Episode 281. La Scottissima

Episode 281. La Scottissima

I began work on this episode on the one-year anniversary of the death of Renata Scotto, perhaps the most beloved of my many dearly-loved divas. But I have been thinking about and planning it ever since August 16, 2023. Now I am collected my thoughts on what made Scotto, in my opinion, one of the greatest artists of the past century. I break down her main repertoire into three groups (bel canto, Verdi, and verismo [including, however incorrectly, Puccini]); I describe her artistic and vocal training and her development into a powerful singing actress; I play her in duet with some of her most significant colleagues (including a few surprises); I assess her greatest roles and some of her surprising late-career assumptions; and I consider some of her most daring career risks (and the resultant flops and triumphs, sometimes in the same role!) I draw on a deep pool of mostly live recordings that reveal Scotto’s musical and dramatic intelligence as I describe my own encounters with her live in performance, both in person and on the television screen. Throughout I have tried my best to capture the individuality and the fearlessness of the singer who most deeply influenced and affected me as my musical tastes were forming: La Scottissima, my diva.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Giacomo Puccini, Ferdinando Fontana [after Alfred de Musset]: D’ogni dolor (Edgar). Renata Scotto, Eve Queler, Opera Orchestra of New York [live 13.IV.1977]

Gaetano Donizetti, Felice Romani [after Eugène Scribe]: Prendi, per me sei libero (L’elisir d’amore). Renata Scotto, Antonio Tonini [live Moscow 18.IX.64]

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after David Belasco, John Luther Long]: Ancora un passo or via (Madama Butterfly) [excerpt]. Renata Scotto, George Schick, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus [live New York 13.X.65]

Giacomo Puccini, Giovacchino Forzano: Addio, buone sorelle, addio, addio… Ah! son dannata (Suor Angelica). Renata Scotto, Sixten Ehrling, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus [live 22.I.1976]

Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobia Gorrio, after Victor Hugo]: Voce di donna o d’angelo (La Gioconda). Renata Scotto, unknown pianist [1948]

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Henri Murger]: Mi chiamano Mimì (La Bohème). Mercedes Llopart [ca. 1913]

Pietro Mascagni, Giovacchino Forzano [after Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramée)]: Flammen, perdonami (Lodoletta). Renata Scotto, Corrado Benvenuti, Orchestra Lirica Cetra [ca. 1954]

Gaetano Donizetti, Salvadore Cammarano [after Walter Scott]: Spargi d’amaro piano [Mad Scene] (Lucia di Lammermoor). Renata Scotto, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Agostino Ferrin. Claudio Abbado, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano [live 12.VII.1967]

Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Casta diva (Norma). Renata Scotto, Fulvio Vernizzi, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Groot Omroepkoor [live Amsterdam 23.VI.1963]

Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Victor Hugo]: È il sol dell’anima (Rigoletto). Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Firenze [live 19.XI.1966]

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after David Belasco, John Luther Long]: Vogliatemi bene (Madama Butterfly). Renata Scotto, John Alexander, George Schick, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus [live New York 13.X.1965]

Jules Massenet, Philippe Gille, Henri Meilhac [after Abbé Prévost]: Ah, perfide Manon… N’est-ce plus ma main (Manon). Renata Scotto, Alfredo Kraus, Julius Rudel, Orchestra of the Lyric Opera of Chicago [live 28.XI.83]

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami [after Didier Gold]: Dimmi, perchè gli hai chiesto (Il tabarro). Renata Scotto, Vasile Moldoveanu, James Levine, Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera [live 14.XI.1981]

Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito [after William Shakespeare]: Esterrefatta fisso (Otello). Renata Scotto, Jon Vickers, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra [live New York 25.IX.78]

Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano [after Antonio García Gutiérrez]: D’amor sull’ali rosee (Il trovatore). Renata Scotto, Jesús López Cobos, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris [live Paris 18.I.1975]

Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Somma [after Eugène Scribe]: Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa (Un ballo in maschera). Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa (Un ballo in maschera). Renata Scotto, Nello Santi, Hamburgisches Staatsorchester [live Hamburg 17.VI.1974]

Giuseppe Verdi, Eugène Scribe, Charles Duveyrier [Italian version by Ettore Caimi]: Arrigo, ah, parli a un core (I vespri siciliani). Riccardo Muti, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino [live Firenze 13.V.78]

Arnold Schoenberg, Marie Pappenheim: Da kommt ein Licht! (Erwartung). Renata Scotto, Spiris Argiris, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia di Roma [live Roma 30.I.94]

Francis Poulenc, Jean Cocteau: Moi, méchante?… Allô! C’est vous, Joseph? C’est Madame. (La voix humaine). Renata Scotto, Josep Pons, Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu [live Barcelona 27.III.96]

Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobia Gorrio, after Victor Hugo]: Ecco il velen di Laura (La Gioconda). Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti, Bruno Bartoletti, Orchestra of the San Francisco Opera [live San Francisco 21.IX.1979]

Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave, Andrea Maffei [after William Shakespeare]: Una macchia è qui tutt’ora (Macbeth). Renata Scotto, Loretta di Franco, Richard Vernon, James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra [live telecast Radio City Music Hall 18.III.1984]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte: Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata (Don Giovanni). Renata Scotto, John Wustman [live Hunter College, New York 01.XI.70]

Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Mira, o Norma (Norma). Renata Scotto, Tatiana Troyanos, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper [live 18.VI.1980]

Licinio Refice, Emidio Mucci: Io salgo; ecco i giardini di luce (Cecilia). Renata Scotto, Angelo Campori, The Sacred Music Society at Avery Fisher Hall [live New York 13.XII.1976]