Vasile Moldoveanu

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Vasile Moldoveanu (born October 6, 1935 in Constanța ) is a Romanian opera singer ( tenor ).

Life

Moldoveanu was born in Constana on October 6, 1935 and studied singing at the Ciprian Porumbescu Music Academy in Bucharest under the direction of the tenor Dinu Bădescu, as a student in Octav Enigărescu's class. On January 9, 1966 he made his debut in the role of Arlecchino in Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest. His career in Romania was short. Between 1966 and 1971 he sang in two operas at the Romanian National Opera in seven seasons, mainly in supporting roles, but also some leading roles, such as Rodolfo in La Bohème , the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto or Tamino in Die Zauberflöte . In this role he made his last appearance in Romania on June 23, 1972. He also appeared on the first opera records by the record publisher Electrecord in supporting roles in the operas La traviata , Samson et Dalila and Carmen .

In 1971 he was invited to a number of auditions in Germany by the agencies Viktor Vladarski and Friedrich Pasch. Since he was not a member of the Romanian Communist Party, it was very difficult for him to obtain a foreign visa. In 1972 he arrived in Germany and decided not to return to communist Romania. The Romanian authorities started an investigation and sentenced him to death. The background to this conviction was an improper interpretation of a paragraph of the Criminal Code of 1968, which associated the accusation of “refusal to return home” during a “state representation mission” with the charge of “treason”. As a result of the 1973 amendment to the Criminal Code, the trial was restarted and Vasile Moldoveanu was sentenced to five years in prison and property confiscation. Similar cases are those of the Romanian director Petrică Ionescu or the ballet dancer Sergiu Stefanschi.

International career

In 1972 he made his debut at the Regensburg Opera in the role of Manrico in Il trovatore , further appearances in Amsterdam and St. Gallen followed. In 1973 he sang at the Vienna State Opera to Alfredo in La Traviata. In the same year he made his debut in the role of Don Carlos in the opera of the same name by Giuseppe Verdi, one of his emblematic roles, which he sang 75 times during his career.

In 1974 he signed a four-year contract with the Stuttgart State Opera . During the next few years he took part in numerous productions such as Lucia di Lammermoor , La Bohème, Un ballo in maschera and La Traviata. In 1976 he appeared at the Bavarian State Opera in Rigoletto under the direction of Roman Polański . In 1977 he became a chamber singer at the Stuttgart Opera.

During his early years in Germany, he was recommended to the Metropolitan Opera in New York by Nelly Walter, Vice President of Columbia Artists Management Impresario Agency, who became his manager for the next eleven years . In 1979 he made his debut at the Royal Opera House in London in Don Carlos , directed by Luchino Visconti .

He started at Metropolitan Opera on May 19, 1977, during a tour of the company in Minneapolis / Minnesota as Rodolfo, from the opera La Bohème, with Renata Scotto in the role of Mimi as partner, with whom he then sang in several performances becomes. He has sung 105 performances at Metropolitan Opera, more than any other Romanian tenor. He was the singer of Romanian nationality with most of the leading roles in the post-war period. As a comparison, Luciano Pavarotti had in the same period in which Vasile Moldoveanu sang with Metropolitan, 1977–1986, 100 performances, Plácido Domingo - 149, and José Carreras - 51. The soprano Amelita Galli-Curci also had 105 performances in the interwar period, in a similar ten year period of ten years.

He has sung ten roles with Metropolitan Opera and was broadcast live on TV in the operas Don Carlos (1980 - 11 performances), Il tabarro (1981 - 12 performances) and Simon Boccanegra (1984 - 27 performances). In addition to these roles he has sung Arrigo in I Vespri Siciliani (4 performances), Turridu in Cavalleria rusticana (8 performances), Cavaradossi in Tosca (3 performances), Rodolfo in La Bohème (6 performances), Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut (14 performances) ), Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto (8 performances) and Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly (12 performances). From 1987, after a complicated intervention, he reduced his activity on the American continent. His final appearances in the United States are at the Denver Opera: Calaf (Turandot) and Des Grieux (Manon Lescaut).

After returning to Europe, he continued his career in Paris (Manon Lescaut - 9 performances in 1991 and 5 more in 1993), Monaco (I Vespri siciliani and Aida - directed by Giancarlo del Monaco), Nice (La fanciulla del West Directed by Petrică Ionescu), Rome (Turandot), Lisbon (Manon Lescaut), Parma (Don Carlo), Pretoria, South Africa (Un ballo in maschera) and various cities in Germany (Stuttgart and Hamburg in particular). The only first class opera theater where he has not sung was Teatro alla Scala from Milan, although talks have been held for a performance with I Vespri siciliani.

In his 30-year career, Vasile Moldoveanu has worked with many great lyrical artists and conductors: Boris Cristoff, Ghena Dimitrova, Hildegard Behrens, Sylvia Sass, Theresa Zylis-Gara, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Galina Savova, Renato Bruson, Sherrill Milnes, Ana Tomova-Sintow, Magda Olivero, Piero Cappuccilli, Joan Sutherland, Leonie Rysanek, Renata Scotto, Cesare Siepi, Aprile Millo, Margaret Price, Roberta Peters, Monserrat Caballé, Maria Chiara, Aldo Proti, Ursula Koszut, Mirella Freni, Azuko Azuma, Teresa Stratas, Nancy Shade, Raina Kabaivanska, Eva Marton, Kiri Te Kanawa, Edita Gruberova, Ferruccio Furlanetto, James Levine, Nello Santi, Riccardo Chailly, Carlo Franci, Michel Plasson, Francesco Molinari Pradelli, Antonio Guadagno, Giuseppe Patane, Rafael Kubelik, Carlo Franci, Leonard Slatkin, Thomas Fulton, Myung-Whun Chung (his Met debut was in a performance by Simon Boccanegra in 1986), James Conlon and Silvio Varviso.

Moldoveanu had a very smooth vibrant tone of lyrical tenor, as he has always considered himself to be, but with a very confident and strong vocal range which has allowed him to successfully take on both typical tenor spinto roles (Calaf, Don Carlos, Don José, Manrico) and dramatic ones (Radames, Dick Johnson). His voice, often compared to that of famous tenors of the past such as Giovanni Martinelli or Franco Corelli, was also doubled by a slender figure, and a fiery look because of that he was greatly appreciated in some roles, for example Luigi from Il tabarro. As a result of the live TV broadcast of this performance by Metropolitan, fans or colleagues called him Luigi! Look at Luigi! "

Paradoxically, although he has had a significant career, especially at Metropolitan Opera, and although he was very promoted at a time when live TV broadcasts were in the beginning, Vasile Moldoveanu is very little known in Romania. This lack of notoriety was mainly caused by the censorship that prevailed in Romania during communism, exactly at the same time that the Romanian tenor was at the height of his career.

In 2010, Vasile Moldoveanu appealed the prison sentence and was finally acquitted. In 2012 he was awarded the Order of “The Star of Romania” in the Commander's Degree [6], one of the oldest and most important awards from Romania. Vasile Moldoveanu currently lives in Monte Carlo and devotes herself to master class lessons with young singers, mainly from Romania.

Recordings

The remaining recordings are scarce, but there are two LPs with arias from operas by Intercord Haus, published in 1976 and 1978, in addition to those recorded by Electrecord.

  • Famous tenor arias (1976)
  • Neapolitan Songs (1978)

But there are numerous recordings of the live radio broadcasts from Metropolitan Opera or various bootlegs.

  • Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana - Hamburg, 1986 - with: Galina Savova, Vasile Moldoveanu, Piero Cappuccilli; Conductor: Ricco Saccani, the Budapest Opera Orchestra

Video recordings

In contrast to the studio recordings, Vasile Moldoveanu's videography is more consistent:

  • Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlo

- with: Vasile Moldoveanu (Don Carlo), Renata Scotto (Elisabeth von Valois), Tatiana Troyanos (Princess Eboli), Sherrill Milnea (Rodrigo, Marquis von Posa), Paul Plishka (Filip al II lea), Jerome Hines (the Grand Inquisitor) , Peter Sliker (a forester), Betsy Norden (Tebaldo), Dana Talley (Earl of Lerma), Barbara Green (Countess of Arenberg), John Check (a monk), Timothy Jenkins (a herald), Therese Brandson (a heavenly voice ), the orchestra and choir of the Metropolitan Opera from New York, Conductor: James Levine, Production: John Dexter - New York City February 1980, live from the Metropolitan Opera from New York

  • Giacomo Puccini: Il tabarro - with: Renata Scotto, Vasile Moldoveanu, Cornell Mc Neill, Charles Anthony, Italo Tajo, Bianca Berini, Jeffrey Stamm, Louisa Wohlafka, Michael Best, the orchestra and the choir of the Metropolitan Opera from New York,

Conductor: James Levine, Production: Fabrizio Melano. After recordings from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, November 1981

  • Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

- Actors: Anna Tomova-Sintow, Sherrill Milnes, Vasile Moldoveanu, Paul Plishka; Conductor: James Levine, Artistic Director: Tito Capobianco

  • Giuseppe Verdi: I vespri siciliani - Distribution: Guido de Montforte - Eduard Tumagian, Il Sire di Bethume - Alan Charles, Il Conte Vaudemont - Jacques Doumene, Arrigo - Vasile Moldoveanu, Giovanni da Procida - Zenon Kosnowski, La Duchessa Elena - Maria Temesi, Ninetta - Linda Bond Perry, Danieli - Michel Cambon, Tebaldo - Louis Mathieu, Roberto - Patrick Rocco, Manfredo - Alain Munier; The Nice Opera Orchestra, conductor: Oleg Caetani, video recording of the Nice Opera performances (June 15, 17, 19 and 23, 1984)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Moldoveanu, Vasile
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Constanța