On Monday, May 12, 2008 at 10:08:14 AM UTC-7, david...@aol.com wrote:
> An extremely musical and interesting singer and a great favorite of
> mine, Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer died last Friday at home in Milan
> at the age of 80. Gencer has inevitably been compared to her
> contemporary Maria Callas, with whom she shared the stage of La Scala
> and several Bellini and Donizetti roles, and she matched Callas in
> intelligence, intensity, and conviction. I’m listening to a live 1958
> Anna Bolena as I write, and my heart breaks at the expressivity of her
> singing.
> Known by such sobriquets as “The Divine Turk” and “The Queen of the
> Pirates,” Leyla Gencer (October 10, 1928 – May 9, 2008) was born in
> Istanbul to a Polish mother and a Turkish father. She studied voice
> privately with Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, a leading Italian singer of
> the 1920’s and 1930’s known for her aristocratic approach to verismo
> repertory and supple bel canto technique. (Arangi-Lombardi’s
> expressive vocalism is well documented on records: she appeared in
> early first recordings of Gioconda, Mefistofele, and Aida.) Gencer
> made her stage debut in Istanbul as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana
> in 1950, her Italian debut at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1953
> in the same role.
> In 1957, Gencer made her debut at La Scala as Mme. Lidoine in the
> world première of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, subsequently
> appearing there in nineteen different roles between 1957 and 1983. In
> 1962, she made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as
> Elisabetta di Valois in Don Carlo, also appearing as Donna Anna in a
> Zeffirelli production of Don Giovanni under Solti recently issued on
> CD on the company’s own label. Gencer made her U.S. debut at the San
> Francisco Opera in 1956 in the title role of Zandonai’s Francesca da
> Rimini. She made her last stage appearance at the Teatro la Fenice in
> Venice in 1985 but continued to appear in concerts until 1992. In
> 1997 Riccardo Muti appointed her to oversee a training program for
> singers run by La Scala.
> Gencer was known above all as a champion of the operas of Donizetti,
> but her repertoire of 72 roles included works by Gluck, Mozart, Mayr,
> Cherubini, Spontini, Bellini, Pacini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Puccini,
> Prokofiev, and Britten. In 1961 she appeared in the world première of
> Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza in Venice. In 1967, Bruno Maderna chose her
> to sing the role of Ottavia in a La Scala revival of Monteverdi’s
> L’incoronazione di Poppea. She frequently programmed Chopin’s songs,
> which she sang in Polish, on recital programs.
> A veteran of countless performances at numerous Italian opera houses
> and in live broadcasts of complete operas on the RAI, Gencer never
> made a commercial recording, but there is a vast discography of live
> recordings. Among the most famous are a 1960 Macbeth from Palermo
> with Giuseppe Taddei and Vittorio Gui, a 1961 Simon Boccanegra from
> Vienna with Tito Gobbi and Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and a 1964 Roberto
> Devereux from Naples with Mario Rossi. Among the dozen or so
> recordings with Gencer that I have, mostly of Donizetti operas, these
> are probably my favorite:
> Mozart: Don Giovanni
> Teresa Stich-Randall, Leyla Gencer, Graziella Sciutti, Luigi Alva,
> Mario Petri, Sesto Bruscantini
> RAI Milano, April 26, 1960, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
> Spontini: La vestale
> Leyla Gencer, Franca Mattiucci, Robleto Merolla, Renato Bruson,
> Agostino Ferrin
> Palermo, December 4, 1969, Fernando Previtali
> Donizetti: Anna Bolena
> Leyla Gencer, Giulietta Simionato, Aldo Bertocci, Plinio Clabassi
> RAI Milano, 1958, Gianandrea Gavazzeni
> Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro
> Leyla Gencer, Giacomo Aragall, Renato Bruson
> Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, May 28, 1972, Carlo Felice Cillario
> Verdi: I due Foscari
> Leyla Gencer, Mirto Picchi, Giangiacomo Guelfi
> Teatro la Fenice, Venice, December 31, 1957, Tullio Serafin
> Verdi: Aida 1966
> Leyla Gencer, Fiorenza Cossotto, Carlo Bergonzi, Anselmo Colzani
> Verona Arena, 1966, Franco Capuana
> Here are a few obits including Gramophone’s:
> http://tinyurl.com/53neah
> http://tinyurl.com/3w94tr
> http://tinyurl.com/4wdwmy
> There are many more here:
> http://tinyurl.com/3mhvn8
> -david gable

(Y. upload):

"Leyla Gencer listening to her recording of Deh! Non volerli vittime (Norma) from 1965"