Renata Tebaldi

Renata Tebaldi Ersilia Clotilde ( born 1 February 1922 in Pesaro, † December 19, 2004 in San Marino), known as the " voice of an angel ", was an Italian spinto soprano.

Life

Renata Tebaldi was born as the daughter of an orchestral musician. Despite severe disease - she contracted as a child with polio - and poverty her family, she was able to study singing at the Conservatory in Parma after she wanted to become a pianist at first. Her debut was in 1944. After the Second World War, she was discovered as a soprano with the conductor Arturo Toscanini, encouraged and engaged at La Scala, where she was involved in 1946 in a famous concert for the reopening of the house after war-related renovation.

With the equally dedicated to the Scala Maria Callas it came to contest the vote. After Top Dog Renata Tebaldi wrangles dodged in the United States. From 1955 to 1973 she was part of the ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and undertook concert tours worldwide. In 17 seasons, the soprano appeared in 210 performances at the "Met".

It is one next to Maria Callas of the most successful singers of the second half of the 20th century. It is widely rumored that the two divas did not like each other. " Tigress " against " angels " were in the 1950s and 1960s in the press published stories about Hakeleien Callas contrasting Tebaldi. Opera lovers were biased world in a religious controversy, who deserved the crown of the better singer.

" The Tebaldi " made his mark primarily as a performer in operas by Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini a name. In the role of Desdemona in Verdi's opera Otello she excelled. This role began and ended her New York engagement.

In 1973 Renata Tebaldi retired from the presentation of opera roles and later from public life. Her last performance was in 1976 with a song La Scala in Milan. She died after a long illness on December 19, 2004 in her home in San Marino.

Her repertoire included, inter alia, the roles of Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Aida in Verdi's Aida, Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata, Manon in Puccini's Manon Lescaut, Puccini's Tosca, La Wally Wally in Catalani, Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur Adriana, Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare, Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser as well as Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin.

A large part of their stage roles she has recorded for the record. In 14 complete recordings of Italian opera was there in the studio Mario del Monaco her tenor partner, six Carlo Bergonzi.