First of all, my apologies: this year I have hardly posted any new reviews. This was for personal reasons
I was forced to limit myself to translations but I did a lot of portraits of singers who deserved to be featured again.
Renata Scotto had her birthday on 24 February
Renata Scotto, ‘la mia Divina Assoluta’ made her opera debut at the age of eighteen as Violetta (La Traviata). Her ‘official’ debut was the next day in Milan. Shortly afterwards, she sang Madama Butterfly in Savona.
Geraldine Farrar 28 February
In 1915, Cecil B. DeMille filmed the opera again, this time with Geraldine Farrar as the man-eating gypsy. Now, Farrar was not only one of the greatest sopranos and MET legends of the early 20th century, her beautiful appearance and excessive acting talent also enabled her to build a career as a Hollywood actress.
Beverly Sills was born on 25 May
Beverly Sills was born in Brooklyn as Belle Miriam Silverman. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Odessa and Bucharest. As a child, she spoke Yiddish, Russian, Romanian, French and English. Although she had an enormous repertoire, that ranged from Handel and Mozart to Puccini, Massenet and Verdi, she was best known for her interpretations of coloratura soprano roles. Her radiant high D’s and E-flats sounded seemingly effortless and natural.
José Carreras became 76 at 5th December
About just few of his many roles
Sara Scuderi was born 11 December
Scuderi sang in the most important theatres of the day, both in Italy and abroad, most notably in the Netherlands! She had a contract at La Scala where she received high praise for her interpretations of the most well-known operas.
Rita Streich 18 december
High coloratura soprano is one of the most admired voice types. It’s only logical, because what these ladies do falls a bit into the category of “nightingale on a trapeze”.
And November 22th it was it was five years that Dmitri Hvorostovsky died, only 60 years old
But, but…. I made an article about King David and music
Basia con fuoco 