Stella Roman

Stella Roman , actually Florica Viorica Alma Stela Blasu (born August 23, 1904 in Kolozsvár ; † February 12, 1992 in New York City ) was a Romanian opera singer ( soprano ) who was known in Italy and the USA in the 1930s and 40s .

Life

Roman was born in 1904 as Florica Viorica Alma Stela Blasu in what was then Kolozsvár and grew up in a musical family. After eight years of singing lessons, she made her concert debut in her hometown of Cluj and then in Bucharest . With a scholarship she was able to continue her education with the then well-known verismo interpreter Giuseppina Baldassare-Tedeschi and the Tosca premiere singer Hariclea Darclée . In 1934 she made her operatic debut in Bologna in the role of Maddalena in Andrea Chénier . At the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples , which established a long-term partnership with the tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi . In 1937 she received a three-year contract with the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma from Tullio Serafin , where she made her debut as Aida . In 1940 Richard Strauss gave her the role of Empress in his opera Die Frau ohne Schatten for the Italian premiere at La Scala in Milan .

In 1941 she moved to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City . There followed further engagements, particularly in the Italian repertoire, until 1951, for example in the Verdi operas Il trovatore , Otello and Un ballo in maschera as well as the operas Cavalleria rusticana , La Gioconda and Puccini's Tosca . In total, she appeared there in 126 performances and took on 13 roles. Often shared these roles with Zinka Milanov . Concert tours have taken her to Florence, Berlin, Salzburg, Cairo, San Francisco, Cincinnati and other American opera houses, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

In 1948 she visited Richard Strauss in Pontresina to work with him on his last four songs . With the role of Marschallin in the Strauss opera Der Rosenkavalier in the Teatro San Carlo, she finally retired in 1953 from 19 years of active life as an opera singer.

Her voice has been admired for its warm lyric quality and ability to sing high-pitched pianissimi and lively climaxes. However, their technique has been said to be "unorthodox and sometimes hectic".

After her retirement she worked as a painter and took part in exhibitions with her pictures. She died in New York at the age of 87.

The conductor and pianist Myron Romanul is her grandson.

Recordings

• Verdi: Un ballo in maschera, as Amelia, cond. Ettore Panizza , New York, February 1942
• Verdi: La forza del destino, as Leonora, head of Bruno Walter , New York, January 1943
• Verdi: Otello, as Desdemona, with Torsten Ralf, Head George Szell , New York 1946
• Opera arias with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Artur Rodziński , Eklipse 1997
• Romanian folk songs by George Enescu , publication uncertain

literature

• Lanfranco Rasponi: The last prima donnas . Gollancz-Verlag, London 1984, pp. 553-560
• Max de Schauensee: Stella Roman , in: L. Macy (Ed.): Grove Music Online (accessed September 29, 2006)
• Stella Roman, 87, Soprano in Works Staged by the Met , in: New York Times, February 14, 1992