Lucia Valentini Terrani
Encyclopedia
Lucia Valentini Terrani (August 29, 1946, Padua
- June 11, 1998, Seattle) was an Italian coloratura
mezzo-soprano
, particularly associated with Rossini roles.
, a role with which she would remain closely associated throughout her career.
She made her debut at La Scala
in 1973, again as Angelina, and quickly established herself in the Rossini repertoire, singing in L'italiana in Algeri
, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il viaggio a Reims
. She also sang the many "trouser roles
" such as
Tancredi
, Malcolm in La donna del lago
, Pippo in La gazza ladra
, Calbo in Maometto secondo, Arsace in Semiramide
, Isolier in Le comte Ory
, etc. She also sang a few roles of the baroque
repertory, notably Alcina in Vivaldi
's Orlando furioso
, and Bradamante in Handel
's Alcina
. However, she did not restrict herself to the belcanto and expanded her repertoire to include roles such as Dorabella
, Eboli, Quickly
,
Mignon
, Carmen
, Charlotte
, Dulcinée
, Jocasta
.
She enjoyed a very successful international career, appearing in Paris, London, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, etc. She made her Metropolitan Opera
debut in 1974, as Isabella L'italiana in Algeri
.
Valentini married Italian actor Alberto Terrani, pseudonym
of Alfredo Bolognesi, in 1973, and added his stage surname to hers. She was diagnosed with leukemia
in 1996, and went to the famous Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
in Seattle for treatment, where her colleague and friend José Carreras
was treated for the same affliction. Sadly she was not as lucky as Carreras, and died of complications following a bone marrow transplant
at the age of 51.
One of the leading contemporary Italian coloratura mezzos, she had a rich,
creamy and agile voice used with fine musicianship, and had a good stage presence.
Her recordings include L'italiana in Algeri (1978), La cenerentola (1980), Nabucco (1982), Falstaff (with Renato Bruson
, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
, 1982), and Don Carlos (opposite Placido Domingo
, Katia Ricciarelli
and Ruggero Raimondi
, led by Claudio Abbado
, 1983-84).
A small square close to the Teatro Verdi in Padua, the city of her birth, has been named Piazzetta Lucia Valentini Terrani in her honour.
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
- June 11, 1998, Seattle) was an Italian 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...
mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
, particularly associated with Rossini roles.
Life and career
Born Lucia Valentini, she studied first at the Padua Music Conservatory, and later at the Accademia Benedetto Marcello in Venice. She made her stage debut in Brescia, as Angelina in La cenerentolaLa Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
, a role with which she would remain closely associated throughout her career.
She made her debut at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in 1973, again as Angelina, and quickly established herself in the Rossini repertoire, singing in L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il viaggio a Reims
Il viaggio a Reims
Il viaggio a Reims, ossia L'albergo del giglio d'oro is an operatic dramma giocoso, originally performed in three acts, by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Balocchi, based in part on Corinne, ou L'Italie by Mme de Staël.Rossini's last opera in the Italian language Il viaggio a...
. She also sang the many "trouser roles
Breeches role
A breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing .In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer...
" such as
Tancredi
Tancredi
Tancredi is a melodramma eroico in two acts by composer Gioachino Rossini and librettist Gaetano Rossi, based on Voltaire's play Tancrède...
, Malcolm in La donna del lago
La donna del lago
La donna del lago is an opera by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, based on The Lady of the Lake, a poem by Sir Walter Scott.This opera was the first to be based on Scott's romantic works...
, Pippo in La gazza ladra
La gazza ladra
La gazza ladra is a melodramma or opera semiseria in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was by Giovanni Gherardini after La pie voleuse by JMT Badouin d'Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez....
, Calbo in Maometto secondo, Arsace in Semiramide
Semiramide
Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
, Isolier in Le comte Ory
Le comte Ory
Le comte Ory is an opéra written by Gioachino Rossini in 1828. Some of the music originates from his opera Il viaggio a Reims written three years earlier for the coronation of Charles X...
, etc. She also sang a few roles of the baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
repertory, notably Alcina in Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
's Orlando furioso
Orlando furioso (Vivaldi)
Orlando furioso is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Grazio Braccioli, based on the poem of the same name by Ariosto. The first performance of the opera was at Teatro San Angelo, Venice, in 1727....
, and Bradamante in Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Alcina
Alcina
Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after, during his travels in Italy...
. However, she did not restrict herself to the belcanto and expanded her repertoire to include roles such as Dorabella
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....
, Eboli, Quickly
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
,
Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
, Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Charlotte
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, Dulcinée
Don Quichotte
Don Quichotte is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn.Massenet's comédie-héroïque, like so many other dramatized versions of the story of Don Quixote, relates only indirectly to the great novel by Miguel de Cervantes...
, Jocasta
Oedipus rex (opera)
Oedipus rex is an "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin...
.
She enjoyed a very successful international career, appearing in Paris, London, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, etc. She made her 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...
debut in 1974, as Isabella L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri
L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...
.
Valentini married Italian actor Alberto Terrani, pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Alfredo Bolognesi, in 1973, and added his stage surname to hers. She was diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
in 1996, and went to the famous Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, is one of the world’s leading cancer research institutes...
in Seattle for treatment, where her colleague and friend 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...
was treated for the same affliction. Sadly she was not as lucky as Carreras, and died of complications following a bone marrow transplant
Bone marrow transplant
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cell or blood, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells, or umbilical cord blood...
at the age of 51.
One of the leading contemporary Italian coloratura mezzos, she had a rich,
creamy and agile voice used with fine musicianship, and had a good stage presence.
Her recordings include L'italiana in Algeri (1978), La cenerentola (1980), Nabucco (1982), Falstaff (with Renato Bruson
Renato Bruson
Renato Bruson is an Italian operatic baritone. Bruson is widely considered one of the most important Verdi baritones of the late 20th and early 21st century. He was born in Granze near Padua, Italy.-Biography and career:...
, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...
, 1982), and Don Carlos (opposite Placido 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...
, Katia Ricciarelli
Katia Ricciarelli
-Biography:Born at Rovigo, Veneto, to a very poor family, she struggled during her younger years when she studied music.She studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, won several vocal competitions in 1968, and made her professional debut as Mimì in La bohème in Mantua in 1969,...
and Ruggero Raimondi
Ruggero Raimondi
Ruggero Raimondi is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures.-Early training and career:Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II...
, led by Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
, 1983-84).
A small square close to the Teatro Verdi in Padua, the city of her birth, has been named Piazzetta Lucia Valentini Terrani in her honour.
Sources
- Le guide de l'opéra, les indispensables de la musique, R. Mancin & J-J. Rouvereux, (Fayard, 1986), ISBN 2-213-01563
- Opera News, Obituaries, August 1998