I saw her only once: a formidable stage presence. Like many great artistes, the recordings tell too little.
The headline reads "Diva AND Soprano". That seems a little unkind.
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I saw her only once: a formidable stage presence. Like many great artistes, the recordings tell too little.
The headline reads "Diva AND Soprano". That seems a little unkind. -
104 is, indeed, a remarkable age but I still felt a pang when I read the news here of the death of Magda Olivero. I visited my vinyl collection and was gratified to find a pristine 2LP set from 1985, Rodolphe label, Magda Olivero, "50 ans de carriere".
"Luigi Gerussi decided to teach her all the secrets of the old Italian school. With a small and limited voice at the outset, Olivero mastered her instrument thanks to agility exercises, at that time the exclusive prerogative of light sopranos. Gilda
at 25, she retained from the virtuosos the messa di voce, that is a sound which is attacked piano, which is strengthened and amplified at will - even on a middle C, as in La Traviata - to be drawn out at the finish. Her miracle was that she applied this technique to versitic singing."
The wide range of recordings stretch from 1938 when she sang Liu in Turandot in the first complete recording at Turin, the future RAI studios. I first became aware of her in the early 60s when I heard her recording of Mort d'Isolde, happily included in the Rodolphe anthology, along with selections from Puccini, Verdi, Cilea, Catalani, Handel, Massenet, Giordano and Boito - side 4 concludes in 1973; Magda Olivero remercie ses admirateurs. RIP
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