Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was one of the dominant lyrico-spinto sopranos of the 1950s and 1960s, with a large, powerful voice that, despite a severely flawed top, was described by many of her admirers as one of the most beautiful of the 20th century. In many ways she and Maria Callas were defined by one another, although often far too simplistically, assuming that what one had, the other did not. (Rather like the cats versus dogs debates among pet lovers, in which all dogs are loving but dumb and all cats are bright but treacherous.) Those who backed Callas against Tebaldi denounced Tebaldi as a stodgy singer of the "this is about showing off my voice" school and lauded Callas as the genuine operatic artist who let the voice be subservient to the opera and to the drama; those who held Tebaldi to be the prima donna denounced Callas as overly erratic, with an unattractive voice that was on the edge of disaster. In fact, Tebaldi was not without a sense of the stage and of dramatic presentation, and for much of her career, in many ways Callas had the more reliable and versatile technique.
She studied at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma, and her stage debut was as Elena (Helen of Troy) in Boito's Mefistofele in 1944 at Rovigo. Her career took off with a concert performance rather than an operatic one. In 1946, Toscanini was performing the Verdi Te Deum to reopen the La Scala opera house, and he engaged her to perform the soprano solo. Whether he was referring to the way that she was physically placed considerably above the other soloists, exhorting her to sing like an angel, or in fact describing her voice as "la voce d' angelo" (the voice of an angel), a question which has aroused some controversy, she was soon identified by that phrase. Her stage debut was three months later as Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger. She made her London debut in 1950 as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello as part of a La Scala tour, the year of her United States debut in San Francisco as Tosca, and her Paris and Rio de Janiero debuts the next year. Her Met debut was in 1955, also as Desdemona, and thereafter it became something of a home base for her. While she had performed relative rarities earlier in her career, even including such unlikely composers as Handel (Giulio Cesare) and Rossini (Le siege de Corinthe) and obscure works by Spontini (La vestale and Fernando Cortez) and Refice' s Cecilia, she began to narrow her repertoire to mainstream works by Verdi, Puccini, and some of the verismo composers. In the early 1960s, a problematic technique and personal crisis (the death of her mother, to whom she had been especially close), led to a vocal crisis, and in 1963, she left the stage to rest and rework. While her vocal condition had not especially improved by the time of her return, her acting received far more praise than before. Her physical mobility was still limited by the after-effects of childhood polio, but she had become more expressive, and better able to use gestures and expressions to convey drama. In the early 1970s, she began her retirement, and her final stage performance was at La Scala in 1976.
Among her recordings, her Liu on the Leinsdorf Turandot with Nilsson and Bjoerling (RCA Living Stero 62687) shows her at her best; the tempo is not allowed to become lugubrious, and the role lies particularly low for a soprano, allowing the velvety richness of her middle and lower range to be displayed without the flatness or harshness that plagued her upper range throughout her career.
© Ann Feeney /TiVo
-
Verdi : Aida
Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato, Carlo Bergonzi, Wiener Singverein, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1959
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ponchielli: La Gioconda, Op. 9
Carlo Bergonzi, Robert Merrill, Renata Tebaldi, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Lamberto Gardelli
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 15 Dec 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Tosca (Mono Version)
Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Campora, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Alberto Erede
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Don Carlo
Renata Tebaldi, Grace Bumbry, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Nicolaï Ghiaurov, Royal Opera House Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1965
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Otello (Stereo Version)
Herbert von Karajan, Mario del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: La Forza del Destino
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Ettore Bastianini, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Tosca
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, George London, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 30 Apr 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: The Great Operas
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 14 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Otello
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Alberto Erede
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 8 Dec 1954
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Turandot
Inge Borkh, Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Alberto Erede
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi · La traviata
Renata Tebaldi, Gianni Poggi, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 27 Dec 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
VERDI: LA TRAVIATA (REMASTER)
Tullio Serafin, Renata Tebaldi, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin
Opera - Released by Nar Classical on 22 Jan 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Omaggio a renata tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi, Gaetano Merola, San Francisco Symphony
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 27 Dec 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vocal Recital: Tebaldi, Renata - Scarlatti, A. / Handel, G.F. / Sarti, G. / Rossini, G. / Bellini, V. / Martucci, G. / Favara, A. / Masetti, E. (1956)
Renata Tebaldi, Georgio Favaretto
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 1956
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Opera Arias - Nessun Dorma - Casta Diva - O Mio Babbino Caro
Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boito: Mefistofele (Great Scenes)
Tullio Serafin, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Cesare Siepi, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Di Stefano
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur (Stereo Version)
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Franco Capuana
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: La Fanciulla del West
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Cornell MacNeil, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Franco Capuana
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Otello
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Aldo Protti, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1961
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Renata Tebaldi: Arias & Duets
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Flower Duet - The World's Most Beautiful Duets
Dame Joan Sutherland, Brigitte Fassbaender, Renata Tebaldi, Marilyn Horne
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 4 Aug 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo