THE TEN GREATEST SOPRANOS Heard Live 6 Virginia Zeani

This is a selection of videos of the Ten Greatest Sopranos I had the joy to hear in live performance. The order is simply when I first heard them. They are all from my impressionable student days, chosen because every one of these great singers gave performances as vivid to me now as when I first heard them. Every one was more than just a voice and they all sang, in their very different ways, so as to move, excite and enchant.

Virginia Zeani sang Lucia and Violetta in the Stoll Theatre in London with a visiting Italian company in 1957. I heard the Lucia on a BBC radio broadcast and was immediately captivated by her beautiful, dark and very dramatic voice. I booked for the last performances of La Traviata and Lucia, but Zeani had already left and other sopranos sang and I had to wait three long years to hear her.

In 1960 Sutherland sang her first Violetta, this time not in a tailor-made production, but in the old stock version which Callas had graced in 1958. Having nearly missed her Lucia, the BBC scheduled a world-wide broadcast of the second night. But Sutherland was ill. I heard her debut and she was uneasy in the role, clearly not in best voice, despite an effortless "Sempre libera", and had yet to come to terms with the complex character. She was obliged to cancel the next performance.

Covent Garden had no understudy and within 24 hours needed a star soprano for the prestigious broadcast. There was just one singer who might be suitable and who was already a famous Violetta, a role for which she was in constant demand. That singer was Virginia Zeani.

But where was she to be found? Zeani was eventually tracked down to Vienna and after a sleepless night flew to London via Paris, arriving at the Royal Opera House at 4pm.

This was her Covent Garden debut, but there was only just enough time for costume fittings and no time at all for any music rehearsal. She walked onto the stage at 7pm and had to ask "Which one is my Alfredo?" The brave tenor who stepped forward was Scotsman William McAlpine, a sweet voiced, very convincing Alfredo.

The performance is almost miraculous with every one in the cast electric with excitement. The whole broadcast can be heard on my channel in 13 consecutive clips.

As to hearing Virginia Zeani live. I was not able to get to the debut but listened glued to the the radio. She was invited back in the summer of 1960 and at last I heard her live and very thrilling it was, truly wonderful.

She was of course very beautiful, both in her voice and in her person. In the party scene she was much calmer than Callas and the guests were irresistibly drawn to her as if to a magnet. In the quiet moment after everyone has left she was upstage looking away, and then slowly turned, gathering her thoughts, in an exquisitely sung "Ah fors e lui". The tone was full and even and beautifully graduated, but also intense, with a plangent quality as if full of tears. One commentator says hers is the "Voce di Donna" the "Voice of Womankind", and I think that is right.

As the opera progressed this intensity became more and more heart rending. The renunciation with Germont Pere, the passionate parting from Alfredo, the humiliation at the party and the lonely death scene are still burned in my memory. In the final scene she read the letter from Germont not declaiming it but almost crying onto the page. In the aria her voice became more and more beautiful with the soft high notes resonating round Covent Garden as if one were inside a great bell. These are the most beautiful sounds I heard from any singer. Ever.

When Alfredo at last returned, the intensity grew even more. She knelt, looking straight out into infinity, and slowly rose, singing from ppp through a miraculously long crescendo, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...Gran Dio morir si giovine" . At the very end, her health seemed briefly to return, she is reborn and then, suddenly, she is gone.

These qualities of beauty and intensity made her close to perfection as Violetta. Coming so soon after the vocally alarmingly fragile Callas performances, Zeani was described, with some relief, as "the most Verdian Violetta heard for many years". For me, I am only grateful that I heard both these magnificent singers and I could not bear to be without either of their performances.

Drawings made just after performances © YMM Fuller

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[CharlotteinWeimar]

Bravo corellithebest and bravo Virginia!

[CharlotteinWeimar]

If you heard this great singer live, please post a description.

[brodsky96]

Yes, dear Charlotte, I met ZEANI personally and heard her live several times (as well as Rossi Lemeni). Its difficult to "describe".... it was the GLAMOUR of tempi passati, nowadays sopranos dont sing anymore like ZEANI or STELLA. It was not only MUSIC but also DRAMA, PASSION, ABANDON.... I will never forget ZEANIS "Addio del passato" or the wonderfull delicare aria of MIMI while separating from Rodolfo... la cofietta rosa.... well.... "those were the days, my friend..."

[basenjidiva]

Although Virginia Zeanis signature role, which secured for her a place in the annals of operatic history, was Violetta, in Verdis, La Traviata, which she performed an unprecedented six hundred forty eight times, her versatility remains unchallenged, as she sang seventy-one different leading operatic roles, in sixty-seven operas, in six languages! Bravissima, cara Diva!!!

[Nacidodelmar]

@CharlotteinWeimar Sublime!

[1945Jill]

I'm so glad you included Zeani, long a favorite of mine but almost forgotten today. I never had the privilege to hear her live but do have treasured recordings, and I have an opera-savvy friend who saw her perform and said her Violetta was truly moving as well as beautifully sung. Thanks so much for these wonderful videos Charlotte - I applaud your choices!

[Celticwomanfanpiano]

One of my first voice teachers studied under Zeani at the IU.  Love her jewelry in the white dress! And I love the story you tell under the description. What a truly good singer!

[halavey]

Oh sorry about Tebaldi. I did not realize you posted only the ones you heard. Still a terrific line up!

[halavey]

Sorry you did not include Tebaldi but everyone has opinions that differ. I also love Millo who when I heard her 5 years ago in Chicago's huge house in Tosca it took me back to 1959 in my memory when I heard Tebaldi sing in that opera and Di Stefano, it was at La Scala, I was 19 but still remember she stole the show and was welcomed back with a huge ovation. Di Stefano was on the outer edge of his prime but also turned in a very good performance.

[halavey]

I spoke to her on the phone three years ago at her home in FLA. and she was very nice,sharp mind , witty and had a good sense of humor . I never was lucky enough to hear her in the house but my dad did in Rome as Lucia with Tagliavini in 58 and loved it. Her singing in everything she did was first class and she is an excellent teacher.

[mrantiquedealer]

She was wonderful and exciting in the theater.

[lllmozartlll]

Wonderful!!! Thanks a lot.

[nornsnornsnorns]

Thank you Charlotte - she is simply magnificent. When would one hear applause today to approach that after Addio del passato? I wish I had seen her