Italian opera singer
Fedora Barbieri (4 June 1920 – 4 March 2003) was an Italian dramatic mezzo-soprano and actress.[ 1] [ 2]
Barbieri was born in Trieste . She performed regularly in Florence for fifty years, and performed internationally through the years.[ 1] [ 3] [ 1]
Career
After studying singing with Federico Bugamelli and Luigi Toffolo, she won an audition at age twenty to enter the school of the Teatro Comunale in Florence , where she studied with Giulia Tess.[ 3] Il matrimonio segreto [ 1] Teatro alla Scala debut, where she was to have her greatest successes, came in 1942, as Meg Page .[ 4]
She was one of the first performers to investigate and perform in early operas by Monteverdi and Pergolesi .
She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 6 November 1950, as Princess Eboli in Verdi 's Don Carlos [ 4] Luchino Visconti production for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 's centenary, in 1958.
In 1956, the mezzo-soprano filmed Mistress Quickly, in Falstaff , for RAI , conducted by Tullio Serafin and directed by Herbert Graf , with Giuseppe Taddei and Scipio Colombo .
Though she never officially retired, she more or less discontinued performing live in the 1990s, making her career one of the longest in opera history. She sang last time on stage in 2000 (Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana).
Legacy
Although generally considered a formidable actress and singer in her own right, she is now mostly remembered for regularly partnering Maria Callas on- as well as off-stage during the 1950s. Many of their collaborations (together with other regular partners Giuseppe Di Stefano , Boris Christoff , Tito Gobbi , Rolando Panerai , and Tullio Serafin ) were recorded by Fonit Cetra ("La Gioconda ", 1952) and EMI . Her most famous portrayals included Amneris in Aïda Jussi Björling , Azucena in Il trovatore Falstaff Don Carlo Un ballo in maschera Herva Nelli , di Stefano and Cesare Siepi , conducted by Arturo Toscanini , was issued by RCA .
Barbieri can be seen and heard in several operas issued on DVD, e.g. in the role of Madelon in Andrea Chénier Plácido Domingo and conducted by Nello Santi ; also as Giovanna in Rigoletto Jean-Pierre Ponnelle , with Luciano Pavarotti and conducted by Riccardo Chailly ; and as Mamma Lucia in Franco Zeffirelli 's Cavalleria rusticana Georges Prêtre (all three recorded in her very mature age). In 1996, she sang and spoke in Jan Schmidt-Garre 's film Opera Fanatic .
Honour
Italy : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (7 June 2000)[ 5]
International National Academics Artists People Other
References
^ a b c d Hastings, Stephen (June 2003). "Obituaries: Fedora Barbieri" . Opera News . Vol. 67, no. 12. p. 76. ProQuest 224261717 . Retrieved 21 May 2022 . ^ Blyth, Alan (19 March 2003). "Fedora Barbieri". The Guardian . p. 27. ^ a b Shawe-Taylor, Desmond; Blyth, Alan (2008). "Barbieri, Fedora". The Grove Book of Opera Singers (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195337655 ^ a b Hamilton, David, ed. (1987). Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Guide to the World of Opera (1 ed.). ^ "Le onorificenze della Repubblica Italiana" . www.quirinale.it . Retrieved 24 October 2022 .
