Leyla Gencer Archive

LA TRAVIATA

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)

Opera in three acts in Italian
Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave after Alexander Duma’s play La Dame aux Camélias
Premièr at Teatro la Fenice, Venice – 6 March 1853

19 September, 10, 17 October 1957

War Memorial Opera, San Francisco

Conductor: Glauco Curiel

Chorus master: Gianni Lazzarini
Stage director: Paul Hager
Scene and costumes: Goldstein & Co.
Choreographer: William Christensen

Alfredo Germont lover of Violetta JOHN CRAIN / CESARE CURZI (17.10) tenor

Giorgio Germont his father ROBERT MERRILL / LUIGI BORGHI (17.10) baritone
Gastone de Letorieres a young man about town VIRGINIO ASSANDRI tenor
Baron Douphol a rival of Alfredo MURRAY KENIG baritone
Marchese d’Obigny HARVE PRESNELL bass
Dr. Grenvil CARL PALANGI bass
Giuseppe servant to Violetta WILLIAM L. BOOTH tenor
Violetta Valery a courtesan LEYLA GENCER soprano
Flora Bervoix her friend JAN MCART mezzo-soprano
Annina Violetta’s confident and maid KATHERINE HILGENBERG soprano
Messenger WINTHER ANDERSEN tenor
Majordomo MAX LORENZINI baritone
Solo dancers SALLY BAILET, DIRK CARTER, ROCKY DREW

Time: 1850

Place: Paris and vicinity

Photos © ROBERT LACKENBACH, San Francisco 

Photos © GEORGE SHIMMON PALACE HOTEL, San Francisco

ARRIVAL TO SAN FRANCISCO

1958 SEPTEMBER

THE BERKLEY GAZETTE                                             

1956.09.19

THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER                                            

1957.01.06

VARIETY                                     

1957 May

MUSICAL AMERICA                               

1957 June

OPERA MAGAZINE                                        

1957 June

PETALUMA ARGUS                                                

1957.06.08

OPERA MAGAZINE                                        

1957 July

THE TIMES                                     

1957.08.15

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT                             

1957.08.18

LOS ANGELES TIMES                                          

1957.09.11

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER                                       

1957.09.11

PETULAMA ARGUS COURIER                                    

1957.09.14

OAKLAND TRIBUNE                                        

1957.09.15

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT                                      

1957.09.15

LUBBOCK EVENING                                   

1957.09.18

THE INDEPENDENT                                    

1957.09.18

LA STAMPA                                         

1957.09.19

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER                                     

1957.09.19

OAKLAND TRIBUNE                                        

1957.09.20

PASIFIC STARS & STRIPES                                     

1957.09.20

PETALUMA ARGUS                                    

1957.09.20

OAKLAND TRIBUNE                                    

1957.09.21

Gencer found herself in an extremely difficult situation as she had to substitute the legendary and highly beloved singer Maria Callas. But she was so successful that she nearly made the audience forget about the presence of the great artist Umberto Berghi- a baritone with a rich timbre and personality who also made his debut before San Francisco audience. Gencer who had attained almost the same level of success singing La Traviata a week before, might as well be described as “one of the most credible and most suitable Violettas”. La Traviata is Gencer’s opera from the beginning until the end. (Clifforfd Gessler)

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER                                       

1957.09.21

OAKLAND TRIBUNE                                        

1957.09.22

MUSICAL AMERICA                         

1957 October

THE SACRAMENTO BEE                                         

1957.10.05

THE SACRAMENTO BEE                                         

1957.10.05

OPERA NEWS                                             

1957.10.14

ÇAĞRI MAGAZINE                           

1957 November

STATE THEATRE MAGAZINE                           

1957 November

MUSICAL AMERICA                                  

1957.11.01

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR                                

1957.11.11

AKİS WEEKLY MAGAZINE                                      

1957.11.30

OPERA MAGAZINE                                        

1957 December

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR                                

1957.12.14

OAKLAND TRIBUNE

1958.09.16

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA 1922 - 1978

1978

ARTHUR BLOOMSFIELD

 

 

GENCER IN SAN FRANCISCO WAR MEMORIAL OPERA - From Arthur Bloomfield’s book The San Francisco Opera 1922 – 1978 (1978 Comstock Editions): ……. Francesca project stemmed from the fact that Tebaldi was learning the role for Maggio Musicale in Florance. When that the Festival dropped the work, she was less interested in doing it for San Francisco. It was more feasible for Adler to go ahead substitute soprano than a substitute opera – the production was already built when the unwooable Tebaldi made her decision – so Leyla Gencer, a Turkish soprano with Italian opera experience, was imported. She turned out to be an exceptionally interesting if uneven artist. Her physical beauty at the time was marked, her poise sure, her pianissimi exquisite, her voice in general, when well-projected, remarkably warm in tone. Whether she made more or less of Francesca than Tebaldi might have done is one of history’s little question marks. ……. The report continued with a statement of the position of the San Francisco Opera, which was, not surprisingly, that Madam Callas was fired, and that a complaint, furthermore, was being sent off to the American Guild of Musical Artists. The fact that a recording of Cherubini’s Medea was on the ailing Callas’ September schedule – sessions took place from 12^th to 19^th – did not sit exactly well with Adler and Miller. Nor the fact that she “rested up” by going to an early September ball tossed for her in Venice by Elsa Maxwell. Callas had wired Adler September 1 that he should have a sub on hand “in case”. Bul Callas’ logical follow-up, in Adler’s estimation, would have been either come on schedule and try to perform, or to cancel outright, and stay home. Most subscribers felt Adler and Miller were to be commended for their uncompromising action, and after Leonie Rysanek’s Lady Macbeth and Leyla Gencer’s Lucia – both highly successful – Maria Callas was, if not forgotten, hardy missed. ……. Gencer’s Lucia was not of the pretty-pretty pyrotechnical variety. Here was a warm spinto soprano who simply happened to have coloratura flexibility as well. The riches of her voice which, like Callas’, has a certain sonic sex appeal, helped produce an adult Lucia. Also, vivid acting: she conveyed a real sense of derangement in the Mad Scene. All in all, this was the most memorable portrayal offered in San Francisco by a sometimes-remarkable artist. Her success in the part indicated that another reengagement was in order, and she returned in 1958. Her other assignments were Violetta and Liu, the latter only in Los Angeles. ……. Mezzo Irene Dalis appeared first in one of her best roles, Eboli in Don Carlo. She swung into it with a fiery regality and sang it warmly, winning friends who would welcome her back in many seasons to come. She shared to honours in the first two performances with Tozzi, whose limping, swaggering Philip certainly one of the best all-around characterizations her offered through the years of personages more interesting than the stock Ramfis and Zaccaria types. Frank Guarrera was a vivid Rodrigo, Piero Miranda a so-so Don Carlo. No soprano has ever known better than Leyla Gencer how to stand about looking noble, but her vocal projection in the role of Elizabeth was spotty. ……. Opening Night 1967 brought a revival of Gioconda, not seen nineteen years. Adler had waited until he had the whopping sort of cast that can make this over-climaxed irresistible warhorse run. Up through the summer of ’67 there were problems, two of his choices agreeing the job and then backing off. Crespin was to do her first Gioconda, and she had coaching with Zinka Milanov in Yugoslavia on her agenda, but indisposition made it impossible for her to learn the role in time, and Peter Glossop defected from Barnaba for Fallstaff with Sarah Chadwell’s American National Company which toured the U.S. in the wake of the prematurely hatched Met National troupe. Crespin was ably enough replaced by Leyla Gencer, absent for nearly a decade from San Francisco scene. For Barnaba there were the parched tones of Chester Ludgin, a man-of-all-work baritone who was encountering vocal problems especially inconvenient for such a draftable singer. With Patané exceedingly crisp, cultivated man on the podium. Grace Bumbry an ideally handsome, mellifluous Laura, Maureen Forrester (a rare figure on the operatic stage) a plummy Cieca, and Cioni a pingy Enzo, this was, despite problems, a Gioconda lineup not to be dismissed. Gencer’s dramatic handling of the title role made one respect her artistic integrity even as one worried over instances of vocal abandon. Espaccially after the opening night, a traditionally troublesome time for voices, she achieved a fairly even effect, always using her voice, according to her habit, as a piece of highly charged equipment. There have been more brilliant-sounding sopranos of the Gioconda type, but none more resourceful. Gioconda being sort o character whor turns up from everybody’s woodwork, she tends to be more than a bit tiresome, but Gencer put you on her side.