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| with Ramon Vargas (tenor) and Graziella Sciutti (soprano) |
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| Villa Ponti |
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| Mete Uğur (baritone), Aydın Gün (Founder of Istanbul Opera), Faruk Yener (critic), Leyla Gencer, Fikri Sağlar (Minister of Culture), Zeynep Oral (writer), Erol Uras (tenor), Yekta Kara (Firector of Istanbul State Opera), Rengim Gökmen (conductor), Ayhan Baran (bass) |
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| with President of Republic, Süleyman Demirel |
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with Fikri Sağlar (Minister of Culture), Cüneyt Gökçer (former State Theater Director) and his wife Ayten Gökçer (actor) |
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| with President Süleyman Demirel |
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| with Filiz Ali (critic) and Sevgi Başman (SCA Foundation) |
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with Yekta Kara, Minster of Culture Fikri Sağlar, Cüneyt-Ayten Gökçer and Zeynep Oral |
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| Leyla Gencer (President), Mehmet Şuhubi (Vice President), Asuman Bayram (IFCA Accountant) |
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| with Şakir Eczacıbaşı, President of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IFCA) |
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| with Mehmet Şuhubi, Melih Fereli OBE (General Manager of IFCA) and Şakir Eczacıbaşı, President of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IFCA) |
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| IFCA Headquarter |
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| with Yekta Kara and E.Nilgün Mirze (Head of Corporate Functions of IFCA) at the reception |
Statues of Historic Figures
Bronze statue of formally dressed life size Leyla Gencer is located in front of Ankara Opera House (Atatürk Blv./Ave., Ankara). It is placed on stone pedestal with marble plaque with Turkish inscription.
Leyla Gencer was born in Polonezköy near Istanbul as the daughter of a Turkish father and Polish mother. Her mother, Lexanda Angela Minakovska (who later converted to Islam and chose the name Atiye after her husband's death), was the member of a Polish Catholic family of the Lithuanian aristocracy; while her father, Hasanzade Ibrahim Bey (who later adopted the surname Çeyrekgil following the Surname Law of 1934) was a wealthy businessman who descended from a Turkish family of the Sunni Muslim faith, from the city of Safranbolu.
Gencer lost her father at a very young age. She grew up in the Çubuklu district of Istanbul, on the Anatolian side of the Bosporus, and began to study singing at the Istanbul Conservatory; but dropped out to study privately in Ankara with her teacher, the Italian soprano Giannina Arangi-Lombardi. She sang in the chorus of the Turkish State Theater until she made her operatic debut in Ankara in 1950 as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. During the next few years, she became well known in Turkey and sang frequently at functions for the Turkish government.
In 1953, Gencer made her Italian debut at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples as Santuzza. She returned to Naples the following year for performances of Madama Butterfly and Eugene Onegin. In 1957, she made her debut at La Scala in Milan as Mme. Lidoine in the world premiere of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. She went on to appear regularly at La Scala, performing nineteen roles between 1957 and 1983, including Leonora in La forza del destino, Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Aïda, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Norma, Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea, and Alceste. At La Scala, she also appeared as the First Woman of Canterbury in the world premiere of Pizzetti's L'assassinio nella cattedrale in 1958.
In 1960 Gencer toured the USSR in concert, performing in Moscow and in Baku.
In 1962, Gencer made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Elisabetta di Valois and as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She made her U.S. debut at the San Francisco Opera in 1956 as Francesca in Francesca da Rimini. She sang at other American opera houses as well, but never sang at the Metropolitan Opera, though there had been discussions for her to sing Tosca there in 1956.
She performed Chopin's Polish songs in Paris with Nikita Magaloff, her Liszt-Bartok performance in La Scala and her concert regarding 'the operas about Turks' within the Venice Carnival at La Fenice Theatre, show her innovative character as an opera singer. In 1985, Gencer retired from the operatic stage with a performance of Gnecco's La Prova di un'opera seria at La Fenice. She continued to appear in concerts until 1992. As of 2007, she was still active, and had recently been appointed by La Scala's music director Riccardo Muti to run its school for young artists.
Throughout her career, Gencer was known primarily as a Donizetti interpreter. Among her best-known Donizetti performances are Belisario, Poliuto, Anna Bolena, Lucrezia Borgia, Maria Stuarda, and Caterina Cornaro. Her most acclaimed and best-known performance, though, was Roberto Devereux, which she sang in Naples in 1964.
In addition to the bel canto roles for which she is best known, Gencer's repertory also included works by such composers as Prokofiev, Mozart, and Puccini. She appeared in many rarely performed operas, including Smareglia's La Falena, Rossini's Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, Spontini's Agnese di Hohenstaufen, Pacini's Saffo, and Gluck's Alceste.
Gencer achieved an international career in a short time and performed with renowned Italian maestros such as; Gui, Serafin, Gavazzeni and Muti. She contributed to the improvement of the 'Donizetti Renaissance' with her great performances of Donizetti's forgotten operas.
Gencer's repertoire consists of 72 roles including works from composers such as; Monteverdi, Gluck, Mozart to neo-classical period; from Cherubini, Spontini, Johann Simon Mayr and the romantic period to Puccini, Prokofiev, Britten, Poulenc, Menotti and Rocca; from a lyric soprano varying to dramatic colorature.
In 1982, Gencer dedicated herself to education of young opera artists. She worked as a didactic art director of As.Li.Co. of Milan between 1983–88 and was appointed by Maestro Riccardo Muti to run La Scala's School for Young Artists between 1997-1998. Gencer was the artistic director of the academy for opera artists formed in Teatro alla Scala where she taught opera interpretation.
Gencer performed leading roles in many famous operas and she is known as the 'last diva of the 20th century'. She achieved her strong presence in the opera world, not only by the variety of her repertoire, but also with the dramatic nuances that she attributed to the roles she performed. Being a good researcher and a teacher, she reintroduced many forgotten works of the romantic period to the opera stages. In 1996 she had a spectacular appearance in Jan Schmidt-Garre's film Opera Fanatic.
Gencer died on May 10, 2008 in Milan, Italy. Following the funeral service in San Babila Church and subsequently cremation in Milan, her ashes were brought to Istanbul and consigned to the waters of the Bosphorus on May 16, 2008 according to her wish.
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| with Zeynep Oral (writer), Süleyman Demirel (President of the Republic), Fikri Sağlar (Minister of Culture) |
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| at the Festival reception |
1998
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| Gencer during the ceremony, Barcelona Photo © ANTONI BOFILL, Barcelona |
