Music Weblog

There was no greater opera singer during the latter half of the twentieth century than tenor Luciano Pavarotti [1935–2007], whose spectacular and distinctive voice, plus a larger-than-life career, made him the top-selling classical recording artist of all time.  Born in Modena, Italy, Pavarotti learned to sing opera from the records in his father’s collection—inspired by great tenors of the past such as Caruso, Gigli, and Di Stefano—and enjoyed his first musical success as a member of an all-male choir that included his father, winning first prize in an international competition in Wales.  Pavarotti continued vocal instruction with several local teachers, one of whom also taught Pavarottti’s childhood friend, Mirella Freni.  The pair would enjoy significant worldwide operatic careers, and they appeared onstage together in a number of productions.

In the Italian town of Reggio Emilia, Pavarotti made his professional debut in 1961 as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, a role that would become one of his favorites throughout his career.  Two years later, his first performances outside Italy took him to the Vienna Opera House, where he sang Rodolfo and also appeared in Verdi’s Rigoletto as the Duke of Mantua.  Later that year he replaced his mentor and idol, Giuseppe Di Stefano, in this same role at Covent Garden (London) when the elder tenor fell ill at the last moment.  After being “discovered” by Joan Sutherland, Pavarotti was invited to perform alongside the famous soprano on a tour of Australia.  He gave his first U.S. performance in Miami—hardly an opera hotbed—in February 1965, appearing as Edgardo opposite Sutherland, who sang her signature role of Lucia in the Donizetti opera of the same name.

In 1972, Pavarotti’s first appearance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera was as Tonio in Donizetti’s comic opera La Fille du Régiment, where the aria “Ah, mes amis” includes nine high Cs.  His effortless performance of what is generally considered the most difficult lyric tenor aria in the repertoire prompted 17 curtain calls, and a legend was born.  During his career he performed hundreds of more times on the Met’s stage, and he was also featured in the very first television broadcast [1977] of the series Live from the Met.  For that program, Pavarotti reprised his role of Rodolfo in La bohème, with Renata Scotto as Mimi.  He continued to appear on opera stages throughout the world—his favorite roles also included Manrico in Verdi’s Il trovatore, Nemorino in Donizetti’s Le elisir d’amore, and Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca—including La Scala [Milan], where his performance in Radames in Verdi’s Aïda in 1985 was one of the most heralded in that house’s long history.

His fame grew even greater as one of the Three Tenors—Placido Domingo and José Carreras were the others—whose performance in Rome prior to the 1990 World Cup finals resulted in the best-selling classical recording of all time.  Their continued appearances throughout the decade in front of stadium-sized audiences helped raise awareness of opera with much of the general public.  Pavarotti’s final Met Opera performance (as Cavaradossi) took place on March 13, 2004, and his farewell tour of 2006 was cut short when the maestro was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July.  He died at home in Modena in September of the following year.

Pavarotti sings the famous tenor aria from Aïda (Vienna, 1984):

José Carreras was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1946.  Over the course of his lengthy singing career—he made his first appearance at age 11 as a boy soprano in an opera by Manuel de Falla—the renowned tenor has sung more than 60 starring roles on opera stages around the world.  After appearing in additional productions as a youth at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, plus furthering his vocal studies at its companion music conservatory, Carreras made his adult operatic debut in a principal role while singing opposite fellow Catalan native Montserrat Caballé in a production of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia.  The veteran soprano was also instrumental in Carreras furthering his reputation internationally, as she appeared with him in more than 15 different operas over the ensuing years.  Her brother was also the tenor’s manager until the mid-1990s.

Carreras’s opera career took off in the early 1970s, spurred on by his winning an important vocal competition in 1971 that led to his Italian debut the following year as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème.  Later that same year [1972] he appeared for the first time on a U.S. stage, singing the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for New York City Opera.  By the time he had reached his 28th birthday, Carreras had sung 24 major tenor roles in various houses across Europe and North America, including starring turns in such Verdi operas as La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, and Rigoletto.  He also signed an exclusive recording deal with Philips that guaranteed him the chance to perform as the lead tenor in operas that had fallen into obscurity.  Among his more notable recordings was the role of Eléazar in Halévy’s French grand opera, La juive.

While shooting a film version of La bohème in 1987, Carreras was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  A highly aggressive treatment regimen saw him return to the stage after only two years.  In 1990 he took part in the first of what became an international musical phenomenon—appearing as one of the “Three Tenors” (the others were Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo) in a concert in Rome.  The event was meant to be a one-time thing to provide funding for Carreras’s leukemia foundation, but the immense popularity of the format led to other appearances that extended into the early part of the following decade.  Sales from the first concert topped 13 million units, making it the best-selling classical recording ever.  Carreras made his final staged appearance in Barcelona in the French opera Samson et Dalila in March 2001.  His last operatic performance anywhere took place in Tokyo in July 2002, in the 1927 opera Sly by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari.

Carreras sings “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée” from Bizet’s Carmen, in a 1987 Metropolitan Opera production (with Agnes Baltsa):

Born in 1935 in Modena, Italy, soprano Mirella Freni earned a reputation as one of the most versatile singers in opera.  Prior to her official retirement in 2005—she sang the role of Joan of Arc in the Tchaikovsky opera The Maid of Orleans at the age of 70—Freni had performed more than 40 roles on stages around the world.  While she became known later in life for her portrayal of vocally “heavier” Verdi heroines such as Aida, Leonora (La forza del destino), Desdemona (Otello), and Amelia (Simon Boccanegra), she spent much of her earlier years singing in operas by Mozart, Puccini, Massenet, Gounod, and so on.

Freni began singing professionally before reaching her teenage years, but she was warned that to continue might permanently harm her voice.  As a result she backed off until age 19, when she made her operatic debut in her hometown as Micaela in Carmen.  She won a vocal competition in 1958, which helped raise her profile with opera companies beyond Italy.  She sang her first performance at Covent Garden [London] in 1961, as Nanetta in the Verdi opera Falstaff.  Four years later she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, singing Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème.  This became one of her signature roles, as she performed it more than a hundred times during her career.

Modena is also the birthplace of legendary opera star Luciano Pavarotti, and Freni performed numerous times with her childhood friend.  One of their first performances to be captured on record was in Mascagni’s comic masterpiece L’amico Fritz, where they sang the two leading roles in a 1969 Royal Opera production.  In 1981, Freni married operatic bass Nicolai Ghiaurov, and the pair often performed and recorded together throughout the balance of their careers.  They also established a vocal school in Vignola, Italy.  Ghiaurov taught master classes there until his death in 2004, while Freni continues the tradition by training young singers from around the world.  In 2005, the Metropolitan Opera honored the fortieth anniversary of Freni’s first performance there with a gala concert.

Mirella Freni as Mimi, with Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo:

Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1926, soprano Joan Sutherland is generally considered to be the greatest female opera singer of the second half of the 20th century.  She is credited with nearly single-handedly reviving the public’s interest in the bel canto works of Donizetti and Bellini, although she appeared in operas by other composers as well throughout her long career.  She made her professional debut in 1947, singing the female title role in a concert version of Henry Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas.  Her first-place finish in Australia’s top vocal competition helped finance further studies, and Sutherland relocated to London and the opera school at the Royal College of Music in 1951.  She debuted on the stage of the Royal Opera (Covent Garden) a year later, singing a few minor roles.  One such production included appearing alongside Maria Callas, who sang the title role in Bellini’s Norma.  This was a part Sutherland herself would perform hundreds of times later in her career.

Sutherland’s marriage in 1954 to opera conductor Richard Bonynge is credited with changing her emphasis from the Wagnerian-type roles she had originally preferred, to a lighter repertoire that would take advantage of the high notes she appeared to sing with ease.  Her breakthrough role was as the title character in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, a 1959 Royal Opera production that solidified her position as La Stupenda, a woman with a voice unlike any other in the world of opera.  Lucia became her signature role—she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in a 1961 production of that work—although she also appeared as the lead soprano in many other bel canto gems throughout her career.  These operas include La sonnambula and I Puritani by Bellini (in addition to the aforementioned Norma), Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena and Lucrezia Borgia by Donizetti, and La traviata by Verdi.

Sutherland was celebrated for her amazing vocal agility and purity of tone, both in live performances as well on the many recordings she made of complete operas and selections of individual arias.  Although her diction was not considered to be her strong point—­many critics insist her laxity at pronouncing words detracted from her overall approach—she rarely disappointed her audiences with anything but a pitch-perfect performance.  Sutherland made her final appearance on the operatic stage in 1990 (at age 63), singing the role of Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeer’s grand opera Les Huguenots.  This Sydney Opera House production was thankfully captured for posterity on DVD.

Sutherland sings an aria from “I Puritani” by Vincenzo Bellini:

Bass Nicolai Ghiaurov [1929–2004] began his stellar operatic career as a student in his native Bulgaria, eventually migrating to the Soviet Union in 1950 (at the age of 21) to continue his studies at the famed Moscow Conservatory.  He won top prize at the International Vocal Competition in Paris [1955] and followed that up with a first-place finish at a similar contest in Prague.  He made his professional debut later the same year, singing the role of Don Basilio in a Sofia, Bulgaria, production of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Throughout his career, Ghiaurov was best known as an interpreter of Russian opera as well as in singing the major bass roles in various operas by Verdi.  He made his London debut at Covent Garden as Padre Guardiano in Verdi’s La forza del destino.  Additional Verdi roles in his repertoire included Philip II in Don Carlo, Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Silva in Ernani, Procida in I vespri Siciliani, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, and the title role in Attila.  His first performance with the Metropolitan Opera in New York saw him sing Mephistopheles in a 1965 production of Gounod’s Faust.  This was the same role he had sung four years earlier in Genoa, which was the first time he appeared onstage with the woman who would later become his wife—soprano Mirella Freni.  They were married in 1978 and continued to live together in Freni’s hometown of Modena, Italy, until Ghiaurov’s death.  He ultimately made 81 appearances at the Met in ten different roles, and he likewise appeared regularly with Chicago’s Lyric Opera, singing a dozen different roles there—including among them the title roles in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Massenet’s Don Quichotte, and Boito’s Mefistofele.

Ghiaurov made many notable recordings down through the years, including quite a few with Freni.  He continued to perform up until a few months before he died.  His last performance was as Basilio in “Barber,” fittingly the role that gave him his professional start.

Ghiaurov performs the famous bass aria “Le veau d’or” from Gounod’s Faust:

Born in Pennsylvania in 1934, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne moved to southern California and began her singing career as a member of the Roger Wagner Chorale at the age of 14.  Following her graduation from high school, Horne majored in voice at the USC School of Music and also studied with famed soprano Lotte Lehmann.  Her big break came in 1956, when composer Igor Stravinsky invited her to participate in the Venice Music Festival.  She remained in Europe for three seasons and capped that portion of her career with a highly acclaimed performance in Wozzeck, by Alban Berg.  A year later she reprised the role of Marie in that opera for San Francisco and employed the identical vehicle for her debut at Covent Garden in London, which took place in October 1964.

Horne’s rise as a powerful operatic presence had the effect of bringing to prominence many operas that had languished for decades.  While she appeared regularly in perhaps the most famous mezzo role of all—Carmen—she joined with soprano Joan Sutherland to help revive many bel canto masterpieces that had fallen into disuse throughout the mid-twentieth century in favor of Verdi’s operas and those from the verismo canon, notably works by Puccini.  Productions of lesser-known operas by Rossini and others became especially popular thanks to Marilyn Horne singing prominent or title roles, especially where parts had originally been created for castrato singers during each composer’s lifetime but later recast for mezzos.  Among the operas in this category are Rossini’s Tancredi and Semiramide, plus such Handel operas as Semele and Rinaldo.  In the case of this latter work, Horne participated in its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, amazingly the very first Handel opera that company ever produced.

Horne made her Met debut in 1970 as Adalgisa in Bellini’s opera Norma (with Joan Sutherland as Norma), and she continued to appear with that company regularly.  One of her great triumphs in that house was as Fides in Le prophète by Giacomo Meyerbeer, the first fully staged American production of that French grand opera in close to a hundred years.  She retired from the classical stage in 1999, although she occasionally performs pop-type concerts alongside various singers.  Horne also continues to teach master classes in association with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and several other U.S. universities.

Horne performs “Cruda sorte” from Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri: