Virginia Zeani
Virginia Zeani , actually Virginia Zehan (born October 21, 1925 in Solovăstru , Transylvania ) is a Romanian opera singer ( soprano ). She is particularly known for the role of Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata . She sang this role more than 600 times.
Life
In addition to studying literature at the University of Bucharest, she trained her voice with Lucia Anghel and Lydia Lipkowska. She graduated from the tenor Aureliani Pertile in Milan.
Her first great success was with the role of Violetta, when she stood in for a sick singer at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in 1948. In 1956 she made her debut at La Scala in Milan as Cleopatra in Georg Friedrich Handel's Giulio Cesare . There she sang the part of Blanche, for which she had been selected by the composer himself, in the world premiere of Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc on January 26, 1957 . In 1961 she took over the roles of the four women in Hoffmann's stories by Jacques Offenbach . From 1960 she turned more to the lyrical-dramatic subject and tried to revive the lesser-known operas by Gioachino Rossini , Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti . Her 70 roles also included Desdemona in Giuseppe Verdi's Otello , Leonora in La forza del destino and the title roles in Alzira and Donizetti's Maria di Rohan .
She was married to the bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni (1920-1991). Both were Distinguished Professors at Indiana University . Zeani currently lives in West Palm Beach , Florida , where she still teaches a few private students. In 2012 Opera magazine named her “Teacher of the Year”. Her students include a. Sylvia McNair and Marilyn Mims .
literature
- Leonardo Ciampa : The Twilight of Belcanto. Second edition, AuthorHouse, 2005, ISBN 1-4184-5956-9
Web links
- Virginia Zeani at Operissimo on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
- Virginia Zeani homepage
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Biography on Virginia Zeani's official website , accessed February 16, 2015.
- ↑ a b Zeani, Virginia. In: Kutsch / Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon , p. 26457 f (see Singer Lexicon Volume 5, p. 3802 ff), Verlag KG Saur, electronic edition of the third, expanded edition, digital library Volume 33.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zeani, Virginia |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Zehan, Virginia (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Romanian opera singer (soprano) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 21, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Solovăstru , Transylvania |