Tag: Alfredo Kraus

Above: Elena Mauti-Nunziata as Violetta

The death of the Italian soprano Elena Mauti-Nunziata has been reported. An interview with the soprano, conducted by Bruce Duffie, dates from 1983 and provides details of her career. Read it here.

Watch a film of a performance of TRAVIATA given in Madrid in 1977 with Elena Mauti-Nunziata, Alfredo Kraus, and Vicente Sardinero in the principal roles. Unfortunately, part of Act II (including “Di Provenza“) is missing, and the video quality is middling. But it’s a valuable document of Ms. Mauti-Nunziata in one of her finest roles. Watch and listen here. 

Elena Mauti-Nunziata sang several performances of Mimi, Violetta, and Nedda at The Met from 1977-1979. I’m not sure how I managed to miss them. In 1982, I caught the last act of a broadcast of MADAMA BUTTERFLY from Dallas and was much taken with Ms. Mauti-Nunziata’s rendering of the opera’s final scene:

Elena Mauti-Nunziata – Morte di Butterfly – Dallas 1982

In 1985, I saw Ms. Mauti-Nunziata onstage for the only time: as Violetta at The Bushnell in Hartford, Connecticut. She gave a memorable portrayal.

Above: as Francesca da Rimini, with Nicola Maritnucci

Above: Elena Mauti-Nunziata greets Maria Callas at the opening night of La Scala, 1970

Update: This scene from Act IV of TROVATORE from Verona 1985 has just surfaced on YouTube. Listen here.

The sound quality is mediocre, but I love the way Mauti-Nunziata spins out those ethereal high notes in the aria. After a Miserere where the recordist had some problems, we hear the cabaletta. (It’s best to listen with headphones.)

Giuliano Ciannella sings Manrico, and Reynald Giovaninetti conducts.