Rosina Storchio

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Rosina Storchio (1895)

Rosa Storchio (called Rosina ; born January 19, 1872 in Venice , † July 24, 1945 in Milan ) was an Italian soprano and opera singer who performed at La Scala in Milan , in Berlin, Paris, Moscow, New York and Buenos Aires and to one of the most famous singers of her generation. Her partners included Anselmi , Caruso , Ruffo and Chaliapin . She was loved by the conductor Toscanini and adored by the composer Puccini . The latter wrote the title role of the opera Madama Butterfly for her , which she embodied in the world premiere in 1904.

Life

Storchio was admitted to the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, where she studied singing with Alberto Giovannini and Giuseppe Fatum. She was expelled from the Conservatory for unknown reasons and continued her studies with private tutors, including Melchiorre Vidal . As a singer she made her debut in 1892 at Milan's Teatro Dal Verme as Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen and three years later at two important Milanese opera houses: at Scala as Sophie in Massenet's Werther and at the Teatro Lirico as Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana .

Venice, Frankfurt, Graz

In 1897 she was cast in two world premieres: as Mimì in La Bohème by Ruggero Leoncavallo (at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice) and - with Enrico Caruso - as Cristina in Il voto by Umberto Giordano (at the Teatro Lirico in Milan). The role of Mimì, admittedly in Puccini's version, she had already sung the year before in Florence and at the Teatro Sociale di Como . In 1899 she made a guest appearance at the Agram Opera House and the following year at the Frankfurt and Graz opera houses . She also went on a tour of Russia. Her rapid success is explained by the combination of an outstanding voice and her excellent acting qualities. Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens write: "They praised their voice for the sovereign mastery of vocal technique in coloratura parts and the delicacy of their art of expression in the lyrical subject."

Milan, Buenos Aires, Montevideo

Storchio was already a star when she met Arturo Toscanini in 1900 , an ambitious young conductor at the time, and later a maestro who was acclaimed throughout Europe and America. He played a central role in her life - artistically and privately. The occasion for the first meeting was the rehearsals for the world premiere of Zazà , the new opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. The conductor, not famous for handing out compliments, interrupted the rehearsal, put the baton aside and exclaimed:

"That's an artist!"

Toscanini, who had been married to a young and attractive woman for three years and was about to become a father for the third time, fell under the singer's spell and she fell under his. The maestro's extramarital affair and passion lasted for a few years, the artistic collaboration until 1915. The schedules kept the two apart and each other. In 1901 Storchio sang the Zazà at the Teatro Regio di Torino , conducted by Rodolfo Ferrari, and the Massenet'sche Manon at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna . The following year they met again - for Hansel and Gretel and the Italian premiere of Euryanthe at La Scala. In 1903 their son Giovannino was born, who was born with severe brain damage and died at the age of 16.

In December 1903 Storchio - again at La Scala - took on the role of Stephana in the world premiere of Giordanos Siberia , conducted by Cleofonte Campanini . Her partners were Giuseppe De Luca , Giovanni Zenatello and Antonio Pini-Corsi . Storchio is said to have made regular guest appearances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires between 1904 and 1914 . Appearances as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Buenos Aires and Montevideo in 1906, under the leadership of Toscanini, are guaranteed .

First Cio-Cio-San

In 1904, Storchio sang the role of Cio-Cio-San, the heroine, in the premiere of Puccini's Madama Butterfly . The first opera house in Italy, the most famous composer in the country and a soprano star were supposed to ensure a programmed success, but it never became. The prima assoluta was luxuriously cast, Cleofonte Campanini conducts it, alongside Storchio the celebrated tenor Giovanni Zenatello (Pinkerton) and the respected baritone Giuseppe De Luca (Sharpless) sang . But a hostile claque made fun of the exotic subject and caused a glamorous failure at La Scala in Milan : “Various scenes were loudly commented on by individual visitors with funny comments, which led to roaring laughter in the audience. There was a riot. The piece was panned by the local press. "

Both the singer and the composer remained loyal to the work and finally achieved that Madama Butterfly prevailed and became one of the most frequently performed operas in history. Puccini made some changes, wrote a new appearance for the title role and an additional aria for Pinkerton, deleted other scenes and turned the two-act opera into a three-act opera. Storchio sang the title role steadfastly at a number of important houses, garnering recognition and applause and finally - almost two decades later - selected Cio-Cio-San as her part for her departure from the opera stage.

Berlin, Rome and Paris

In 1907 Storchio made his debut at the Royal Court Opera in Berlin and at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo . On the Cote d'Azur, she appeared in one tragic and two comic roles: as Margherita in Boitos Mefistofele and as Norina and Rosina. Her partners in Monte Carlo were two of the most famous basses in opera history: Fyodor Chaliapin (as Mefistofele ) and Titta Ruffo (as Don Pasquale and Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia ). The next year she returned to her hometown Venice as Violetta Valéry.

She also performed annually at Scala, which remained her parent company until 1918. In addition to the standard repertoire, she sang the title role in the rarely performed opera Linda di Chamounix by Gaetano Donizetti on Italy's most prominent stage . She often appeared together with the tenor Giuseppe Anselmi (1876–1929) , who came from Sicily . The two were considered the dream couple of the Italian Belcanto , for example in La sonnambula and Don Pasquale , but also sang veristic operas such as Manon Lescaut together . Although Storchio had a cheerful temperament and great joy in playing, and consequently succeeded in the comic operas with ease, she still made the most lasting impression as a loving and suffering heroine, as the tragically dying Violetta Valéry or Cio-Cio-San.

In the 1910s, Storchio made several guest appearances at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, for example as Norina with Alessandro Bonci , Giuseppe De Luca and Giuseppe Kaschmann , as Amina with Anselmi or as the celebrated Traviata. At this house in 1917 she was the protagonist of the world premiere of the now forgotten Mascagni opera Lodoletta . In the same year she also made a guest appearance at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Chicago, New York, Barcelona

In the season 1920/1921 Storchio made her debut at the opera houses of Chicago and New York, but her rather small voice is said to have shown clear weaknesses through years of excessive demands. In 1923, at the age of 51, she gave her farewell performance in Barcelona - as Cio-Cio-san in Madama Butterfly  - and was cheered for the last time by the public and the press. After that she largely withdrew into private life and worked as a singing teacher. One of her students was the soprano Gina Cigna .

She tried to overcome her private misfortune in faith. She joined the Third Order of the Franciscans and donated her entire fortune to the Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza (“Little House of Divine Providence”), in which the poor and sick were cared for and orphaned children were raised. This institution was founded by St. Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo , who was considered the "Italian apostle of charity". According to Kutsch and Riemens, Rosina Storchio is said to have been completely paralyzed in the last years of her life.

roll

Rosina Storchio

World premieres

repertoire

Bellini :

Bizet :

Boito :

Donizetti :

Engelbert Humperdinck :

Mascagni :

 

Massenet :

Puccini :

Rossini :

Verdi :

Weber :

Audio documents

Rosina Storchio left a small number of 78-rpm gramophone recordings that were made between 1903 and 1911. However - with the exception of Verdi's La traviata - none of them were her star roles. The recordings were made for the Milanese labels G&T and Fonotipia and included operas of both bel canto and verismo . These sound documents have recently been published again on CD and give an impression of the vocal style of Rosina Storchio and her epoch.

Revisions

  • A record of singers, part: Pt. 2., Recordings from 1901-1916.
  • Salome Kruschelnytska / Rosina Storchio - The Harold Wayne Collection, Vol. 38

Commemoration

The municipality of Dello in the province of Brescia named a street after Rosina Storchio and opened a Museo Lirico "Rosina Storchio" dedicated to her on April 21, 2002 . In February 2016, the museum moved permanently to the municipality of Gazoldo degli Ippoliti in the province of Mantua .

literature

  • Harold Rosenthal, John Warrack, Roland Mancini, Jean-Jacques Rouveroux: Guide de l'opéra. Fayard (Les indispensables de la musique) , Paris 1995, ISBN 978-2-2135-9567-2 .
  • R. Celletti: Rosina Storchio. In: Musica e dishi. 1954.
  • R. Celletti and K. Hardwick: Rosina Storchio. In: Record News , Toronto 1959-60.
  • T. Hutchinson: Rosina Storchio. In: Record Collector , 1958-60.

Web links

Commons : Rosina Storchio  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Large Singer Lexicon , ed. by Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens , Volume 4, pp. 4556 f.
  2. ^ Harvey Sachs: Toscanini. Editions Francis van de Velde, 1980.
  3. ^ Alfried Schmitz: Madame Butterfly - Geisha on the opera stage , Planet Wissen, accessed on September 28, 2016.
  4. ^ Forgotten Opera Singers , keyword: Rosina Storchio (Soprano) (Venezia, Italy 1876 - Milan, Italy 1945) , accessed on September 28, 2016 (English)
  5. ↑ Brescia in Vetrina: Bassa Bresciana: la pianura - Museo Lirico "Rosina Storchio" , accessed on 18 September 2016th
  6. ↑ G. Baratti: Gazoldo degli Ippoliti - Inaugurazione del Museo Lirico “Rosina Storchio”, 113 di via Marconi , on the Mincio & dintorni website , February 3, 2016, accessed on September 18, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Storchio, Rosina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Storchio, Rosa (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1945
Place of death Milan