opera-gems

(b. Messina 1957 - )

Lucia Aliberti by a statue of Bellini

The Life

Lucia Aliberti was born in Messina, Sicily, on 12 June 1957 and graduated with top marks from the Conservatory while still very young. She then completed her studies in Rome with Maestro Luigi Ricci and continued studying with the celebrated tenor Alfredo Kraus. Musician and composer, while studying singing, she was also studying the piano and other musical instruments such as guitar, accordion, violin and mandolin. She has composed many pieces for piano, clarinet and flute.

After winning the Spoleto and Enal competitions, she began her artistic career in Spoleto at the "Festival dei Due Mondi", under the direction of Giancarlo Menotti and Raffaello de Banfield. She has sung in the world's major theatres: the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Covent Garden in London, the Deutsche Oper of Berlin, La Scala in Milan, the Opera Theatre of Rome, the S.Carlo in Naples, the Theatre M.Bellini in Catania, the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, the Theatre Champs Elisèe in Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Grosse Festspielhaus in Salzburg.

Elisabetta

(Roberto Devereux)

Amina

(La Sonnambula)

"She remains one of the last Prima donnas. She manages with her incredible soprano voice and her deep knowledge about the line itself, to define cadenzas in musical space and to project within a short aria a well-contoured character. Her piano is a real piano. Here we are not dealing with belcanto as just beautiful singing, but with he subtle art as a mirror of the state of the soul. What she gives us in terms of concentration and security in the high tessituras, as well as regarding plasticity of line and inner dramaturgy, is highpower singing. With this elegance of phrasing and dynamic nuance." (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 2007)

Her operatic repertoire is imposing, including the belcanto works by Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, the French works by Gounod, Delibes, Massenet, Meyerbeer, Thomas, the youthful works by Verdi and La Bohème by Puccini. Of Bellini's operas she sings Beatrice (Beatrice di Tenda), Norma, Amina, Imogene (Il Pirata), Elvira (I Puritani), Alaide (La Straniera), Giulietta and Zaira (Zaira). In Donizetti's operas she is Lucia, Linda, Maria (La figlia del reggimento), Adina, Anna, Maria (Maria Stuarda), Paolina (Poliuto), Lucrezia, Maria (Maria De Rohan), Elisabetta (Roberto Devereux) and Norina, to name the most well known Donizettian heroines.

What do we know about Lucia Aliberti's character and free time pursuits? She is a self-critical artist, a resolute perfectionist constantly refining her roles and on rare occasions is she really satisfied with herself. She likes window shopping a lot, roves through antique shops, designs her own evening gowns, selects the fabrics for them, spends hours in the kitchen and dreams of chocolate and icecreams. Away from the hurly burly of the theatre stage and halls, she loves home to rest herself and her voice, watches westerns especially featuring Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck.

The Voice

The voice of Lucia Aliberti may be classified as that of a soprano drammatico d'agilità. It is associated with great roles in the operas of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi, from Armida to Abigaille and from Norma to Lucrezia Borgia. It is a hybrid expression because the dramatic soprano got rid of agility, yet the darkest and most powerful voice in the classic-romantic tradition could not do without agility.

Maria Callas was that genial diva we all know, who restored the Bellinian virtuosity, gave renaissance to Rossini, revisited Donizetti and rediscovered Verdi. The secret of her success in many roles, her approach and insistence to sing classical, romantic and melodramatic composers may be found in her renowned triple voice. Lucia Aliberti has followed in Callas' footsteps. The reason is also her triple voice. Three voices, leggera, lirica and drammatica, one superimposed on the other two depending on the role. Her voice in the aria “Una voce poco fa” from Barbiere is frivolously leggera, in “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi is sensually lirica and in “Pace, pace mio Dio” from Forza is emotionally drammatica.

Lucia Aliberti's natural vocal talents are enhanced by a technique which allows her to sustain even the most difficult parts in the belcanto repertoire. International critics have also underlined her particular stage presence and dramatic capabilities. She is considered a specialist in the operas of Vincenzo Bellini (she has also dedicated intense study to some of his manuscripts).

Audio file

1. G. Puccini - Gianni Schicchi

O mio babbino caro

Gianni Schicchi ...............................2:20

(03/11/07)

(j.f.)

He was born on 13 February 1873 in Kazan on Rybnoryadskoaya Street (now Pushkin Street ). His father, Ivan Yakovlevich, was a clerk in the Zemskaya Uprava (Land Council). In 1878, the family moved to the village of Ometyevo, a district of Kazan, and settled in a small house.

His musical education started as a member of the choir in the local church. He had only 4 years of formal schooling and at the age of 17 he left an abusive home (his father had become an alcoholic) and joined a travelling theatre company. There he met Dmitri Uzatov, a retired tenor, who gave classical singing education to Chaliapin. He debuted with the Tbilisi Opera, then Mariinsky (later Kirov) now the Mariinsky Theatre, and later joined the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow .

In 1902, Chaliapin sang Boito's Mefistofele with Enrico Caruso at La Scala and became the best bass in Europe during those years. His debut at the Met for the season of 1906 - 07 was announced with great expectations. He sang Mefistofele, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Don Giovanni. The reaction of New York critics was puzzling and, with only one exception, they detested him. They accused him of clowning on the revered stage of The Met. Only one critic, Henry T. Finck, maintained that the Russian bass was one of the great singing actors of all times. How right he was!

Chaliapin shocked the American critics the first time. Always against convention, he created his own interpretation of the operatic character he played. In Mefistofele, he came on the stage with his magnificent half naked body. The critics could not accept his characterization but the public did. Chaliapin had an enormous popular success. For each performance, he commanded 33 000 American dollars of today. Chaliapin did not set foot again on American soil until 1921.

In between those years, he created the title role of Massenet's Don Quichotte in 1910, which the composer had written for him. He sang Boris Godunov in Paris in 1908 and in 1914 -15 he sang Russian Opera in London, just before the pistol shot at Sarajevo touched off the WW1 conflict. But even in the midst of this feast of Russian music, Chaliapin misbehaved.

With him, it was as always a matter of money. He was the highest paid artist in Russia , with a salary of 37 000 roubles a year from the Imperial Opera House. Sir Thomas paid him 250 pound sterling a performance for the season of Russian Opera at the Drury Lane Theatre . Chaliapin had a house in Moscow , another one in St Petersburg and an estate at Yaroslavl. He was a rich man.

It always came as a shock that this big man with a big lusty voice, big warm personality, a zest for good eating, drinking and talk, the magnetism of a handsome, vigorous and virile male, a man so big in every way, could be so stingy about money, while he was everywhere acclaimed as a great artist. After the Russian revolution, Chaliapin stayed in Moscow for a time, singing at the Bolshoi, returned for a short period to the Mariinsky Theatre at the end of the war but finally left Russia in 1921, never to return.

There are some funny anecdotes going around about the great Russian bass. Chaliapin was always an actor, on and off the stage. A legend grew up about his romantic escapades and his readiness with his fists. In Chicago a story broke into the newspapers about his attentions to a lady member of the opera company, which caused a lively bout with a fellow artist courting the same lady.

Another newspaper story told of Chaliapin quarrelling with another artist and getting his nose broken. This story went all over the world, reaching even his secretary in Russia, who cabled anxiously to know what had happened. Chaliapin's version was that he had been misunderstood by dolts who knew nothing of opera in general and Boris Godunov in particular. He had merely been rehearsing the Palace scene, showing the tenor who sang the role of Prince Shouisky how the mad Czar cuffed and cursed the Prince. He cabled his secretary that if he, Chaliapin, had had his nose broken, there would have been news of a tenor's funeral the next day!!!

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin married twice. His first wife was Lola Ignatievna, an Italian dancer and they had five children: Kira, Tanya, Lydia, Boris and Feodor. After the divorce, she migrated back to the Soviet Union, where she stayed for the rest of her life. Marie Valentinovna, an Estonian, was his second wife, a charming and cultured woman. She brought to the household two children by her first husband and bore Chaliapin three daughters, Marfa, Maria and Daska. Two wives, eight children, two step children, were the centre of his universe.

With a voice of commanding power, range and technique which were unconventional but remarkably secure, Chaliapin achieved a highly personal balance between the demands of declamation and musical line. Even in his vocal declining years, he was an actor of immense energy and perfect attention to detail, whose presence held all eyes glued to him whenever he was on the stage.

His vocal technique was superb. The voice was even throughout its range, allowing him to tackle selected baritone roles as successfully as his customary bass roles. It was sharply focused, free of vibrato and could be fined down to the merest thread of sound when the music (or rather Chaliapin's knowledge of music) demanded it. He was one of the first singers who appled psychological technique to operatic acting. The way he used to stand, the way he moved, what he wore and the rhythm of his speech translated to music were nothing short of revolutionary in opera!

Rachmaninov claimed that Chaliapin sang as Tolstoy wrote, which we may observe for example with his interpretation of Mefistofele - his 'Son lo spirito' was marked by a demonic whistle and a terrifying interpretation. There was almost a conversational quality in Chaliapin's deep, low voice combined with dramatic ability.

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin died in Paris in 1938. The legend had departed but fortunately it is still with us through his recordings, which are gems among opera lovers.