LINA
BRUNA RASA (b.
Padova 1907 d. Milano 1984) – A
tragic destiny!
The
intense soprano drammatico Lina Bruna Rasa
Some of the greatest opera singers in history ended their careers
prematurely due to tragic destinies. Geoff's Gallery audio
of the regretted French coloratura soprano Mado Robin has inspired
this reflection. It is also an invitation to reflect on how
the public severely judges singers, based on their performances
and despite age, health etc.
The
first singer to touch my deeply felt emotions is the
Italian soprano drammatico Lina Bruna Rasa. Many of our
readers may be aware of Bruna Rasa' sad story which ended
in October 1984 in Milan, where few people participated
to the funerals of an old woman who had lived for almost
40 years in a mental institute. The old woman had very
few friends and almost nobody remembered her when she
died. She had spent her last 36 years in silence as her
mental state deteriorated. She had fewer and fewer lucid
moments of recalling how it had been on the stage...
when the public adored her... when she had been Toscanini
and Mascagni's favourite soprano, once.
Born
in September 1907, in Padova ( Italy ), Lina began her
music studies at the age of 14 and debuted at 17! The
role at her debut in 1925 was Elena in Boito's Mefistofele
with the reputable Maria Zamboni and Ezio Pinza. From
then on, the legend began. She performed all over Italy
and co-starred some of the best Italian tenors of the
1920s (Aureliano Pertile, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Alessandro
Zilliani and Beniamino Gigli). The great Toscanini immediately
noted and engaged her for a number of stage performances
at La Scala and other big theatres.
The
collaboration between Bruna Rasa and Mascagni deserves
special mention. They first met in 1928 and, since that
date, Mascagni supported her to the end of her career.
She was his favourite Santuzza and, according to many,
one of the best in history. Santuzza was her most successful
and performed role under the baton of the composer himself.
Bruna
Rasa performed with enormous success in Cavalleria Rusticana,
Tosca, Aida, Nerone, Mefistofele, Fedora, Andrea Chenier
and La Forza Del Destino. The drama began in late 1931
at only 24 years of age when a severe depression forced
her to cancel some scheduled performances. The following
year, she suffered a panic attack when Mascagni turned
the baton over to Benvenuti Giusti for three performances
of Cavalleria Rusticana. Mascagni took care of her during
the rest of her career, arranging contracts and convincing
her that she was still able to sing. In 1933, her stage
partners began to notice her illness. The performances
became sporadic.
The
year 1935 was crucial, when her mother died. Lina felt
that her only “anchor” to the real world
was gone and her delicate mental state became seriously
affected. A memorable event took place in 1937 when she
performed in Tosca at Castel San Giovanni in front of
several fascist officers. At the end of the romanza,
Vissi d'arte, when the ovations were tremendous, she
raised from the stage floor and revealed an Italian flag!
The public was in rapture, except the Nazi officials!
She
still gave memorable performances, as the one in 1940,
at the fiftieth anniversary of Cavallleria Rusticana,
when she also recorded the opera together with Gigli
and Bechi. Her voice was at the peak and she never had
what we usually call a “vocal decline”. Her
mental illness did not allow her to sing and act. At
the time, she already had serious problems in remembering
the lyrics. It was the last straw of her short career.
People remember that, when offstage, she was apathetic
and kept silent for hours. It seems that she reacted
positively only to the public's affection and ovations.
She was a miracle of the stage! From 1942 onwards, she
attended a mental institution in Milan.
In
early 1948, she felt well enough and thought she could
perform again on the stage. In July, she attempted to
sing at Busto Arsizio . Toscanini went over to hear his
favourite soprano but left the theatre with tears in
his eyes. It was all over. She tried one more time to
sing in October but the tour ended because she just could
not remember any of the lyrics.
The
artists, who sang with her, described a very special
and unforgettable experience. In his own words, tenor
Enzo De Muro Lomanto said: "The experience of singing
Turiddu with Lina Bruna Rasa was comparable to nothing
else in my long experience on the lyric theatre. She
made all of us want to be just that much better, and
I think we were".
I
ask, “What is the sadder thing? To die tragically
in an accident sometime at the very top of one's career
or be slowly forgotten by everybody and die of old age
in miserable conditions?”
The
audio files
Vissi
d'arte, Tosca act II, sung by Lina Bruna Rasa in
1928
La
mamma morta, Andrea Chénier act II, sung
by Lina Bruna Rasa in 1928
Notes (ed.) –
Andrea Chénier is a poet, who lived
at the time of the French Revolution and partook in the revolutionaries'
ideals. Following the violence perpetrated by them, he condemned
its excess, for which they sent him to the guillotine.
Maddalena is a young noblewoman in love with
the poet. In the aria La mamma morta , Maddalena
recounts the horrors she suffered because of the revolutionaries'
blind folly: the killing of her mother, the house on fire,
the malady and the extreme poverty. The faithful half-cast
Bersi tries to provide her with money even by prostituting
herself. Amidst so much darkness, one light: the love for
Chénier.
Soprano drammatico - a voice
of intense volume, dark timbre, notable extension and stylistic
variations, to suit Verdian heroines such as Leonora (Forza),
Amelia and Aida; Wagnerian heroines such as Isolde and Brunhilde;
heroines in Cavalleria, Gioconda, Tosca, Turandot, Gluck's
Alceste and Beethoven's Leonora. Arangi Lombardi, BRUNA RASA,
Caniglia, Capella, Cigna, Cobelli, Darclee, Destinn, Dimitrova,
Gagliardi, Gatti, Jeritza, Llacer, Nemeth, Nilsson, Norman,
Pacetti, Pampanini, Pasini Vitale, Pedrini, Poli Randaccio,
Ponselle, (Leontyne) Price, Raisa, Rethberg and Scacciati
are all worthy of mention.
(a.t.)
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”There
is one thing to be said for glory - you can take glory with
you, when it is your time to go”