Tales of Hoffmann 2 - Antonia's aria
Virginia Zeani was one of the first sopranos to sing all three principal roles in "The Tales of Hoffman". Three different "voices" are needed, coloratura soprano, lyrico spinto soprano and lyric soprano, Here, in the lyric role, she sings as Antonia, a young woman with consumption who has been told that she must not to sing. The photograph is from a celebrated production at La Scala Milan. Apologies for the very poor quality of the recording which is live from the Grand Theatre Geneve in ...
©2009 TripAtlas.com