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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Info Post

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It is well known by now the admiration Angela has for this beautiful lady and great Romanian soprano, Virginia Zeani. Each time she has the chance she mentions her as role model.
According to the person who uploaded the video, CharlotteinWeimar, the interview with Angela Gheorghiu was broadcasted back in 2000 on BBC Radio 3 the operatic excerpt is from Virginia Zeani's unrehearsed Covent Garden Debut 14th January 1960 with Traviata.
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Virginia Zeani's career was first primarily focused in Italy, where she sang at most opera houses, but soon her reputation led to invitations at major opera houses of Europe as well. Violetta was her debut role in London, Vienna, and Paris. She made her debut at La Scala in Milan in 1956, as Cleopatra in Handel 's Giulio Cesare, opposite Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, whom she married shorthly after.
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Zeani also appeared in Leningrad, Moscow, Philadelphia, and the New York's Metropolitan Opera, as Violetta, in 1966.
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She won considerable success in belcanto roles, such as Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda in Rigoletto, Elvira in I Puritani, Linda di Chamounix, before turning to more dramatic roles, such as Manon Lescaut, Tosca, Fedora, Adriana Lecouvreur.She also tackled a few Verdi and Wagner roles, such as Lina in Stiffelio, Elsa in Lohengrin. She created the role of Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites in 1957, at La Scala.
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She sang with tenors such as Beniamino Gigli, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Carlo Bergonzi, Alfredo Kraus, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, etc. A warm-voiced singer with an affecting stage presence, she made few commercial recordings, but a number of her live performances exist as bootleg recordings.
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Following her retirement from the opera stage in 1983, Zeani remained active as a voice instructor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where she and her husband, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, were both honored as "Distinguished Professors".
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After her husband's death in 1991 she taught at IU for many more years before moving to Florida. There she continues to teach, in particular for the Florida Grand Opera Young artist program and the Palm Beach Opera Young artist program. Amongst Zeani's most famous pupils are Marilyn Mims, Susan Patterson, Sylvia McNair, Stephen Mark Brown, Elizabeth Futral, Vivica Genaux, Angela Brown, Mark Nicolson, and Heidi Klassen.
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On Tuesday, March 31, 2009, Ms. Zeani accepted an offer to be Artist-in-residence in the Fall of 2009 at Florida Atlantic University in the Department of Choral and Vocal Studies in Boca Raton, Florida. (wikipedia.com)
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Following Operaonline's suggestion, here's a video of the encounter Anglea and Virginia Zeani had a few years ago in London. This was part of a surprise for Angela during a Romanian TV show called "Surprises, surprises".


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