Episode 315. Gilda Cruz-Romo
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While I was growing up, Gilda Cruz-Romo was a fixture on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. At the time, I did not fully appreciate her, as I thought of her as a second-string singer on the roster. I saw her once on the Met tour as Desdemona opposite Jon Vickers, but for reasons none too flattering to me, I undervalued her. In recent years, however, I have completely revised my opinion, and now think that Gilda Cruz-Romo was both the most significant Mexican soprano ever to appear on the world’s stages, but also simply one of the finest lirico-spinto sopranos of the twentieth centuries. Fortunately there are many people that agree with me, including some devoted fans who have posted an extraordinary number of live recordings of the artist on YouTube and elsewhere. And this is especially helpful because, incredibly, Cruz-Romo never made any commercial recordings. This episode fully explores the career and repertoire of our subject for today, and includes performances of the soprano in her core Verdi and Puccini repertoire (including such surprises as Odabella, Lady Macbeth, and Turandot!), as well as less expected forays into Mozart and bel canto. Throughout her virtues shine forth: a plangently beautiful voice with a particularly radiant top wedded to an incredibly secure technique, which afforded her enormous flexibility and coloratura facility. Added to this, and paramount to her artistry, is a dedication to her craft and to music which sweeps all before it and raises her work into the realm of the sublime. I think of this episode (the last completely new episode I’ll be putting out this season) as a pre-birthday tribute, as the diva turns 85 years old on February 12, 2025. Other singers heard on the episode are tenors Carlo Bergonzi, Colenton Freeman, and John Alexander, and baritone Matteo Manuguerra; among the conductors are Zubin Mehta, Nicola Rescigno, Riccardo Muti, Peter Maag, and Julius Rudel.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Nikki Giovanni: Adulthood [excerpt] [unknown date]
Traditional Spiritual: Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow. Portia White, unknown accompanist [live mid-1940s]
Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano [after Antonio García Gutiérrez]: D’amor sull’ali rosee (Il trovatore). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Zubin Mehta, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra [live Tel Aviv VII.1973]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Alexandre Dumas fils]: Follie! Follie!… Sempre libera (La traviata). Gilda Cruz-Romo, John Alexander, Walter Herbert, Philadelphia Opera [01.VII.70]
Giuseppe Verdi, Temistocle Solera, Francesco Maria Piave [after Zacharias Werner]: Santo di patria… Allor che i forti corrono (Attila). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Nicola Rescigno, Orchestra of the Philadelphia Opera [live Philadelphia 1978]
Richard Wagner: Geliebter, komm! sieh dort die Grotte (Tannhäuser). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Richard Karp, Orquestra y Coro del Palacio de Bellas Artes [live Mexico City 21.X.65]
Ludwig Van Beethoven, Pietro Metastasio, unknown author: Dite voi se in tanto affanno (Ah! perfido, Op. 65). Gilda Cruz-Romo, unknown conductor, Orquestra del Palacio de Bellas Artes [live Mexico, unknown date]
Gaetano Donizetti, Felice Romani [after Marie-Joseph de Chenier, Alessandro Ercole Pepoli]: Come, innocente giovane (Anna Bolena). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Nicola Rescigno, Orchestra of the Dallas Opera [live Dallas 26.XI.68]
Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Ah, bello a me ritorna (Norma). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Zubin Mehta, Orquestra del Palacio de Bellas Artes [Mexico City, Pablo Casals Tribute Concert 1976]
Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy [after Prosper Mérimée]: Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante (Carmen). Carlo Felice Cillario, Orquestra del Teatro de las Bellas Artes [live Mexico City 11.X.69]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Henri Murger]: Donde lieta uscì (La bohème). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Enrico DiGiuseppe, Julius Rudel, New York City Opera Orchestra [live 28.II.70]
Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, Marco Praga, Domenico Oliva [after Abbé Prévost]: L’ora, o Tirsi (Manon Lescaut). Gilda Cruz-Romo, unknown forces [possibly live New York 29.XII.73]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: Dove sono (Le nozze di Figaro). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Martin Smith [live Guanajuato, Festival Cervantino X.78]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francisco Maria Piave [after Victor Hugo]: Ernani, involami… Tutto sprezzo che d’Ernani (Ernani). Gilda Cruz-Romo Herrera de la Fuente, Orchestra del Palacio de Bellas Artes [live Mexico City 22.VII.77]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Ángel de Saavedra]: Pace, pace, mio Dio (La forza del destino). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Riccardo Muti, Wiener Philharmoniker [live Wien 29.IX.74]
Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobia Gorrio, after Victor Hugo]: Suicidio! (La Gioconda). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Joseph Rescigno, Florentine Opera Orchestra [live Milwaukee 19.III.81]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave, Andrea Maffei [after William Shakespeare]: La luce langue (Macbeth). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Angelo Campori, Connecticut Grand Opera [live Purchase NY IX.83]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami, Renato Simoni [after Carlo Gozzi]: Il sangue! Il sangue! Il sangue!… Gelo che ti dà foco (Turandot). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Colenton Freeman [live Teatro Degollado, Guadalajara 1984]
Giuseppe Verdi, Salvadore Cammarano [after Friedrich Schiller]: Andrem, raminghi e poveri (Luisa Miller). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Matteo Manuguerra, Peter Maag, Orchestra della RAI di Torino [live 06.XII.74]
Matteo Manuguerra
Jorge del Moral: Nunca digas. Gilda Cruz-Romo, Martin Smith [live Guanajuato, Festival Cervantino X.77]
Umberto Giordano, Luigi Illica: È la morte! (Andrea Chénier). Gilda Cruz-Romo, Carlo Bergonzi, Morris White, Emerson Buckley, Florida Grand Opera [live Miami 26.I.74]
Traditional Mexican: Borrachita. Gilda Cruz-Romo [Vamos a ver [Chilean television program hosted by Raúl Matas 1977]
