Cristina Deutekom
Encyclopedia
Cristina Deutekom is a Dutch
opera
singer. Renowned for her coloratura
technique, she is also known as Christine Deutekom and Christina Deutekom.
Her voice was that of a dramatic coloratura, although lirico spinto with an incredible coloratura technique would probably be more accurate.
She sang with virtually all the leading tenors of her time: Franco Corelli
, Richard Tucker
, Luciano Pavarotti
, Plácido Domingo
, José Carreras
, Alfredo Kraus
, Carlo Bergonzi and Nicolai Gedda
.
. After some smaller roles, her breakthrough came in 1963, portraying the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at De Nederlandse Opera
. She then sang the same role at all major European opera houses and also at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York
in 1968. In 1974 she opened the MET season next to Plácido Domingo as Elena in I vespri siciliani.
Meanwhile she had been extending her repertoire. Besides the Queen of the Night, her Mozart roles included Donna Anna (Don Giovanni
), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte
) and Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito
). She also scored triumphant successes in Italy in the great bel canto
roles of Rossini (Armida
), Bellini
(Norma
, I puritani
) and Donizetti (Lucia di Lammermoor
).
She went on to achieve international fame in a repertoire that also embraced the great dramatic Verdi roles (Abigaile in Nabucco
, Lady Macbeth
, Leonora in Il trovatore
, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera
, Elena in I vespri siciliani and the roles that were captured in commercial recordings: Giselda in I Lombardi and Odabella in Attila
).
Finally, she went on to sing the title role in Puccini's Turandot
.
Cristina's stage career ended in 1986, when she suffered a heart attack
. She turned to giving master classes internationally. As of 2001, she was a guest teacher at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague
. After suffering a stroke in 2004 she retired from public life.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer. Renowned for her coloratura
Coloratura
Coloratura has several meanings. The word is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare . When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and...
technique, she is also known as Christine Deutekom and Christina Deutekom.
Her voice was that of a dramatic coloratura, although lirico spinto with an incredible coloratura technique would probably be more accurate.
She sang with virtually all the leading tenors of her time: Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli
Franco Corelli was a famous Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, a...
, Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker was an American operatic tenor.-Early life:Tucker was born Rivn Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Romanian immigrants from Bessarabia. His father, Shmul Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first...
, Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
, Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
, José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
, Alfredo Kraus
Alfredo Kraus
Alfredo Kraus Trujillo was a distinguished Spanish tenor of partly Austrian descent, particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles...
, Carlo Bergonzi and Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda is a Swedish operatic tenor. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is said to be the most widely recorded tenor in history...
.
Career
Deutekom was born in AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. After some smaller roles, her breakthrough came in 1963, portraying the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera
De Nederlandse Opera , in Amsterdam, is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Het Muziektheater, a modern building designed by Cees Dam which opened in 1986....
. She then sang the same role at all major European opera houses and also at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1968. In 1974 she opened the MET season next to Plácido Domingo as Elena in I vespri siciliani.
Meanwhile she had been extending her repertoire. Besides the Queen of the Night, her Mozart roles included Donna Anna (Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
) and Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito
La clemenza di Tito , K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Metastasio...
). She also scored triumphant successes in Italy in the great bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
roles of Rossini (Armida
Armida (Rossini)
Armida is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, based on scenes from Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso.-Performance history:...
), Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
(Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
, I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
) and Donizetti (Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
).
She went on to achieve international fame in a repertoire that also embraced the great dramatic Verdi roles (Abigaile in Nabucco
Nabucco
Nabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
, Lady Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)
Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
, Leonora in Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Elena in I vespri siciliani and the roles that were captured in commercial recordings: Giselda in I Lombardi and Odabella in Attila
Attila (opera)
Attila is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the play Attila, König der Hunnen by Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner. Initially, Verdi had enlisted Francesco Maria Piave to prepare the libretto, after Verdi's own scenario...
).
Finally, she went on to sing the title role in Puccini's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
.
Cristina's stage career ended in 1986, when she suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
. She turned to giving master classes internationally. As of 2001, she was a guest teacher at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. After suffering a stroke in 2004 she retired from public life.
Repertoire (in opera)
- Beethoven - Fidelio (Marzelline)
- Bellini - Bianca e Fernando (Bianca), Norma (Norma), I Puritani (Elvira)
- Cherubini - Medea (Medea)
- Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia)
- Mozart - Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi), Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), La Clemenza di Tito (Vitellia), Die Zauberflöte (Königin der Nacht)
- Händel - Alcina (Alcina)
- Puccini - Turandot (Turandot)
- Rossini - Armida (Armida), Mosè in Egitto (Sinaide)
- Saint-Saëns - Henry VIII (Catherine de Aragon)
- Strauss, R. - Der Rosenkavalier (Marianne Leitmetzerin)
- Verdi - Alzira (Alzira), Attila (Odabella), Un Ballo in maschera (Amelia), I Lombardi (Giselda), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), I Masnadieri (Amalia), Nabucco (Abigaille), Rigoletto (Gilda), Simone Boccanegra (Amelia/Maria), Il Trovatore (Leonora), I Vespri Siciliani (Elena)
- Wagner - Götterdämmerung (Woglinde), Das Rheingold (Woglinde), Die Walküre (Walküre)
Honors
- Knight in the order of Orange-Nassau, 1974
- Singer of the year, MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, 1974 - Singer of the year, Milan, 1973
- Premio Romeo e Juliët, VeronaVeronaVerona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, 1972 - Rigoletto d'Oro, Mantova, 1973
- Monteverdi d'Oro, VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, 1972 - Palco Scenico d'Oro, Mantova, 1971
- Grand Prix du DisqueL'Académie Charles CrosThe Académie Charles-Cros, is an organization in France that acts as an intermediary between government cultural policy makers and professionals in music and the recording industry....
of the Charles Cros Academy, Paris, 1968 - Arena d'Oro, VeronaVeronaVerona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
, 1976
External links
- Watch Cristina Deutekom on YouTube