# Tebaldi: an unprepared, unprofessional performer??????????????



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I have always been a big fan of Tebaldi, but in LaNilsson, Birgit says she was excited that Tebaldi was to be Liu on her first recording of Turandot as she loved her beautiful voice. She says she was very surprised that Tebaldi arrived totally unprepared for her part and had coaches there to help her and it really slowed down the recording. Is this news to you like it was to me, or did she sometimes play slip shod with her work. I had always gotten the impression she was very professional, but I don't think Nilsson would have to lie to make a colleague look bad. What was doubly surprising is that Liu is such a perfect role for her, she sang it spectacularly in recordings, and I would have been very surprised if she hadn't sung it before 1959.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> I have always been a big fan of Tebaldi, but in LaNilsson, Birgit says she was excited that Tebaldi was to be Liu on her first recording of Turandot as she loved her beautiful voice. She says she was very surprised that Tebaldi arrived totally unprepared for her part and had coaches there to help her and it really slowed down the recording. Is this news to you like it was to me, or did she sometimes play slip shod with her work. I had always gotten the impression she was very professional, but I don't think Nilsson would have to lie to make a colleague look bad. What was doubly surprising is that Liu is such a perfect role for her, she sang it spectacularly in recordings, and I would have been very surprised if she hadn't sung it before 1959.


Rumours , just rumours, I don't believe a word off it , not even from Nilsson's mouth.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I would be extremely surprised and disappointed if Nilsson deliberately cast aspersions on a colleague's professionalism if it wasn't true.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

It's perfectly possible that Tebaldi hadn't sung Liu before and hadn't, for some reason, prepared herself well for recording it. I doubt that Nilsson lied about this, as she was quite a straight shooter (and not only as Minnie in _Fanciulla del West_).


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

It's also possible that she was unprepared for THIS role (ie. Nilsson was being honest), but also that it was out of character for her. Everyone has their less-than-brilliant moments. Perhaps Tebaldi was generally professional but for whatever reason was not tops in this one situation. I'm not offering an opinion on what I THINK happen as I have no idea, but merely an alternate possibility


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Such tales of famous singers are not unknown.

In her autobiography, Scotto reports on a tenor in a production of *I Lombardi* (it's pretty obvious she's talking about Pavarotti, though she doesn't mention him by name) who had not prepared or studied his final scene in Act IV, where he appears as a vision, having thought that, as he had died in Act III, his work was over. I'm not sure how true this is, because Pavarotti couldn't read music and had to be taught by a repetiteur, who, presumably, would have made sure he knew the whole role, but she is quite adamant that at the _sitzprobe_, the tenor was preparing to leave after his scene in Act III, when the conductor asked him where he was going? It came as a total shock to him that he still had a scene to sing.

She and Pavarotti didn't get along particularly well. Some years later she was due to appear with him in *Anna Bolena* in San Francisco. By this time Pav was a major star and he let the San Francisco Opera know that he would not have time to learn the part of Percy, but could sing Enzo in *La Gioconda*. Scotto reckoned that he thought she would pull out, but she learned the part of Gioconda in record time, and had a notable success.

Del Monaco pulled a similar stunt on Callas, when he was due to sing Manrico to her Leonora in *Il Trovatore*. He claimed he was not well enough to sing Manrico, but could sing Andrea Chenier, in Giordano's opera. Callas only knew the aria _La mamma morta_, but, as was her wont, she agreed to sing the role of Maddalena and learned it in just a few days. Some think Del Monaco asked for the substitution because he didn't want to be up against Callas again in one of her greatest roles (he had recently sung Pollione to her incomparable Norma), and he knew that it was harder for her to make an impression in the relatively slight role of Maddalena. If so, he was right. On the recording of the opening night he shows precious little evidence of any vocal indisposition and scores a considerable success. On the other hand Callas, though she is never less than interesting and often revelatory, can't make much of an impression in a role her gifts were wasted on.

Sorry if I've rambled and gone a bit off topic.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Liu was a role Tebaldi recorded but never sung on stage so Nilsson might just be right. The obvious case of an unprepared singer was Bastianini who turned up to sing Iago in Karajan's Otello without learning his part properly.

For the record:

Renata Tebaldi recorded but never sung on stage the following roles: Liù in Turandot, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Angelica in Suor Angelica, Georgetta in Il Tabarro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Elisabetta in Don Carlo.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Nilsson also has some very tart things to say about Boulez in her memoirs as she reckoned that he arrived to conduct Tristan without having studied the score properly and she and Windgassen had to give him cues.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

DavidA said:


> Liu was a role Tebaldi recorded but never sung on stage so Nilsson might just be right. The obvious case of an unprepared singer was Bastianini who turned up to sing Iago in Karajan's Otello without learning his part properly.
> 
> For the record:
> 
> Renata Tebaldi recorded but never sung on stage the following roles: Liù in Turandot, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Angelica in Suor Angelica, Georgetta in Il Tabarro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Elisabetta in Don Carlo.


Just to add to what I said. Of course, Tebaldi had recorded Liu before with Erede. So extremely unlikely she was as unprepared as Nilsson says


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Who cares? All I know is she was the finest, most moving Madama Butterfly I have ever heard.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

DavidA said:


> Liu was a role Tebaldi recorded but never sung on stage so Nilsson might just be right. The obvious case of an unprepared singer was Bastianini who turned up to sing Iago in Karajan's Otello without learning his part properly.
> 
> For the record:
> 
> Renata Tebaldi recorded but never sung on stage the following roles: Liù in Turandot, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Angelica in Suor Angelica, Georgetta in Il Tabarro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Elisabetta in Don Carlo.


You guys and gals are such a fount of knowledge about opera!!!!! I used to know such people but they are all in the dress circle in heaven now.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Vocally Tebaldi is supreme for Liu, but she would have been awfully statuesque for tiny Chinese maiden. It is not so much an issue for the terrifying Turandot. It reminds me of a statement of the gorgeous voiced Martina Arroyo who said if she had sung Cio Cio San she would have been known as Madame Butterball.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> You guys and gals are such a fount of knowledge about opera!!!!! I used to know such people but they are all in the dress circle in heaven now.


Awww! You're lonely! If you ever get down Ashland way, drop in and we'll play opera queen for a day.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Who cares? All I know is she was the finest, most moving Madama Butterfly I have ever heard.


Critics agree with you.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Critics agree with you.


I don't, Freni have her for breakfasts any day of the week. ) First recording with Karajan.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Critics agree with you.


You don't? You prefer Scotto?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

hpowders said:


> You don't? You prefer Scotto?


I know Tebaldi's Butterfly has many admirers, but I find her altogether too much the grande dame.

My preferred Butterflies are Callas, Scotto (in her recording with Barbirolli), De Los Angeles and Freni, in that order. Scotto, De Los Angeles and Freni are naturals for the role, but Callas is remarkable in scaling down her voice and personality in order to enter into the world of poor, tragic Butterfly.


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

In La Nilsson she is generally very generous about her fellow singers so the story is slightly unusual though she does say she was surprised it happened. She saves her venom for producers, directors and money-men. Herbert von Karajan appears prominently, usually in an unflattering light but eventually they had a truce in order to record Tristan.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Vocally Tebaldi is supreme for Liu, but she would have been awfully statuesque for tiny Chinese maiden. It is not so much an issue for the terrifying Turandot. It reminds me of a statement of the gorgeous voiced Martina Arroyo who said if she had sung Cio Cio San she would have been known as Madame Butterball.


Martina Arroyo sung Madama Butterfly several times.

http://www.martinaarroyo.com/performances.html


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Biffo said:


> In La Nilsson she is generally very generous about her fellow singers so the story is slightly unusual though she does say she was surprised it happened. She saves her venom for producers, directors and money-men. Herbert von Karajan appears prominently, usually in an unflattering light but *eventually they had a truce in order to record Tristan*.


They never recorded Tristan together commercially. At the time of the Decca Tristan with Solti they were creating what critics described as 'miracles' together with Windgassen. Culshaw's decision to record Tristan with Karajan's opera orchestra (at the time) backfired as Karajan was obstructed the Tristan sessions by demanding sessions of his own. In addition, Solti's inexperience with the opera shows through (as he admitted himself in his memoirs). 
Of course, Nilsson and Karajan were destined not to get on - the control freak conductor and the soprano with mind of her own and a right mouth on her (in more ways than one!). In addition the Nilsson kind of voice was not really the sort Karajan favoured as he preferred a more rounded sound. So not a marriage made in heaven, though people who saw the Tristan performances were mightily impressed.

There is a Milan Tristan recorded live in 1959

https://operadepot.com/products/wag...-majden-neidlinger-hotter-karajan-milano-1959


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Tebaldi was an exclusive Decca artist , and the Nilsson Turandot was an EMI recording . Did EMI really try to have her temporarily released from Decca to make a recording for EMI ? I've never heard about any attempts to have her record for other labels .


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

OOPS ! I forgot about the first Nilsson Turandot which was for RCA , where Tebald was Liu , even though she was primarily a DECCA artist . My bad .


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

superhorn said:


> OOPS ! I forgot about the first Nilsson Turandot which was for RCA , where Tebald was Liu , even though she was primarily a DECCA artist . My bad .


At the time RCA and Decca had a crossover agreement on artists


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## Granate (Jun 25, 2016)

DavidA said:


> Of course, Nilsson and Karajan were destined not to get on - the control freak conductor and the soprano with mind of her own and a right mouth on her (in more ways than one!). In addition the Nilsson kind of voice was not really the sort Karajan favoured as he preferred a more rounded sound.
> 
> There is a Milan Tristan recorded live in 1959




















Myto sells a CD version worth the listen. For the duo I perfer the Bayreuth 1957 premiere (Nilsson would never show such a powerful Isolde in the following years), but this one from 1959 caught my attention for the ambience and the noisy sound, like early 1950s vintage. The score "explodes" with the poor quality of the microphones and sounds even more epic, in my view.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

DavidA said:


> At the time RCA and Decca had a crossover agreement on artists


Sutherland first opera recordings where released on RCA , try to find one, diligently sought and people pay fortunes for it .


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