Giulietta simionato maria callas biography
Home / Celebrity Biographies / Giulietta simionato maria callas biography
In 1959 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, as Azucena in Il Trovatore, with Carlo Bergonzi, Antonietta Stella, and Leonard Warren. Though she made her stage debut in 1927 while still a teenager she gradually progressed up the ladder of Italian theaters until she made it to the biggest ladder of them all – La Scala in 1936.
Donizetti was the third bel canto composer whose work was in Simionato’s repertoire. According to the singer herself, the contract with La Scala, signed in 1935, brought her many tears and little joy.
Success and Recognition
It wasn't until the late 1940s that Simionato began to achieve major roles and gain recognition.
O mio Fernando is from the composer’s La Favorita (La Favorite in the original French).
Dalila’s ‘Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix’ from Act 2 of Saint-Saens Samson et Dalila is sung in Italian as S’Apre per te il mio cor. By the end of her career, Giulietta Simionato was considered one of the most talented opera singers of her generation.
In 1955 they appeared in Bellini’s Norma at La Scala. She performed in Verdi's "Rigoletto," and it was a promising debut.
Miss Simionato – a small, round-faced woman with an intense stage personality that matches her extraordinary vocal gifts – presented Azucena not as the dishevelled hag standardized by tradition but as a vital, individualized character, whose seething search for vengeance is tempered by human and feminine traits. In 1947, she sang the role of Minnie in Ambroise Thomas' opera "Mignon," and the thrilled audience applauded her for ten minutes.
The first fifteen years of her career were frustrating, she was only given small parts, but she attracted growing attention in the late 1940s, and by the end of her career was recognised as one of the most respected singers of her generation. Another Rossini duet is Dunque io son from The Barber. The demands of Bellini’s masterpiece are so great that the opera should only be staged when a company has artists at least close to the caliber of these two.
Rossini’s last Italian opera was Semiramide.
Her debut role at the Met was Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore. In 1984, Simionato appeared in the award-winning documentary film "Il Bacio di Tosca" by Swiss director Daniel Schmid, which focused on a retirement home for opera singers founded by Giuseppe Verdi. In 1957, she sang in Anna Bolena with Maria Callas.
Fono has gathered her recordings on the CD, The Color of a Voice. She taught singing, mentored promising students, held various leadership positions, and amazed everyone with her vitality in her nineties. Her mother, a stern and unsupportive woman, did not encourage her daughter's interest in singing. In 1966, without much fanfare or special farewells, Simionato left the stage, announcing her retirement just before her last performance.
She was featured in Daniel Schmid's award-winning 1984 documentary film Il Bacio di Tosca (Tosca's Kiss) about a home for retired opera singers founded by Giuseppe Verdi. A very great artist.