Episode 210. The Mystery of Anita Cerquetti
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Anita Cerquetti (13 April 1931 – 11 October 2014), the subject of today’s episode, possessed a one-in-a-million voice, enormous, but with prodigious flexibility, and of an immediately recognizable timbre and style of text projection. She skyrocketed to world fame when she replaced Maria Callas in the title role of Bellini’s Norma in Rome in January 1958. Before that, the young soprano, still in her twenties, had been steadily building a career, primarily in Italy but also internationally, working in Italy’s biggest houses and music festivals with the greatest maestri and fellow singers of the period (including Ettore Bastianini and Franco Corelli, both of whom are heard on the episode). Immediately after those Rome performances, however, Cerquetti canceled a series of subsequent performances of Bellini’s Il Pirata, and her live performances dwindled thereafter to a mere trickle. In the fall of 1960, not yet thirty years of age, she gave what proved to be the final performance of her career, a recording for Dutch radio of Abigaille in Verdi’s Nabucco. Cerquetti is considered to be one of the great operatic mysteries of the second half of the twentieth century. She made only two commercial recordings, so the majority of her recorded legacy stems from live and radio performances. In this episode, I share some of my favorites among those recordings, and discuss the personal issues that surrounded Cerquetti’s premature disappearance from the world’s opera stages as well as why her still unmatched accomplishments still captivate listeners to this day.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Gaspare Spontini, Ernst Raupach, unknown Italian translator: O re dei cieli (Agnese di Hohenstaufen). Anita Cerquetti, Arturo Basile, Orchestra della RAI di Milano [live Milano 1956]
Carl Maria von Weber, Christoph Martin Wieland, unknown Italian translator: Ma che mai, che mai laggiù? [But what gleams so white and fair] (Oberon). Anita Cerquetti, Vittorio Gui, Orchestra Sinfonia della RAI di Milano [live Milano 18.X.1957]
Alfredo Catalani, Luigi Illica: Ebben, ne andrò lontana (La Wally). Anita Cerquetti, Ottavio Ziino, Orchestra della RAI di Milano [live Milano 26.I.56]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Victorien Sardou]: Vissi d’arte (Tosca). Anita Cerquetti, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino [1957]
Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobia Gorrio, after Victor Hugo]: Ebben, perchè son così affranta… Or farmi più gaia (La Gioconda). Anita Cerquetti, Ettore Bastianini, Emidio Tieri, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale, Firenze [live Firenze 07.I.56]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Victor Hugo]: Ernani, involami… Tutto sprezzo che d’Ernani (Ernani). Anita Cerquetti, Dmitri Mitropoulos, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Firenze [live Firenze VI.57]
Giuseppe Verdi, Eugène Scribe, Charles Duveyrier [Italian libretto by Ettore Caimi]: In alto mare… Coraggio, su coraggio (I vespri siciliani). Anita Cerquetti, Mario Rossi, Orchestra e Coro della RAI di Torino [Torino 16.II.55]
Luigi Cherubini, Étienne de Jouy [after Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian; unknown Italian translator]: Il mio cuore… A te, o sante del mio cor (Gli Abencerragi). Anita Cerquetti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Firenze [live Firenze 09.V.56]
Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Ah, non tremare… Oh di qual sei tu vittima… Vanne, sì, mi lascia, indegno (Norma). Anita Cerquetti, Franco Corelli, Miriam Pirazzini, Gabriele Santini, Orchestra e Coro dell’Opera di Roma [Roma 04.I.58]
Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Ei tornerà! (Norma). Anita Cerquetti, Giannella Borelli, Gabriele Santini, Orchestra dell’Opera di Roma [Roma 04.I.58]
Giuseppe Verdi, Temistocle Solera: Abigaille’s Scene (Nabucco): Ben io t’invenni. Anita Cerquetti, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino [1957]; Anch’io dischiuso un giorno. Anita Cerquetti, Ottavio Ziino, Orchestra della RAI di Milano [live Milano 26.I.56]; Salgo già del trono aurato. Anita Cerquetti, Fulvio Vernizzi, Orchestra of Radio Hilversum [live Holland 24.IX.60]
Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Sommo [after Eugène Scribe]: Ecco l’orrido campo… Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa (Un ballo in maschera). Anita Cerquetti, Emidio Tieri, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale, Firenze [live Firenze 06.I.57]
