parterre box

29 comments

• Will says:

  I heard her live twice, a mid-50s Boheme and a late career Turandot Liu. The voice indeed was distinctive and extremely expressive. She may have been somewhat static on stage but LISTEN to the broadcasts or the recordings and you woll hear total involvement.

  The RCA recording of Manon Lescaut with Bjorling and Merrill is superb for her. Some of the vocal wear definitely shows. and young she does not sound–it doesn’t matter at all. The last act is a skillful blend of grand tragedy and overt melodrama and is shattering.

  She had an interesting repertory, including Mozart and some contemporary stuff. She was a trouper and, reputedly, a generous colleague. All in all, a great lady if indeed a quirky vocal timbre.

  on July 23, 2009 at 3:56 PM
• Gualtier M says:

  I found a recording by Albanese’s teacher Giuseppina Baldassare-Tedeschi (a scene from Manon in Italian). Oddly, her style was almost exactly the same as Licia’s. The voice was very forward, pointed instead of rounded and the phrasing was heavily declamatory. She stressed words over line and tone. So it was not just nature but nurture that created Albanese’s distinctive style.

  A friend has compared Albanese who harks back to the older verismo school of Dalla Rizza et al. with Tebaldi who was the new style of Puccini singing that dominated the generation of the 1950′s and beyond. Much more rounded tone, covered sound, more stress on melody and line over textual declamation. More generalized approach to the music. More stimm than kunst. He felt that Albanese was a thing of the past while Tebaldi was the Puccini diva of that time.

  on July 23, 2009 at 4:09 PM
• Will says:

  A P.S. to my post–I read a critic once who said one reason Licia’s Mimi and Violetta were so affecting is that she had the unique ability to sould lick she was in terrific voice and dreadfully ill all at the same time. If you know her voice, you understand at once.

  on July 23, 2009 at 4:18 PM
• Sanford says:

  And let’s not forget that as recently as 1985, she was performing in the concert performance of Follies, singing One More Kiss.

  on July 23, 2009 at 4:44 PM
• Jay says:

  Judaycadanna, The great dress was because she sang “Un bel di” from Madama Butterfly and the wings were to represent a butterfly.

  She was kneeling down to touch her hand to her mouth and then to the stage floor to kiss the Old Met goodbye. It was very touching.

  on July 23, 2009 at 5:40 PM
• iltenoredigrazia says:

  Albanese had been very vocal about saving the Old Met. I remember a pic on the NYT of her picketing outside the Old Met. Quite a bit of meaning to her kimono-resembling dress, her choice of singing Un Bel Di, and her kissing the stage. It was probably the most emotional moment that night.

  on July 23, 2009 at 5:50 PM
• iltenoredigrazia says:

  I remember a review of one of Albanese’s last Butterflies at the Met where the reviewer said that most Butterflies are first heard with a foot already almost onstage, but with Albanese you would swear she was barely making her way across 39th Street. She believed in what she was doing.

  I need to check but I believe she used to sing the high D flat option at her entrance. At least at the beginning of her career.

  on July 23, 2009 at 5:59 PM
• richard says:

  Gaultier at @ 22:

  Carla Gavazzi, a close contemporary of Albanese,
  also sang in the same kind of style. A lot of
  stress on the words and parlando and not so much
  attention to vocal lushness. When I first heard recordings of Gavazzi about a dozen years ago, I was very much reminded of Albanese’s way of singing.

  Some diva trivia; Olivero detested Gavazzi, most likely because Gavazzi got the RAI recording of Adriana (very elegantly sung…miles away from the shit flinging fest by Guleghina and borodina last season at the Met) that Olivero most likely felt should have gone to her.

  on July 23, 2009 at 7:59 PM
• danpatter says:

  @27, iltenoredigrazia, YES, Albanese sang the high D-flat at the end of Butterfly’s Entrance, radiantly. It’s a triumphant note on the 1941 broadcast from the Met with Tokatyan and Brownlee.

  on July 25, 2009 at 1:59 PM