Fedora Barbieri
Billed as mezzo-soprano during her career, Fedora Barbieri might more accurately have been described as a mezzo-contralto, a term reserved for dramatic voices placed slightly lower than mezzo-sopranos and with a darker coloration. While she possessed a strong top register, it could not match in ease or splendor that boasted by Giulietta Simionato, whose career roughly paralleled Barbieri's (Barbieri developed an intense dislike for her rival and unhesitatingly shared that distaste with interviewers both during and after her singing years). Barbieri recorded extensively, sometimes leaving multiple studio recordings of her most celebrated roles. Her prime years lasted into the 1960s; she thereafter began to assume smaller roles such as Mama Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana.
Barbieri did not begin formal study until her eighteenth year. While working in the shop owned by her parents, she often sang to pass the long hours. One day, a knowledgeable customer heard her and insisted that she begin voice lessons; for two years, she worked with Federico Bugamelli in her native city, followed by nine months' study with Luigi Toffolo. Her debut as a singer took place at San Giusto Church which had been the site of her baptism years before.
For advanced study, she moved to Florence where she became a pupil of the famous dramatic soprano Giulia Tess (who had herself begun her career as a mezzo soprano). Barbieri made her stage debut in Florence on November 4, 1940, in Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto. Her appearance as Fidalma was followed the next day by the role of Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore. The third night, she returned to the role of Fidalma, beginning a reputation for endurance that accompanied her throughout her career.
After her beginnings in Florence, Barbieri sang for two and a half years at La Scala in Milan, initiating her relationship with that theatre as Meg Page in Falstaff. A part (Dariola) in the world premiere of Franco Alfano's Don Juan de Mañara at the 1941 Maggio Musicale Fiorentino attracted considerable attention as did her participation in two revivals of works by Monteverdi, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1942) and Orfeo (1943). In 1943, she retired for two years to begin married life as the wife of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino director, Luigi Barlozetti. Her return to the stage in 1945 took place as Amneris in Verdi's Aida at the Teatro Verdi in Florence. Her career thereafter grew in depth and breadth as she undertook increasing numbers of roles in both the Verdi and bel canto repertories both at La Scala and elsewhere. During this decade, one of her most convincing triumphs came in the title role of Donizetti's La favorite, then a seldom-produced work.
In 1950, Barbieri was chosen by Rudolf Bing to perform the role of Princess Eboli in the new Metropolitan Opera manager's calling card production of Don Carlo. The acclaim she received in that much-heralded cast assured her presence at the Met for a total of nine seasons, during which she sang such additional roles as Amneris, Azucena, Dame Quickly, Carmen, Laura, and Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma (in which she, together with Maria Callas, opened the 1956 - 1957 season). She reprised Eboli in Covent Garden's Don Carlo of 1958.
Among her most impressive recording are her two each of Amneris and Azucena (with Milanov and Callas, respectively).
© TiVo
Diskografie
11 Album, -en • Geordnet nach Bestseller
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Verdi: Aida
Maria Callas, Richard Tucker, Fedora Barbieri, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano, Tullio Serafin
Oper - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 01.01.1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Trovatore (Il) (Bjorling, Milanov, Cellini) (1952)
Gesamtaufnahmen von Opern - Erschienen bei Naxos am 31.03.2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini - Il Trittico
Vincenzo Bellezza, Tullio Serafin, Gabriele Santini, Tito Gobbi, Victoria de los Angeles, Fedora Barbieri
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 12.12.1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giuseppe Verdi: Aida (Complete Opera)
Maria Callas, Richard Tucker, Tito Gobbi, Fedora Barbieri, Elvira Galassi, Tullio Serafin
Klassik - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 01.01.1956
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lebendige Vergangenheit - Fedora Barbieri
Klassik - Erschienen bei Preiser Records am 27.09.2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rossini · l'italiana in algeri
Fedora Barbieri, Paolo Washington, Franco Capuana, Orchestre du Mai Musical Florentin
Klassik - Erschienen bei G.O.P. am 27.04.2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi, Bizet, Rossini & Others: Opera Excerpts (Live)
Oper - Erschienen bei Myto Historical am 28.09.2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gluck: Orfeo Ed Euridice
Fedora Barbieri, Hilde Güden, Magda Gabory
Oper - Erschienen bei Urania am 01.01.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini · suor angelica
Victoria de los Angeles, Fedora Barbieri, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Klassik - Erschienen bei G.O.P. am 01.01.1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Il Trovatore
Jussi Björling, Zinka Milanov, Fedora Barbieri, Leonard Warren
Oper - Erschienen bei Past Classics am 17.06.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Aïda (Mono Version)
Maria Callas, Richard Tucker, Fedora Barbieri, Tullio Serafin, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano
Klassik - Erschienen bei BNF Collection am 01.01.1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo