Giulietta Simionato

Giulietta Simionato (born May 12, 1910 in Forlì , Emilia-Romagna , † May 5, 2010 in Rome ) was an Italian opera singer with the mezzo-soprano and alto voices .

Life

Simionato spent much of her childhood in Sardinia . Her father was Venetian , her mother Sardin. Her musical talent was discovered early on. She received her first musical lessons in Rovigo , from Ettore Locatello, the local director of the town band. Later she also took singing lessons with Guido Palumbo in Milan .

In 1927 Simionato appeared on stage for the first time, at the Teatro Sociale in Rovigo, in the now completely forgotten comic opera Nina non fare la stupida by Giorgio Giacchetti . Her semi-professional opera debut took place in 1928 in Montagnana with a local opera company as Lola in Cavalleria rusticana . In 1935 she won a bel canto competition in Florence . In 1935 Simionato made her official operatic debut, also in Florence, as part of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino , in the world premiere of the opera L'Oro by Ildebrando Pizzetti . In 1936 Simionato was hired as a beginner at La Scala in Milan . She made her debut there in 1936 as the flower girl in Richard Wagner's Parsifal . In 1937 she sang in the world premiere of the opera La morte di Frine by Lodovico Rocca . In the following years, however, Simionato only sang small roles at La Scala. She was able to rehearse some of the big roles; As a rule, however, it was only intended as a second occupation ( doppia ). As a short-term substitute, she sang major roles during this period: La Cieca in La Gioconda , Suzuki in Madama Butterfly , Maddalena in Rigoletto , Meg Page in Falstaff , Hansel in Hansel and Gretel (1942) and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro ( 1944). After the Second World War , her real career began at La Scala in Milan. In 1947 she sang the title role in Mignon by Ambroise Thomas and Dorabella in Così fan tutte . 1948 followed the Rubria in the opera Nerone by Arrigo Boito under the musical direction of Arturo Toscanini . In 1950 she took over Charlotte in Jules Massenet's opera Werther with Tito Schipa as a partner. Other key roles at La Scala were 1954 Angelina in La Cenerentola , 1955, Isabella in L'Italiana in Algeri , in May 1955, the Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana , in April 1957, Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena at the side of Maria Callas , in April 1958 also Giovanna Seymour this time at the side of Leyla Gencer , 1960 Didon in Les Troyens and 1962 Valentine in Die Huguenots .

She performed several times in the Arena di Verona . In 1948 she sang Rosina in The Barber of Seville . In 1954/1955, and again in 1963, she sang Amneris in Aida . In 1957/1958 Adalgisa followed in the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini , with Franco Corelli as Pollione and Anita Cerquetti in the title role. In 1960 she was the Santuzza there . In 1961 and 1965 she sang the title role in Carmen in Verona .

Giulietta Simionato also appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival . There she sang Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff in 1957 , Eboli in Don Carlo in 1958 , Orfeo in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in 1959 , and Azucena in Il trovatore in 1962/1963 . In 1962 she also performed the alto solo in the Verdi Requiem in a performance with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Herbert von Karajan and with Leontyne Price , Giuseppe Zampieri and Nikolaj Gjaurow in the other solo roles.

Simionato has also made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera since 1957 . She appeared there in 11 different roles in over 130 performances until 1965. There she sang Amneris , Azucena , Carmen , Santuzza , Cherubino , Mrs. Quickly , Eboli , Maddalena , again Gluck's Orfeo and also the Preziosilla in The Power of Fate and the Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera . In 1959 Simionato was signed to the Metropolitan Opera in New York , where she made her debut as Azucena on October 26, 1959 under Fausto Cleva . In another four seasons she sang there in a total of 20 performances until 1965. She could also be heard there as Amneris , Santuzza and Rosina . Simionato has made guest appearances at the Covent Garden Opera in London (1953, 1964 as Adalgisa , Amneris and Azucena ), at the Grand Opéra in Paris , at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich .

In 1966 Simionato said goodbye to the Piccola Scala in the comparatively small but completely untypical lyrical soprano role of Servilia in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera La clemenza di Tito from the opera stage.

After her departure from the opera stage, Giulietta Simionato worked as a singing teacher and as a jury member in various singing competitions. Her students included Shirley Verrett , who trained her coloratura technique with Simionato , Helga Müller-Molinari , Lubomir Videnov and Paata Burchuladze .

In 1984 she took part in the documentary Il Bacio di Tosca and told again about her career in front of the camera. In doing so, she looked back on her life as a singer without nostalgia and without false sentimentality. Another documentary followed in 1999, Opera Fanatic by Jan Schmidt-Garre , in which Simionato can also be seen in an interview with other important Italian opera singers of the 20th century. In a 2007 RAI documentary , Simionato reported again on the Anna Bolena performances in 1957 and her encounters with Maria Callas.

Giulietta Simionato was married a total of three times. Her first husband was a violinist at La Scala in Milan. In 1965 she married the famous Italian doctor Cesare Frugoni. After his death in 1996, she married again, this time to a long-term friend and good acquaintance. In the 1950s she had a long affair with the Italian baritone Mario Petri .

Simionato lived in Milan for many years , where she took an active part in the city's musical life even in retirement. Simionato last lived in Rome , largely in good health and mentally active . Simionato died in Rome a week before her hundredth birthday.

voice

Simionato's voice was characterized by her dark timbre , a phenomenal singing technique and her wide vocal range. This allowed her to take on both the dramatic mezzo-soprano roles in Giuseppe Verdi's operas and the difficult-to-interpret roles for alto coloratura in Gioachino Rossini's operas . In it, she was generally considered the legitimate successor of Conchita Supervía . However, some musicologists have pointed out that their central position is "relatively weak". Critics therefore often described Simionato as a “singer with two voices”: with a sometimes almost soprano high register on the one hand and a pronounced low register on the other. Her confident mastery of the Italian vocal technique enabled Simionato to achieve a strong expressive intensity in her roles, but without this at the expense of the vocal line.

literature

• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Third, expanded edition. Munich 1999. Volume 5: Seideman – Zysset, ISBN 3-598-11419-2 , pp. 3249/3250.

Web links

• Works by and about Giulietta Simionato in the catalog of the German National Library
• Giulietta Simionato in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Giulietta Simionato at www.greatsingers.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl J. Kutsch and Leo Riemens: Large singer lexicon . Third, expanded edition. Munich 1999. Volume 5: Seideman – Zysset, ISBN 3-598-11419-2 , give December 15, 1910 the date of birth on p. 3249.
2. ↑ Jens Malte Fischer in: Big Voices. From Enrico Caruso to Jessye Norman , Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag 1995, pp. 357–359. ISBN 3-518-38984-X .
3. ↑ BUON COMPLEANNO, GIULIETTA Interview with Giulietta Simionato on the occasion of her 95th birthday
4. ↑ Anna Bolena ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Cast details, background information and photos at www.greatsingers.org 
5. ^ Herbert Weinstock : Vincenzo Bellini: his life and his operas p. 275, excerpts from Google Books
6. ^ Roger Flury: Pietro Mascagni: a bio-bibliography p. 51, excerpts from Google Books
7. ↑ Role directory Giulietta Simionato  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Homepage of the Salzburg Festival (with search function)  
8. ↑ List of roles by Giulietta Simionato in: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945-2005 , p. 750. Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-85409-449-3 .
9. ↑ Simionato in Casa Verdi (Milan 1984) Video on youtube, accessed on January 14, 2010.
10. ↑ Simionato talks about Callas' Anna Bolena (2007) Video on youtube, accessed on January 14, 2010.
11. ↑ Giulietta Simionato ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Interview with Bel Canto Society, 2005.  
12. ↑ I think of my future , homage to Giulietta Siminionato in Das Opernglas , April 2010, pp. 66–69.
13. ^ Addio a Giulietta Simionato, voce indimenticabile della lirica del '900 in: Corriere della Sera of May 5, 2010
14. ↑ Karl J. Kutsch and Leo Riemens: Large singer lexicon . Third, expanded edition. Munich 1999. Volume 5: Seideman – Zysset, ISBN 3-598-11419-2 , p. 3250.
15. ↑ Jens Malte Fischer in: Big Voices. From Enrico Caruso to Jessye Norman , Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag 1995, p. 478. ISBN 3-518-38984-X
16. ^ Walter Herrmann / Adrian Hollaender: Legends and Stars of the Opera , p. 78/79. Leykam publishing house. Graz 2007. ISBN 978-3-7011-7571-0 .