Oberon's Glade

Tag: Wiener Staatsoper

  • Zampieri & Taddei ~ TOSCA scene

    Zampieri tosca

    Mara Zampieri (above) and Giuseppe Taddei in a scene from Puccini’s TOSCA, from a 1989 telecast from the Wiener Staatsoper, with Fabio Luisi conducting.

    Watch and listen here.

  • Antonietta Stella Has Passed Away

    Antonietta_Stella

    February 23rd, 2022 – I have just read of the death of the Italian soprano Antonietta Stella; she passed away on this date at the age of 92.

    In 1950, she made her operatic debut at Spoleto as Leonora in TROVATORE and soon after was singing at the opera houses of Rome, Florence, Naples, Parma, Turin, Catania, Venice, and the Arena di Verona.

    Stella trovatore

    Above: Antonietta Stella as Leonora in TROVATORE

    In 1954, Ms. Stella debuted at the Teatro alla La Scala in Milan as Desdemona in OTELLO; she continued to sing at La Scala thru 1963 in the great soprano roles of Verdi and Puccini, and as Maddalena in ANDREA CHENIER. In 1955, she made debuts at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House in London, the Paris Opera, La Monnaie, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

    She came to the Metropolitan Opera in 1956 as Aida, and went on to sing there thru 1960 as Cio-Cio-San, Violetta, Tosca, Elisabetta in DON CARLO, Leonora in TROVATORE,and Amelia in BALLO IN MASCHERA.

    Stella fernando butterfly

    Above: Antonietta Stella and Eugenio Fernandi in the Aoyama BUTTERFLY at The Met

    In 1958, Ms. Stella portrayed the title-character in Yoshio Aoyama’s classic production of MADAMA BUTTERFLY; the production remained in the Met repertoire thru the 1990s.

    Antonietta Stella – Un bel di – BUTTERFLY – Met bcast 1958

    Among Antonietta Stella’s commercial recordings, her DON CARLO (with Flaviano Labo, Fiorenza Cossotto, and Boris Christoff), her TROVATORE (with Cossotto and Carlo Bergonzi), and especially her ANDREA CHENIER (with Franco Corelliand Mario Sereni) are my special favorites.  She is also heard on several “pirate” recordings.

    Ms. Stella sang Minnie in the televised Japanese premiere performance of Puccini’s FANCIULLA DEL WEST (The Girl of the Golden West) given at Tokyo on November 2nd, 1963. The NHK Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Oliviero De Fabritiis.

    Watch and listen here.

    CAST:

    Minnie: Antonietta Stella
    Dick Johnson: Gastone Limarilli
    Jack Rance: Anselmo Colzani
    Nick: Mario Guggia
    Ashby/Jake Wallace: Bruno Marangoni
    Sonora: Arturo La Porta
    Wowkle: Anna Di Stasio
    Sid/Billy Jackrabbit/Jose Castro: Giorgio Onesti
    Trin: Antonio Saba
    Bello: Marco Scotti
    Harry: Augusto Pedroni
    Joe: Antonio Pirino
    Happy: Paolo Mazzotta
    Larkens: Mario Rinaudo
    Postman: Takeshi Nakamura

    And here is part of the Act II duet of Violetta and Germont from TRAVIATA with Ms. Stella and Tito Gobbi:

    Antonietta Stella & Tito Gobbi – Dite alla giovine ~ TRAVIATA