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
-
Flower Duet - The World's Most Beautiful Duets
Dame Joan Sutherland, Brigitte Fassbaender, Renata Tebaldi, Marilyn Horne
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 4 ago 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: La Bohème
Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Tullio Serafin
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1959
La discografia ideale di Qobuz16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Renata Tebaldi. The Early Years
Renata Tebaldi, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Alberto Erede
Estratti d'opera - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Limited il 19 giu 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Renata Tebaldi
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Renata Tebaldi
Classica - Pubblicato da UME - Global Clearing House il 3 feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Renata Tebaldi: Christmas Festival
Renata Tebaldi, The Ambrosian Singers, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Anton Guadagno
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1971
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Catalani: La Wally
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Coro Lirico di Torino, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte‐Carlo, Fausto Cleva
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1968
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Tebaldi
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Renata Tebaldi: Classic Recital
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Tebaldi Festival
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Il Trittico
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Voce D'Angelo - A Portrait Of Renata Tebaldi
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
Renata Tebaldi, Jussi Björling, Alberto Erede, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin
Opera - Pubblicato da Musical Concepts il 19 feb 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giordano: Andrea Chénier
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Ettore Bastianini, Fiorenza Cossotto, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Otello
Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Aldo Protti, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Queen (Recordings 1949-1960)
Opera - Pubblicato da Urania Records il 1 nov 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini · tosca
Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Campora, Alberto Erede, Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Classica - Pubblicato da G.O.P. il 30 giu 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Recital
Renata Tebaldi, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Oliviero de Fabritiis
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1964
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Madama Butterfly - Highlights
Renata Tebaldi, Fiorenza Cossotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Tullio Serafin
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: La Bohème - Highlights
Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Gianna d' Angelo, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Tullio Serafin
Classica - Pubblicato da Decca Music Group Ltd. il 1 gen 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo