Fiorenza Cossotto

While most widely known for the fiery, scenery-chewing Verdi tasks such as for example Azucena, Amneris, Lady Macbeth, and Eboli, Fiorenza Cossotto was also a prominent performer of bel canto parts such as for example Rosina in Rossini’s Barbiere, Leonora in La favorita, and Adalgisa in Norma. Such huge and effective mezzo voices, especially having a protected top, are uncommon set alongside the lyric mezzo, and through the past due 1960s through the first 1980s, she was the Verdi mezzo, the successor to Simionato as well as the forerunner to Zajick. After their studies at the Turin Conservatory, she graduated in 1956 and joined working out college of La Scala in Milan. She produced her operatic debut as Sister Matilde in the globe premiere of Poulenc’s The Dialogues from the Carmelites in 1957. Her worldwide debut was in the 1958 Wexford Event as Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. Her Covent Backyard debut is at 1959 as Neris in Cherubini’s Medée, with Callas in the name function. A 1961 functionality of the business lead in La favorita at La Scala resulted in wider popularity and she produced her Chicago debut in the same part in 1964 so that as Amneris in the Met in 1968. She actually is wedded to bass vocalist Ivo Vinco. Among her recordings, the Amneris on EMI under Muti (EMI CDS7 47271-8) catches the open fire and vigor of her shows.