Voice Detective - The Voice Detective

SHORT003 POURQUOI VISITER BIARRITZ?

M. L’inspecteur Voix, alias Gyaan Lyon, vous explique pourquoi visiter Biarritz…

GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO, TENOR, JULY 24TH, 1921

The golden voice of Giuseppe di Stefano, so admired and hero-worshipped by his tenor successors such as Luciano Pavarotti, and Jose Carreras, was born in the little village of Motte Sant’Anastasia on the outskirts of Catania in Sicily.

His family moved to Milan when Giuseppe was six years old. Here, he spent his formative years, and even for a brief period of time, he considered entering the priesthood whilst he was being educated in a Jesuit College.

It was during a card game at age 16, when Giuseppe spontaneously burst into song after losing, that his opponent commented that he should get his voice trained. It took two years before his vocal training started in earnest, but his two teachers both baritones Luigi Montesanto and Mariano Stabile instilled in him the importance of clear diction. The clarity these teachers emphasised, became a hallmark of di Stefano’s singing throughout his career. This clear diction combined with the beautiful vocal sweetness, his natural musicality and a generous interpretative style, ensured that di Stefano enraptured fans. As a singer, Di Stefano was admired for his excellent diction, unique timbre, passionate delivery and, in particular, for the sweetness of his soft singing. He was considered the natural successor to Beniamino Gigli, who was Giuseppe’s favourite tenor growing up .

Fate stepped in once again as di Stefano was drafted into the army during the second world war. His commanding officer declared him the worst soldier ever, but recognised the great singer within him. Not wanting to deprive the world of this great gift, the officer decided he would better serve his country by leaving the forces and singing.This scenario may have been the inspiration, or at least is similar to that in the Mario Lanza film ‘Because You Are Mine,’ where Lanza encounters an opera loving army commander who helps the famous ‘operatic soldier’ sing rather than do his training when he is drafted into the army.
During the war years di Stefano performed under the name of Nino Florio. When Italy was defeated he was able flee to Switzerland. After a period of internment he was eventually allowed to perform on Radio Lausanne. He gave the first of many Nemorinos in l’elisir d’amore in a broadcast from Lausanne. His voice was also captured on recordings with interpretations of his native Sicilian songs which began to arouse the attention of discerning ears from outside of Italy in the late 1940s.

His official debut was in Reggio Emilia in 1946 as Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon. The following year he repeated the role at the Rome Opera. A major recording contract with EMI was forthcoming.

In 1948 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Duke in Rigoletto, and he subsequently captured the hearts of the Met audience with his beautiful tone, musicality and exuberance in the roles of Faust, Alfredo, Nemorino, Des Grieux and later Cavaradossi and Rodolfo.

In his Metropolitan debut in Faust, he attacked the high C forte and then softened to pianissimo. Sir Rudolf Bing said in his memoirs, “The most spectacular single moment in my observation year had come when I heard his diminuendo on the high C in “Salut! demeure” in Faust: I shall never as long as I live forget the beauty of that sound”.

His recording with Maria Callas in the 1953 Tosca with Victor de Sabato conducting, has become a benchmark interpretation. The 1955 live recording in Berlin of Lucia di Lammermoor with Herbert von Karajan conducting captured both artists at the peak of their powers.

Ten complete operas with Maria Callas were recorded for EMI between1953 and 1957 and they were the other dream team of the time to rival Renate Tebaldi and Mario Del Monaco on the stage, in fame as celebrities, and in recording sales.

Di Stefano certainly lived life to the fullest. Just as in his roles, he didn’t hold back his generosity, warm-heartedness and zest for life. He was seen as maybe enjoying the finer things of life a little too much, and later his voice lost some of its glory. Di Stefano insisted this was because his vocal cords were being damaged and inflamed due to an allergy to synthetic fibres.

In later years he lived in Kenya. During an attempted robbery he was badly bloodied, battered and left unconscious by the assailants, as he was defiant in not releasing the medal he wore around his neck given to him by Arturo Toscanini in appreciation for his talent.

“He adored me,” says the tenor without a trace of pomposity. “His supposed rigidity was nonsense. He told me once, ‘I’ll follow you, but you’d better sing well.’ And I did.”
The injuries proved to be far worse than originally thought and despite three operations, being transferred to Milan and eventually waking up from a coma, his health never recovered and he died three months after the attack.
But to help us recover from and dispel this horrible story of the end of such a great man and singer we leave you with a few quotes from the man himself from the LA Times interview of 1988 with Walter Price.

‘Asked which singers he admired, he smiles with a wicked charm that has surely gotten him into trouble in the past and replies, “Only the great ones.”
In the same interview asked if he would retire, he responded, ‘I don’t know. I told you I have never made plans. Del Monaco told me once he would kill himself when he couldn’t sing anymore. I told him I’d kill myself if I couldn’t stop.’
Grazie Giuseppe!

KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD, SOPRANO, JULY 12, 1895

Kirsten Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway. Like so many outstanding singers, she grew up in a musically gifted family and indeed this soprano would be hailed the ‘voice of the century.’ Raised and nurtured in Oslo by her father Michael a conductor, her mother Maja a pianist and with her future musician siblings, brothers Ole a conductor and Lasse a pianist and her sister Karen- Marie also a Wagnerian soprano.
Flagstad made her debut in 1913 as Nuri in Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland at the National Theatre in Oslo. Early recordings of her voice were taken at this young age between 1913 and 1915.
After singing opera and operetta at the Opera Comique for over a decade, which interestingly was co-directed by Alexander Varnay, the father of another Wagnerian soprano Astrid Varnay. It is also worth noting that at this time, Flagstad sang Desdemona to Leo Slezak’s Otello. As her career progressed she gravitated towards the heavier more dramatic soprano roles. Apparently it was the role of Aïda that unleashed the potential to ultimately find her true calling when she took on the role of Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in 1932.
A fellow Scandinavian soprano Ellen Gulbranson brought Flagstad’s voice to the attention of Winifred Wagner who hired Flagstad to initially sing minor roles at Bayreuth in 1933. In the following season she sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Gutrune in Die Götterdammerung opposite Frida Leider as Brünnhilde.
A year later she was auditioned and engaged immediately by the Metropolitan Opera in New York who were looking for a replacement to sing the same repertoire as Frida Leider. Her svelte youthful appearance was an added bonus to her obvious vocal abilities and talent.
Her Metropolitan debut was a sensation, and almost overnight she had established herself as the pre-eminent Wagnerian soprano of the era. Her sometimes three or four performances a week in early days at the Met sold out weeks in advance and donations from her nationwide radio appeals during the intermission at Saturday matinees helped the Metropolitan Opera coffers from impending bankruptcy at this time. In 1935 she performed the three Brünnhildes in the Ring Cycle for San Francisco Opera. In 1936 and 1937 she performed the Wagnerian roles of Senta, Isolde and Brünnhilde at Covent Garden where she achieved the same fame and respect as she did in New York
Despite advice from friends and colleagues and even pleas from former President Herbert Hoover she returned to German occupied Norway in 1941 before the United States entered World War Two. TShe took this step to be reunited with her husband. The decision was certainly made more difficult as her 20 year old daughter was married to an American and living in Montana.
During this time she only sang in the non-occupied countries of Switzerland and Sweden. But the tide of public opinion damaged her reputation and she fell out of favour with the public.
After it reopened in 1947, Covent Garden despite being in dire financial straits, hired Flagstad for four consecutive seasons from 1948 to 1952, where she performed her Wagnerian roles, including Kundry and Sieglinde.
Back in America, public sentiment had not changed towards her. The new director of the Met, Rudolf Bing was lambasted for his decision to re-hire Flagstad in for the 1950-1951 season: “The greatest soprano of this century must sing in the world’s greatest opera house”, he retorted.
Well into her fifties, and feeling that she no longer possessed her previous stamina or health for the arduous Wagnerian roles, these appearances at the Met were to be her last. She gave her farewell performance at the Met in April 1952, though not as a Wagnerian heroine, but in the title role of Gluck’s Alceste. Her final public performance in the role of Purcell’s Dido from Dido and Aeneas was in London on the 5 July 1953.
She was a guest on the BBC’s radio show Desert Island Discs in 1952 and chose knitting needles and wool as her luxury items. Not dissimilar to another grand voice prima donna, Joan Sutherland who occupied herself with embroidery backstage.
Kirsten Flagstad’s vast recording catalogue and existing live recordings from the Metropolitan continue to be classic benchmarks and pay tribute to her greatest roles, even though some of her most enduring recordings were recorded after her prime. She immortalised Richard Strauß’ Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) which Strauß himself had intended her to premiere, although he did not live long enough to hear the performance.
The recording label Decca had plans to record her singing the mezzo-soprano Wagnerian repertoire of both Fricka roles in Das Rheingold and Die Götterdämmerung. Brahms Alto Rhapsody and Vier Ernste Lieder (Four Serious Songs) were also planned to be recorded, before she died in 1962, giving testament to her recording company’s respect for her and quality of a still consistent and extraordinary voice.
In his obituary, the New York Times opera critic, Harold C. Schonberg, wrote, “That voice! How can one describe it?” “It was enormous, but did not sound enormous because it was never pushed or out of placement. It had a rather cool silvery quality, and was handled instrumentally, almost as though a huge violin was emitting legato phrases.”
Incredibly, Flagstad sang the role of Isolde 70 times on the Met stage from 1935 to 1941, making Tristan and Isolde one of the greatest box office attractions in Metropolitan Opera history .
( Nine of those performances were Saturday matinee radio broadcasts.not cited)

The Kirsten Flagstad Museum in Hamar, Norway (https://kirsten-flagstad.no/en), contains a private collection of opera artifacts. Her costumes draw special attention, and include several examples on loan from the Metropolitan Opera Archives. Her portrait appeared on the Norwegian 100 kroner bill and on the tail section of Norwegian Air Shuttle planes.

Kirsten Flagstad painted on a Norwegian Air Shuttle airliner.

KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD, SOPRANO, JULY 12, 1895

Kirsten Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway. Like so many outstanding singers, she grew up in a musically gifted family and indeed this soprano would be hailed the ‘voice of the century.’ Raised and nurtured in Oslo by her father Michael a conductor, her mother Maja a pianist and with her future musician siblings, brothers Ole a conductor and Lasse a pianist and her sister Karen- Marie also a Wagnerian soprano.
Flagstad made her debut in 1913 as Nuri in Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland at the National Theatre in Oslo. Early recordings of her voice were taken at this young age between 1913 and 1915.
After singing opera and operetta at the Opera Comique for over a decade, which interestingly was co-directed by Alexander Varnay, the father of another Wagnerian soprano Astrid Varnay. It is also worth noting that at this time, Flagstad sang Desdemona to Leo Slezak’s Otello. As her career progressed she gravitated towards the heavier more dramatic soprano roles. Apparently it was the role of Aïda that unleashed the potential to ultimately find her true calling when she took on the role of Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in 1932.
A fellow Scandinavian soprano Ellen Gulbranson brought Flagstad’s voice to the attention of Winifred Wagner who hired Flagstad to initially sing minor roles at Bayreuth in 1933. In the following season she sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Gutrune in Die Götterdammerung opposite Frida Leider as Brünnhilde.
A year later she was auditioned and engaged immediately by the Metropolitan Opera in New York who were looking for a replacement to sing the same repertoire as Frida Leider. Her svelte youthful appearance was an added bonus to her obvious vocal abilities and talent.
Her Metropolitan debut was a sensation, and almost overnight she had established herself as the pre-eminent Wagnerian soprano of the era. Her sometimes three or four performances a week in early days at the Met sold out weeks in advance and donations from her nationwide radio appeals during the intermission at Saturday matinees helped the Metropolitan Opera coffers from impending bankruptcy at this time. In 1935 she performed the three Brünnhildes in the Ring Cycle for San Francisco Opera. In 1936 and 1937 she performed the Wagnerian roles of Senta, Isolde and Brünnhilde at Covent Garden where she achieved the same fame and respect as she did in New York
Despite advice from friends and colleagues and even pleas from former President Herbert Hoover she returned to German occupied Norway in 1941 before the United States entered World War Two. TShe took this step to be reunited with her husband. The decision was certainly made more difficult as her 20 year old daughter was married to an American and living in Montana.
During this time she only sang in the non-occupied countries of Switzerland and Sweden. But the tide of public opinion damaged her reputation and she fell out of favour with the public.
After it reopened in 1947, Covent Garden despite being in dire financial straits, hired Flagstad for four consecutive seasons from 1948 to 1952, where she performed her Wagnerian roles, including Kundry and Sieglinde.
Back in America, public sentiment had not changed towards her. The new director of the Met, Rudolf Bing was lambasted for his decision to re-hire Flagstad in for the 1950-1951 season: “The greatest soprano of this century must sing in the world’s greatest opera house”, he retorted.
Well into her fifties, and feeling that she no longer possessed her previous stamina or health for the arduous Wagnerian roles, these appearances at the Met were to be her last. She gave her farewell performance at the Met in April 1952, though not as a Wagnerian heroine, but in the title role of Gluck’s Alceste. Her final public performance in the role of Purcell’s Dido from Dido and Aeneas was in London on the 5 July 1953.
She was a guest on the BBC’s radio show Desert Island Discs in 1952 and chose knitting needles and wool as her luxury items. Not dissimilar to another grand voice prima donna, Joan Sutherland who occupied herself with embroidery backstage.
Kirsten Flagstad’s vast recording catalogue and existing live recordings from the Metropolitan continue to be classic benchmarks and pay tribute to her greatest roles, even though some of her most enduring recordings were recorded after her prime. She immortalised Richard Strauß’ Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) which Strauß himself had intended her to premiere, although he did not live long enough to hear the performance.
The recording label Decca had plans to record her singing the mezzo-soprano Wagnerian repertoire of both Fricka roles in Das Rheingold and Die Götterdämmerung. Brahms Alto Rhapsody and Vier Ernste Lieder (Four Serious Songs) were also planned to be recorded, before she died in 1962, giving testament to her recording company’s respect for her and quality of a still consistent and extraordinary voice.
In his obituary, the New York Times opera critic, Harold C. Schonberg, wrote, “That voice! How can one describe it?” “It was enormous, but did not sound enormous because it was never pushed or out of placement. It had a rather cool silvery quality, and was handled instrumentally, almost as though a huge violin was emitting legato phrases.”
Incredibly, Flagstad sang the role of Isolde 70 times on the Met stage from 1935 to 1941, making Tristan and Isolde one of the greatest box office attractions in Metropolitan Opera history .
( Nine of those performances were Saturday matinee radio broadcasts.not cited)

The Kirsten Flagstad Museum in Hamar, Norway (https://kirsten-flagstad.no/en), contains a private collection of opera artifacts. Her costumes draw special attention, and include several examples on loan from the Metropolitan Opera Archives. Her portrait appeared on the Norwegian 100 kroner bill and on the tail section of Norwegian Air Shuttle planes.

Kirsten Flagstad painted on a Norwegian Air Shuttle airliner.

LUISA TETRAZZINI, SOPRANO, JUNE 29, 1871

Luisa Tetrazzini

Coloratura soprano Luisa Tetrazzini was born on this day in 1871 in Florence. It is a lesser known fact, that she had two older sisters who were also sopranos, albeit they did not achieve her level of celebrity.

After initially studying with her sister Eva, who was nine year’s senior to Luisa, she proceeded to have lessons with Eva’s teacher, Professor Ceccherini at the Instituto Musicale of Florence.

As is the case in so many lives of famous singers, she received her big break making her operatic debut in1890, at the age of only 19 years, by standing in for the prima donna in Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine at the Teatro Paglione in Florence.

In her autobiography, My Life in Song, she recalled that, “The pavements from the theatre to my home were lined, even at that late hour, with large numbers of people, all of whom seemed to be shouting congratulations to me.”

It was just 2 months after that she was engaged to repeat the role in Rome for the King and Queen of Italy.

The tenor Giacomo Lauri Volpi described her as ‘having a scintillating voice with a brilliant timbre and a range and agility well beyond the norm…” Her voice has been described as possessing ‘warm, clarinet-like beauty’.

But it was claimed that her middle voice was rather thin and child like, (though reportedly it grew with maturity in warmth), this aspect of her voice did not please another tenor of renown John McCormack, who compared it to ‘wailing like a cross infant.’ Nevertheless, Tetrazzini herself had only words of praise for McCormack’s ‘God-given gift’, noting generously, ’I found that his rich voice went so well with mine that I took him back with me to America, and he sang with me both in New York and in the other big towns when the Hammerstein company went on tour.’

Later it was written ‘Tetrazzini possessed an extraordinary vocal technique that enabled her to surmount any vocal challenge with joyful ease. She had complete mastery of runs, trills, staccati and vocal ornaments of all kinds.’

She established herself in Latin America and Europe where in St Petersburg she sang her favourite role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Enrico Caruso. This marked the beginning of a firm friendship and later even a collaboration in a book on vocal technique between the two.

Though she was still relatively unknown to English opera audiences. But this was all about to change when the opportunity arose for her to stand in for Nellie Melba as Violetta in La Traviata at Covent Garden. She garnered twenty curtain calls and she was critically acclaimed by E.A. Baugham in the Daily News writing,“I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that Mme Tetrazzini has the voice of the century and stands out from even the great Italian singers we know…”

Her superstardom lay just around the corner when reviews compared her to her idol Adelina Patti. Patti being from the opera generation before, attended a performance and later invited her to lunch. The two sopranos became firm friends and Patti was often seen making a point of clapping loudly at Tetrazzini’s performances. Likewise Tetrazzini wrote about a letter she had received from Patti, “Praise from a mixed audience is very gratifying after one has given it of her best. But, praise, and such praise, from Patti is far more than the passing pleasure of a public ovation.”

Engagements in America ensued and recording contracts with Victor Recording Company captured her voice for posterity between 1904-1920.

One very famous event she is known for, is her defiance against Oscar Hammerstein who held her to her contract not to sing in San Francisco. Hammerstein, was her agent whom she admired for his entrepreneurship and business acumen. She exclaimed ‘I will sing in San Francisco if I have to sing there in the streets, for I know the streets of San Francisco are free.” With this declaration she won her legal case, and her new agent W.H. Leahy announced she would sing in the streets of San Francisco. So on a clear Christmas Eve in 1910,Tetrazzini climbed a stage platform in a sparkling white gown, surrounded by a throng of an estimated two to three hundred thousand San Franciscans, and serenaded the city she loved.

As well as this early taster of coming mega-star’s open air benefit performances, she has also been remembered in the culinary world. Whether it be called Turkey or Chicken Tetrazzini, the dish has worked its way into the ubiquitous list of food favourites.

After the First World War she mainly devoted her work to concerts and recitals. Tetrazzini was married three times and was embroiled in legal battles with her third husband which diminished her enormous wealth. Nevertheless, she was well known for her generosity.

In her retirement she taught in both Rome and Milan and her vocal technique, was apparently stunning and remained so until her end in 1940.