On Monday, May 12, 2008 at 7:23:19 AM UTC-7, ChralotteinWeimar wrote:
> The beautiful Romanian born Soprano Virginia Zeani, who was a
> contemporary of Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland and very much their
> equal, was grievously under-recorded by the major labels. Fortunately
> many of her radio broadcasts have been saved and I am trying to remedy
> this neglect by posting a selection of arias on YouTube on
> CharlotteinWeimar's Channel.
> Virginia Zeani left Romania for Italy to study with Aureliano Pertile
> and within a year made her debut as Violetta. She began by singing
> the lyric coloratura repertoire including Lucia, La Sonnambula, Elvira
> in I Puritani and Gilda in Rigoletto and even sang with Beniamino
> Gigli in L'Elisir d'amore. She was in such demand as Violetta, she
> eventually performed the role 648 times between 1948 and 1970. Her
> debut at La Scala Milan was as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare.
> The Caesar was Nicola Rossi Lemeni who subsequently became her
> husband. She was chosen by Poulenc to create the role of Blanche in
> The Carmelites for the world premiere at La Scala in 1957. As her
> voice grew she added heavier roles including Aida and Elisabetta in
> Don Carlo. A later triumph was as Magda in Menotti's opera The
> Consul.
> In recent years she taught at Indiana University and in her eighties
> continues to teach at her home in Florida. Angela Gheorghiu mentions
> her often as being the inspiration for her own singing.
> There are parallels between Virginia Zeani and Oda Slobodskaya, the
> other under represented soprano whose work I am posting. They both
> studied with Russian sopranos who were pupils of Pauline Viardot.
> Slobodskaya with Irina Iretskaya and Zeani with Lydia Lipkowska, and
> though their voices are very different, there are similarities, namely
> clarity with warmth, clear articulation with sensitive word
> colouring, and dramatic intensity borne on a soaring vocal quality.
> Charlotte

(Y. upload):

"Virginia Zeani talks about her recordings"