Episode 412. Luciano and Mirella Go Home Again

Episode 412. Luciano and Mirella Go Home Again

Today some real meat and potatoes Italian opera. Oh, wait, perhaps we should call it spaghetti alla bolognese rather than meat and potatoes. So often on the podcast I bring singers to the fore that are not as well known as some of the biggest stars in opera. But today I bring you both Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni, two of the most popular and celebrated Italian opera stars in the history of opera, especially opera in the late twentieth century. As many already know, the two singers both grew up in Modena, where their working-class mothers worked in the same cigar factory; as budding opera singers, they subsequently studied voice with the same teacher in Mantova. They remained lifelong friends and often sang together, especially in La Bohème. In 1980, the two returned to their native Modena where they performed together at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, known since 2021 as the Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni. The concert was conducted by Freni’s ex-husband Leone Magiera, also a native of Modena. In this concert, they performed duets from their shared repertoire: Elisir d’amore, Traviata, and L’amico Fritz. They also performed solo arias from La figlia del reggimento and Vespri siciliani (Freni) and Werther and L’africana (Pavarotti). The material is supplemented on today’s episode with arias from both singers in contemporaneous live performances at the Arena di Verona. And this entire songfest is topped with the cherry of a live 1965 concert on French television of “O soave fanciulla” in which their joined voices are heard in the first flush of youth.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Unless otherwise noted, all selections feature Leone Magiera (Mirella Freni’s first husband) conducting the Orchestra dell’Ater in a live 1980 concert at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, Italy (known since 2021 as the Teatro Comunale Pavarotti-Freni).

Gaetano Donizetti, Felice Romani [after Eugène Scribe]: from L’elisir d’amore.

• Una parola, o Adina… Chiedi all’aura lusinghiera. Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti
• Una furtiva lagrima. Luciano Pavarotti, Armando Gatto, Orchestra del Teatro Arena di Verona [live Verona ca. 1980]

Gaetano Donizetti, Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, Jean-François Bayard [Italian translation by Calisto Bassi]: Convien partir (La figlia del reggimento). Mirella Freni

Jules Massenet, Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet, Georges Hartmann [after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]: Pourquoi me réveiller (Werther). Luciano Pavarotti

Giuseppe Verdi, Eugène Scribe, Charles Duveyrier [Italian version by Ettore Caimi]: Mercè, dilette amiche (I vespri siciliani). Mirella Freni

Pietro Mascagni, P. Suardon [né Nicola Daspuro] [after Émile Erckmann, Alexandre Chatrain]: Suzel, buon dì (L’amico Fritz). Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti

Giacomo Meyerbeer, Eugène Scribe [Italian translation by Marco Marcello]: Mi batte il cor… O paradiso (L’africana). Luciano Pavarotti

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami, Renato Simoni [after Carlo Gozzi]: Tu, che di gel sei cinta (Turandot). Mirella Freni, Armando Gatto, Orchestra del Teatro Arena di Verona [live ca. 1980]

Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Alexandre Dumas fils]: Parigi, o cara, noi lasceremo (La traviata). Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Victorien Sardou]: Vissi d’arte (Tosca). Mirella Freni, Armando Gatto, Orchestra del Teatro Arena di Verona [ca. 1980]

Amilcare Ponchielli, Arrigo Boito [as Tobia Gorrio; after Victor Hugo]: Cielo e mar (La Gioconda). Luciano Pavarotti

Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica [after Henri Murger]: O soave fanciulla (La bohème). Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Nello Santi, Orchestre National de l’ORTF [live 03.IV.1965]