Episode 290. Ileana Cotrubaș Revisited
SOCIAL SHARE
SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
More than four years ago, I published my very first bonus episode on Patreon, which I offer here in a fancy new setting and with a wonderful new coda. When I first published an episode on the great Ileana Cotrubaș in honor of her 81st birthday, I promised a bonus episode which would offer further examples of this treasurable artist’s plangent and pathos-filled singing. This episode explores delves deeper into Cotrubaș’s artistic legacy, examining roles that she took on later in her career, including Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Nedda in Pagliacci, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, and Desdemona in Otello. In addition, I play excerpts of roles that lay somewhat outside of her normal repertoire, including Tatyana in Yevgeny Onegin, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is followed by two extended live excerpts of her two greatest roles, Mimì in La Bohème and Violetta in La Traviata. The entire episode is capped with an exquisite example of Cotrubaș singing Bach, in anticipation of a new all-Bach episode at the end of the week.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All tracks feature soprano Ileana Cotrubaș.
Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears [after William Shakespeare]: Ill met by moonlight (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). James Bowman, Bernard Haitink, London Philharmonic Orchestra [Glyndebourne 07.VII.81]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gottlieb Stephanie [after Christoph Friedrich Bretzner]: Traurigkeit (Die Entführung aus dem Serail). Lorin Maazel, Wiener Philharmoniker [Salzburg August 1980]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [after Alexander Pushkin]: Kto ti, moi angeli khranitel (Yevgeny Onegin). Mark Ermler, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper [live Wien IV.89]
Ruggero Leoncavallo: Nedda-Silvio Scene (Pagliacci). Wolfgang Schöne, Ádám Fischer, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper [06.VI.85]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami [after Alfred Maria Willner, Heinz Reichert]: Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (La Rondine). Gregory Kunde, Bruno Bartoletti, Orchestra of the Lyric Opera of Chicago [November 1985]
Giuseppe Verdi, Joseph Méry, Camille du Locle [after Friedrich Schiller; Italian translation by Achille de Lauzières]: Di qual amor, di tant’amor (Don Carlo). Luis Lima, Bernard Haitink, Orchestra of the Royal Opera Covent Garden [April 1985]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave, Arrigo Boito [after Antonio García Gutiérrez]: Come in quest’ora bruna (Simon Boccanegra). Gabor Ötvös, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo [Napoli 1986]
Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito [after William Shakespeare]: Willow Song; Ave Maria (Otello). Mabel Perelstein, Antoni Ros-Marbà, Orquesta del Gran Teatro del Liceo [Barcelona 13.IV.88]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Henri Murger]: Mimì-Marcello Scene (La Bohème). Brent Ellis, Silvio Varviso, San Francisco Opera Orchestra [San Francisco 10.XI.78]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Alexandre Dumas fils]: Follie, follie… Sempre libera (La Traviata). Hora Andreescu, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra [Bucharest VI.90]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Alexandre Dumas fils]: Madimagella Valéry?… Amami, Alfredo (La Traviata). Piero Cappuccilli, Alfredo Kraus, Trudy Hines, Bruno Bartoletti, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra [Chicago 26.IX.75]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Komm, mein Herz steht dir offen (Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten, BWV 74). Ileana Cotrubas, Helmut Winschermann, Deutsche Bachsolisten [1972]
