# The Great Revivers: Singers Bringing Lost Operas Back From The Dead



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Lately I have been greatly enjoying Esclarmonde which Sutherland brought back and thankfully recorded because no one could sing it but her successfully and it has languished and remained largely unperformed successfully since then. . I LOVE Esclarmonde with it's glorious music and very cohesive score and wouldn't know it but for the Bonynges. I've also recently discovered and fallen in love with Medea very recently which Callas unearthed and breathed life into. Callas also reivived Armida which languished until Fleming sang it at the Met, from what I know. I know of Domingo and Stiffelio, which also has glorious music and which the Met revived for him. I don't know if it has been performed since then but it was a big hit. Semiramide to my knowledge had not been performed for ages till the Bonynges mounted it, though Bel Raggio always was a concert piece. Please discuss singers which were responsible for successful revivals of lost operas and please discuss more about the operas and singers I mentioned briefly.


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## tsquare07 (Sep 22, 2018)

Conductor Tullio Serafin together w. Rosa Ponselle and colleagues revived Norma in 1927, 35 years after Lilli Lehmann last sung it (in 1982). Here's the review of that very first Ponselle's Norma





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Rosa Ponselle in Norma






archives.metoperafamily.org


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

tsquare07 said:


> Conductor Tullio Serafin together w. Rosa Ponselle and colleagues revived Norma in 1927, 35 years after Lilli Lehmann last sung it (in 1982). Here's the review of that very first Ponselle's Norma
> 
> 
> 
> ...


These reviews from 1927 are both delighful and informative. Lawrence Gilman was quite the writer too! Thanks for posting them.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

tsquare07 said:


> Conductor Tullio Serafin together w. Rosa Ponselle and colleagues revived Norma in 1927, 35 years after Lilli Lehmann last sung it (in 1982). Here's the review of that very first Ponselle's Norma
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for that!!! I think she got better in the role plus she was a nervy singer and it was opening night. Next to Callas she likely came closest to having all the role called for but likely she added new dimensions with further performances. After her I would say Caballe at L'Orange. Ponselle handled some of the coloratura in Casta Diva better than anyone but unlike Sutherland, who was like a perfect well oiled machine, sometimes Ponselle's coloratura was a little sloppy. To her credit as big as Sutherland's voice was, Ponselle's was a whole order bigger.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I'm betting that the forgotten operas they dig up will unearth almost equal numbers of *gems* and *dross*. 

It's worth it though.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Lately I have been greatly enjoying Esclarmonde which Sutherland brought back and thankfully recorded because no one could sing it but her successfully and it has languished and remained largely unperformed successfully since then. . I LOVE Esclarmonde with it's glorious music and very cohesive score and wouldn't know it but for the Bonynges. I've also recently discovered and fallen in love with Medea very recently which Callas unearthed and breathed life into. Callas also reivived Armida which languished until Fleming sang it at the Met, from what I know. I know of Domingo and Stiffelio, which also has glorious music and which the Met revived for him. I don't know if it has been performed since then but it was a big hit. Semiramide to my knowledge had not been performed for ages till the Bonynges mounted it, though Bel Raggio always was a concert piece. Please discuss singers which were responsible for successful revivals of lost operas and please discuss more about the operas and singers I mentioned briefly.


Macbeth was revived for Callas at La Scala in 1952, but it was being performed more frequently in Germany since the 1920s mostly with dramatic mezzos as Lady Macbeth.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Lately I have been greatly enjoying Esclarmonde which Sutherland brought back and thankfully recorded because no one could sing it but her successfully and it has languished and remained largely unperformed successfully since then. . I LOVE Esclarmonde with it's glorious music and very cohesive score and wouldn't know it but for the Bonynges. I've also recently discovered and fallen in love with Medea very recently which Callas unearthed and breathed life into. Callas also reivived Armida which languished until Fleming sang it at the Met, from what I know. I know of Domingo and Stiffelio, which also has glorious music and which the Met revived for him. I don't know if it has been performed since then but it was a big hit. Semiramide to my knowledge had not been performed for ages till the Bonynges mounted it, though Bel Raggio always was a concert piece. Please discuss singers which were responsible for successful revivals of lost operas and please discuss more about the operas and singers I mentioned briefly.


Caballe revived Donizetti operas like Gemma di Vergy, as did Gencer, pierces like Belisario and Caterina Cornaro. The Verdi celebrations in Italy in 1950s revived interest in early Verdi.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Francasacchi said:


> Caballe revived Donizetti operas like Gemma di Vergy, as did Gencer, pierces like Belisario and Caterina Cornaro. The Verdi celebrations in Italy in 1950s revived interest in early Verdi.


Was Lucrezia Borgia in concert in NYC a revival? Horne was to sing it but had to bow out with her pregnancy and Caballe made a huge splash with it. I really like the opera.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

When Sutherland made her debut in Alcina in Venice I believe I am correct that it was the first Handel performed in Italy in ages. The sets and production by Zeffirelli may be one of the most lavish and beautiful I've ever seen.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Haydn’s *Orfeo ed Eurydice *_ossia L’anima del filósofo, _was premiered in Florence on June 9th, 1951 with Maria Callas and Thyge Thygesen. I’m not sure it could be called a revival, as it had never been performed until then. It was subsequently performed and recordings were made. Joan Sutherland sang it in 1967.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

Deleted - not in keeping with the intent of the thread title - An opera was posted - Rossini's “Il Viaggio a Reims" which was revived by an academic rather than a singer.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Few of these revivals of forgotten opera, even Callas's *Armida *in Florence and the Haydn opera had much effect on the repertoire, certainly not to the same extent as *Medea*. 

However one shining example must surely be *Anna Bolena*, which Callas sang in Visconti's legendary production at La Scala in 1957. Maybe not quite so unknown as *Medea*, the only other performance in living memory had been a single performance at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 1947 on the 100th anniversary of the opera house opening with the very same opera. Coincidentally, or maybe not, Simionato had been the Giovanna in 1947 too. However it could be said that the Callas/Visconti production of *Anna Bolena*, which garnered major international press, was the opera that paved the way for the whole _Bel Canto_ revival. Caballé herself said as much when interviewed after Callas's death. For many years after, when singers like Sutherland, Caballé, Gencer, Scotto, Ricciarelli and Horne were still active, the operas of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini became almost standard fare.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Few of these revivals of forgotten opera, even Callas's *Armida *in Florence and the Haydn opera had much effect on the repertoire, certainly not to the same extent as *Medea*.
> 
> However one shining example must surely be *Anna Bolena*, which Callas sang in Visconti's legendary production at La Scala in 1957. Maybe not quite so unknown as *Medea*, the only other performance in living memory had been a single performance at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 1947 on the 100th anniversary of the opera house opening with the very same opera. Coincidentally, or maybe not, Simionato had been the Giovanna in 1947 too. However it could be said that the Callas/Visconti production of *Anna Bolena*, which garnered major international press, was the opera that paved the way for the whole _Bel Canto_ revival. Caballé herself said as much when interviewed after Callas's death. For many years after, when singers like Sutherland, Caballé, Gencer, Scotto, Ricciarelli and Horne were still active, the operas of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini became almost standard fare.


There had been isolated revivals of Il Pirata by Bellini with Iva Pacetti, La Straniera with Cigna, and a concert Semiramide with Gabriella Gatti and Stignani. Pederzini and Buades were singing Rosina in the original mezzo keys. Supervia revived La Cenerentola and LItaliana and Pederzini and later Barbieri followed suit.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Francasacchi said:


> There had been isolated revivals of Il Pirata by Bellini with Iva Pacetti, La Straniera with Cigna, and a concert Semiramide with Gabriella Gatti and Stignani. Pederzini and Buades were singing Rosina in the original mezzo keys. Supervia revived La Cenerentola and LItaliana and Pederzini and later Barbieri followed suit.


That's not quite what I'm saying. These isolated performances of *Il Pirata, La Straniera *and that isolated *Semiramide *didn't have anything like the same impact or cumulative effect. Nor, for that matter did Callas's 1952 Florence *Armida*.

Let me quote Caballé. "She opened a new door for us, for all the singers in the world, a door that had been closed. Behind it was sleeping not only great music but _great ideas of interpretation_. She has given us the chance, those who follow her, to do things that were hardly possible before her." My Italics.

Truly Callas's influence on both the repertoire and performance cannot be underestimated. Jon Vickers once said that she and Wieland Wagner were the two most important and influential figures in post WWII opera.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Francasacchi said:


> There had been isolated revivals of Il Pirata by Bellini with Iva Pacetti, La Straniera with Cigna, and a concert Semiramide with Gabriella Gatti and Stignani. Pederzini and Buades were singing Rosina in the original mezzo keys. Supervia revived La Cenerentola and LItaliana and Pederzini and later Barbieri followed suit.


But there were probably cuts and simplification, and based on the recordings of Pederzini, in her case not great facility in the fioritura. There was a revival of La Donna del Lago with Rosanna Carteri in the late 1950s which cuts Tanti affeti.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> That's not quite what I'm saying. These isolated performances of *Il Pirata, La Straniera *and that isolated *Semiramide *didn't have anything like the same impact or cumulative effect. Nor, for that matter did Callas's 1951 Florence *Armida*.
> 
> Let me quote Caballé. "She opened a new door for us, for all the singers in the world, a door that had been closed. Behind it was sleeping not only great music but _great ideas of interpretation_. She has given us the chance, those who follow her, to do things that were hardly possible before her." My Italics.
> 
> Truly Callas's influence on both the repertoire and performance cannot be underestimated. Jon Vickers once said that she and Wieland Wagner were the two most important and influential figures in post WWII opera.


I am aware of that and note I said isolated revivals and see my further posts on this subject. Serafin wanted to revive them after working with Ponselle but didn't really find anyone who had the goods until Callas.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Lately I have been greatly enjoying Esclarmonde which Sutherland brought back and thankfully recorded because no one could sing it but her successfully and it has languished and remained largely unperformed successfully since then. . I LOVE Esclarmonde with it's glorious music and very cohesive score and wouldn't know it but for the Bonynges. I've also recently discovered and fallen in love with Medea very recently which Callas unearthed and breathed life into. Callas also reivived Armida which languished until Fleming sang it at the Met, from what I know. I know of Domingo and Stiffelio, which also has glorious music and which the Met revived for him. I don't know if it has been performed since then but it was a big hit. Semiramide to my knowledge had not been performed for ages till the Bonynges mounted it, though Bel Raggio always was a concert piece. Please discuss singers which were responsible for successful revivals of lost operas and please discuss more about the operas and singers I mentioned briefly.


I wonder if it has been long enough to consider a verismo revival though one hears about productions of Giordano Siberia and Mese Mariano and the like but perhaps not in the A list houses?


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Francasacchi said:


> I wonder if it has been long enough to consider a verismo revival though one hears about productions of Giordano Siberia and Mese Mariano and the like but perhaps not in the A list houses?


This was something that Jose Cura wanted to spearhead, but his voice didn't hold up long enough for him to reach the level of superstar to be able to set his rep in the way that Kaufmann, Netrebko and Domingo have been able.

N.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Another Callas bel canto opera that is now almost a rep piece is *Turco in Italia*. I don't know how often it was performed before the 50s, but it's not that much a rarity today.

N.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

When a singer revives a forgotten opera there is an extra level of identification, even "breathing life into" a role that had been lost to us. I agree with the OP that there is special significance to these occasions for the singer, the composer, and the art of opera.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Francasacchi said:


> I wonder if it has been long enough to consider a verismo revival though one hears about productions of Giordano Siberia and Mese Mariano and the like but perhaps not in the A list houses?


I get the impression that there exist an enormous number of operas produced in Italy during the verismo period. Some of those rarely or never heard are by significant composers such as Leoncavallo, Alfano, Mascagni, Giordano, Zandonai and Respighi. There must be some sleepers among them, but who now could sing them with the requisite style? And what do we say to Anna Netrebko when she insists that she's the true successor to Magda Olivero, as she is to everyone else?


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

La Vestale by Spontini - I don't know how often has it been played, but I know about it in connection with Norma (Bellini mentions La Vestale in one of his letters) and Maria Callas. If she did not completely revive it, then, I guess she at least gave it some vitamins :-D

Recently, Marina Rebeka had a concert performance of La Vestale, signalling (to me) she wants to follow Callas's example. I like Rebeka and hope she will record it, since she has her own record label.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

My sweet and beloved Vincenzo Bellini almost killed the opera *Giulietta and Romeo by Nicola Vaccai*. He wrote his version using the same, albeit modified libretto, and it became more popular. However, the singer *Maria Malibran* liked better the ending by Vaccai and performed the opera as a hybrid of the two. More precisely, she used the Vaccai's part to replace the section in the finale of Bellini's opera (but left out the conversation of dying Giuletta with her parents). It is known as Malibran ending. Even the score by Riccordi was published this way.

It is not strictly a revival, but many believe, the piece would become completely forgotten without Malibran's intervention.

I got familiar with the Vaccai's opera and I like it. It would be nice to see it more performed. There is a DVD with Rafaella Lupinacci, but not a very famous one, the dubious webpages do not even bother to steal it. 2 different sound recordings are on youtube.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

BBSVK said:


> La Vestale by Spontini - I don't know how often has it been played, but I know about it in connection with Norma (Bellini mentions La Vestale in one of his letters) and Maria Callas. If she did not completely revive it, then, I guess she at least gave it some vitamins :-D
> 
> Recently, Marina Rebeka had a concert performance of La Vestale, signalling (to me) she wants to follow Callas's example. I like Rebeka and hope she will record it, since she has her own record label.


Wily old Tullio Serafin engineered a revival during the Met's 1925/1926 season by way of training Rosa Ponselle up to "Norma". It racked up 9 performances over 2 seasons (including Opening Night of the 1926/27 season) and then was heard no more, but it left as a byproduct a 78 single with Ponselle doing "Tu che invoco" on one side and "O nume tutelar" on the other, which has to be one of the 100 best operatic singles ever. Recommended for a contest with Callas' LP cuts if you can find a third worthy of competing -- we're very much talking about comparing apples with apples here, and both are very very good.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> Wily old Tullio Serafin engineered a revival during the Met's 1925/1926 season by way of training Rosa Ponselle up to "Norma". It racked up 9 performances over 2 seasons (including Opening Night of the 1926/27 season) and then was heard no more, but it left as a byproduct a 78 single with Ponselle doing "Tu che invoco" on one side and "O nume tutelar" on the other, which has to be one of the 100 best operatic singles ever. Recommended for a contest with Callas' LP cuts if you can find a third worthy of competing -- we're very much talking about comparing apples with apples here, and both are very very good.


I've only heard the live Callas performance of *La Vestale*, which is in terrible sound, but another *Norma *or *Medea *it most certainly isn't. The best bits are the arias Ponselle and Callas recorded, but the rest is something of a bore. The Callas production was spectacular and she looked fabulous with her new slim figure.

I believe the opera was last performed at La Scala in the 1990s with Muti conducting. There's also a live Munich performance from around the same time with Rosalind Plowright in the leading role. Like *Medea*, most people seem to perform it in Italian rather than the original French.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ewilkros said:


> Wily old Tullio Serafin engineered a revival during the Met's 1925/1926 season by way of training Rosa Ponselle up to "Norma". It racked up 9 performances over 2 seasons (including Opening Night of the 1926/27 season) and then was heard no more, but it left as a byproduct a 78 single with Ponselle doing "Tu che invoco" on one side and "O nume tutelar" on the other, which has to be one of the 100 best operatic singles ever. Recommended for a contest with Callas' LP cuts if you can find a third worthy of competing -- we're very much talking about comparing apples with apples here, and both are very very good.


I can't cancel. Sorry. Won't go away.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I can't cancel. Sorry. Won't go away.


Huh? This seems a bit of a non sequitur.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Huh? This seems a bit of a non sequitur.


You can't cancel a post once begun if you change your mind. It keeps sticking around at the bottom.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> You can't cancel a post once begun if you change your mind. It keeps sticking around at the bottom.


Gotcha!


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Bergonzi got a fair amount of attention for his focus on early Verdi in the latter third of his career. Ernani and Macbeth and Luisa Miller may have been the names before that time that were most likely to show up and others would get performances. But in the way that Bel canto got a lift across the board from the Callas, Sutherland, Caballe period I think that early Verdi as a group got a bit of an added emphasis in the late seventies and Philips, I believe in particular, (not going back to check) recorded a good bit of that rep at that time with the major arttists of the day.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ScottK said:


> Bergonzi got a fair amount of attention for his focus on early Verdi in the latter third of his career. Ernani and Macbeth and Luisa Miller may have been the names before that time that were most likely to show up and others would get performances. But in the way that Bel canto got a lift across the board from the Callas, Sutherland, Caballe period I think that early Verdi as a group got a bit of an added emphasis in the late seventies and Philips, I believe in particular, (not going back to check) recorded a good bit of that rep at that time with the major arttists of the day.


Who are you? Will you introduce yourself o the group??? Welcome back Scott!!!


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I've only heard the live Callas performance of *La Vestale*, which is in terrible sound, but another *Norma *or *Medea *it most certainly isn't. The best bits are the arias Ponselle and Callas recorded, but the rest is something of a bore.


I completely concur. I think Vestale is almost only worth hearing if you have a Callas or a Ponselle in the title role. Whereas Medea is a really wonderful work. Yes, it needs someone who can do justice to the title role, but the music is superb in its own right.

La Vestale was also the only role that Ponselle performed outside of the USA or the UK. (In Italy at the first Florence Maggio Musicale.)

N.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

The Conte said:


> I completely concur. I think Vestale is almost only worth hearing if you have a Callas or a Ponselle in the title role. Whereas Medea is a really wonderful work. Yes, it needs someone who can do justice to the title role, but the music is superb in its own right.
> 
> La Vestale was also the only role that Ponselle performed outside of the USA or the UK. (In Italy at the first Florence Maggio Musicale.)
> 
> N.


Stignani I think sang the High Priestess which she was to sing 21 years later with Callas.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Francasacchi said:


> Stignani I think sang the High Priestess which she was to sing 21 years later with Callas.


Which one ? Norma ? Julia (La vestale) ? Or Romilda ? (Paccini's version)


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

BBSVK said:


> Which one ? Norma ? Julia (La vestale) ? Or Romilda ? (Paccini's version)


Spontini. The High Priestess of the Vestals, La Gran Sacerdotessa who sings the aria Love is a barbarous monster.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> You can't cancel a post once begun if you change your mind. It keeps sticking around at the bottom.


Yes you can. If you haven't yet clicked "Post Reply," you can click "Delete Draft" (right next to the gear symbol at bottom right), then leave the page, come back, and your draft will be gone. Once you post, though, you can edit your post but not delete it.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Who are you? Will you introduce yourself o the group??? Welcome back Scott!!!


You're funny John!!! I love Talk Classical too much to leave, but life pulls!!! Winter is a better time for me so you may hear me around here a little more giving Tsaraslondon a chance to step in and say...."I believe you meant to say that was Anselmo molinari delguelfi singing Pietro on the live Boccanegra!"


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