parterre box

54 comments

• Kernita Makilla says:

  And here I was thinking it was Madame Vera Galupe-Borszkh’s understudy in the student performance.

  on November 29, 2009 at 8:46 PM
• messa di voce says:

  A couple of questions:

  1. The sound and technique are SO unItalian. Who did Zampieri study with, and how did she ever have a career in Italy.

  2. Her Met non-debut was in Don Carlos. Was it Levine who “protested” her? Anyone know the details?

  Thanks.

  on November 29, 2009 at 9:05 PM
  • NYCOQ says:

    Hmmm…English, churchy, hooty…it just goes so well with verisimo. Did this woman really have a serious opera career?

    on November 30, 2009 at 12:03 AM
    • NYCOQ says:

      I guess she did have a career. She recorded with Domingo and Pavoratti for major labels no less.

      on November 30, 2009 at 1:16 AM
    • MontyNostry says:

      The style is not 100 miles away from Bartoli when she’s doing ‘sensitive’.

      on November 30, 2009 at 3:08 AM
  • Cocky Kurwenal says:

    I think amongst her most famous work is Fanciulla Del West at La Scala with Domingo. So some sort of career in Italy, yes!

    on November 30, 2009 at 8:36 AM
• operablogger says:

  I’d never heard of Zampieri until picking up the CD of “Fanciulla” on Sony a few years ago, where she is joined by Domingo and Juan Pons (I now also own the DVD). I thought she did a very credible job as Minnie.

  on November 29, 2009 at 9:19 PM
• miss kitty litter says:

  The dreadful singing aside, who wears white socks when playing a recital?

  Appalled. Aghast. Someone catch me.

  on November 29, 2009 at 9:26 PM
• jumping clapping man says:

  deller does zampieri, doing sarandon does millo.

  on November 29, 2009 at 9:36 PM
• Krunoslav says:

  Odd as her vocalism is, it’s kind of riveting: the Cetra version of Teresa Stich-Randall.

  on November 29, 2009 at 9:50 PM
  • La Cieca says:

    No, I would say Zampieri’s singing is not so much riveting as it is arc welding.

    on November 29, 2009 at 9:58 PM
    • Maury says:

      Win.

      on November 30, 2009 at 8:48 AM
• Will says:

  I had never heard her before. What bizarre vocal production. Is this performance very recent? She is now 58 or 59 years of age.

  on November 29, 2009 at 10:21 PM
  • Noel Dahling says:

    You can’t tell this was made like 25 years ago?(around the time I was born)

    on November 30, 2009 at 9:20 AM
• dorion says:

  Gorgeous, I’ve always admired her. There’s a Macbeth video in which she’s absolutely possessed as Lady Macbeth. She’s not the predictable singer you queens are accustomed to, the almost flat vibrato is pure magic and the holding back of the sound here is perfect for the small space. And one recognizes making fun of her dress and hair as the usual juvenile stupidity and lack of wit of Parterre.

  By the way, Italians know opera and that’s why she had a career there.

  on November 29, 2009 at 10:26 PM
  • Lindoro Almaviva says:

    By the way, Italians know opera and that’s why she had a career there.

    Please, gimme a break. Italians might’ve known opera, but just 10 years ago, Tosca was playing in a touring production under another title just to get young people into the theater.

    Italians are pretty much like Americans in that area; there used to be quite a culture but that went with the 80′s and taking music and arts out of the schools. Now people think that Sarah Brightman, Paul potts, Andrea Biocelli and Susan Boyle are genuine classical artists and opera singers.

    I will have to agree with Cieca here, Zampieri is singing is archs so big only her knows where they start and where they finish. The first couple of bars actually sounded like she had something to say with the music. She sounded like she was physically and emotionally broken and that made me pay attention. Then I realized it was her usual unsupported sound and lost interest.

    Zampieri might have been a true artist, but her ideas and her technique got in the way and there was very little she was able to communicate. What she could communicate, like in this aria, went almost against the grain of what is on the music, at least in my opinion. As a performer she was fearless, the Lady Macbeth recording and video are more than enough evidence of that; but I have a feeling it was that fearless attitude what did her in.

    on November 29, 2009 at 11:27 PM
    • Noel Dahling says:

      What did they rename Tosca?

      on November 30, 2009 at 9:23 AM
      • Lindoro Almaviva says:

        I can’t remember, but it was one of those corny titles like Love and betrayal. I read it on an opera News article several years ago.

        on November 30, 2009 at 11:00 AM
    • dorion says:

      Lindoro I understand you have to kiss the hostess’ behind any chance you have but please never put the words “Italians” and “Americans” in the same sentence when opera is being discussed. Americans are great baseball players and invaders of defenseless countries and all but they know squat about opera. I’d just as soon trust Cicciolina, not Gelb.

      Zampieri wipes the floor off with many dramatic sopranos praised by some Americans as Angelica or Macbeth. She’s a true artist beyond the reach of most Americans’ lack of sensibility.

      on November 30, 2009 at 5:57 PM
      • richard says:

        dorion, your post are sooooo predictably nasty
        and condescending that they mask anything of value you might have to offer.

        You swoop in her like a witch on her broomstick,
        spit out some venom and swoop off.

        And you call the readers here “queens”. Look in the mirror , honey.

        on November 30, 2009 at 8:31 PM
      • dorion says:

        richard what made you think I’m not a queen? But then there are queen and there are queens…

        on December 1, 2009 at 1:40 PM
      • Noel Dahling says:

        “invaders of defenseless countries” –Sure just like Italy invaded Ethiopia. dorion the douche.

        on December 1, 2009 at 1:49 PM
  • amoebaguy says:

    I agree – I’ve always sort of liked the odd sound that Zampieri produces and she has always been one of my favorite Lady Macbeths, both on the video and in the Sinopoli recording.

    on November 29, 2009 at 11:52 PM
  • Clita del Toro says:

    Zampieri is a fabulous Lady Macbeth to Bruson’s Macbeth on that DVD from Berlin. She is not to everyone’s taste, but I love her. I prefer her LM to Verrett’s, who I saw in DC many years ago.
    According to a fan on opera-l who has seen Z many tmes, she was a wonderful singer with quite a big voice.

    I don’t know how she sounds on the clip here, and I don’t care.

    on November 30, 2009 at 9:21 AM
• steveac10 says:

  Why dies she get a vibrato in the upper quarter of her voice. G and below she sounds like that poor girl in high school choir who “blends” but can’t really sing. Then it gets all vibrant and shit at the very top. What’s up with that?

  on November 29, 2009 at 10:50 PM
  • Lindoro Almaviva says:

    I will guess it is improper support, but what do I know? Her voice might’ve been built like that.

    on November 29, 2009 at 11:29 PM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  Of course she is ITALIAN ! What a joy listening to her managing her voice at the time (1985?) with such nuanced diction.

  Here she is a few years later with the late Anton Guadagno (who really knew his stuff):
  

  PS: Mara whips up a mean pasta too and is a great cook.

  on November 30, 2009 at 1:34 AM