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I just read that she has died, aged 104. OK, true confession - to my knowledge I have never heard her sing, certainly not live, and most likely not on records, although I always meant to investigate. But she was a cult favorite for years, and most of her recordings were of the pirated nature. To my knowledge she made just a few commercial recordings, yet artists as famous as Renee Fleming were huge fans.
Any favorite Olivero recordings? BTW, I hope to outlive her - screw AARP.
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R.I.P.
Giordano's 'Fedora' and excerpts from Zandonai's 'Francesca da Rimini', both recorded in 1969 for Decca, and both with the great-but-well-past-his-prime Mario del Monaco. Both are actually in fairly decent voice, all things considered, and of course they really chew up the scenery as they were from the Old School of Italian opera singing (her probably more than he).
Russell
It's from the early 50's, but the performances are from her pre-war Cetra recordings, of which there were not many. It includes a couple of things from her 1937 Turandot (as Liu), the first complete recording of the opera (it was premiered only 11 years earlier, in 1926).She was a throwback, with a late 19th century "verismo" style that was already going out of favor when she was in her prime. People either loved or hated her singing, but the quality of her acting and her stage presence was always highly regarded (and it didn't hurt that she was gorgeous!). The style and the vibrato take some getting used to, but her early recordings show that she really had the goods.
This is from 1940, I believe:
Edits: 09/09/14
My wife and I saw her do Tosca at SF Opera when she was in her 70's I believe. Frankly, we didn't think much of her singing, but the fact that she could get up on stage and do it at all was amazing. Her claque was there, so she got lots of applause and cheering. In a way, I guess the performance WAS remarkable, but then I think of all the deserving younger singers who would IMHO have done a much better job with the role at that time. I've never heard any of Olivero's recordings when she herself was in her prime however.
nt
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