Q U E E N
O F P I R A T E S - I
Leyla Gencer was asked only
twice to record for major recording companies. Both offers came
directly from the famous conductor Tullio Serafin. He was planning to make two
opera recordings (La Traviata and Simon Boccanegra) for
two major recording companies. At first Serafin was planning to work with Maria
Callas in La Traviata but since she had recorded the
same opera in 1953 for Cetra label, according to her contract she didn’t have
the right to record it for another label. Knowing Gencer’s success as Violetta, Serafin
wanted to collaborate with Gencer but according to her, both offers were
prevented by Callas. In the end Serafin recorded La Traviata with
Anonietta Stella for the label Emi in 1956.
Gencer may not be considered
one of the recording artists but today her
numerous (over 150) opera, concert and recital recordings are available in the
music markets on LPs, CDs and DVDs even single vinyl’s. Such high number of
recordings gave her the title of “Queen of Pirates”. Here’s a list of her
recordings: Macbeth (12 recordings), Lucrezia
Borgia (10 recordings), Norma (8
recordings), La Gioconda, Aida, La Forzadel
destino (6 recordings), Anna Bolena, Belisario, Simon
Boccanegra (5 recordings), Maria Stuarda, Le Martyrs, Alceste,
Don Carlo, Don Giovanni, La Battaglia di Legnano,
Ernani (4 recordings), Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto,
Gerusalemme, Il trovatore, I vespri Siciliani, Agnese di Hohenstaufen,
Elizabetta Regina d’Inghilterra, Medea in Corinto, Caterina Cornaro, Medea, I
Puritani (3 recordings), I due Foscari, Attila, Tosca, Les
dialogue des Carmelites, Idomeneo, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Werther,
Cavalleria Rusticana, La prova di un’Opera seria, Roberto Devereux, Lucia di
Lammermoor, Francesca da Rimini, La Vestal (2 recordings) and single
recordings of La Traviata, Pikovaya Dama, Yevgeny Onyegin, La Falena,
Guillaume Tell, Monte Ivnor, Turandot, Suor Angelica, madama Butterfly, Il
Tabarro, L’ange de feu, Lo Straniero, Lassasinio nella Catedrale, Saffo,
Adriana Lecouvreur, Albert Herring, Beatrice di Tenda.
Gencer’s recordings of
Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and
Donizetti’s Requiem per Bellini and the recordings of her
recitals and concerts, famous for their highly distinguished programs; (1956,
1974 and 1976 in Torino, in 1975 and 1979-Venice, 1975-Spoleto, 1976- Trieste,
1958 and 1978-Milan, 1979-Treviso, 1980, 1981 and 1985-Paris, 1981-Palermo and
1984-Naples) are available on CDs. Her Masterclass Scuola della Regine about
Donizetti Queens (Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda ve Roberto
Devereux) which she gave for Rai television in 1982 is also available on
DVD.
Only a very few of these
recordings were made at studios. Most of them so called “pirate recordings”
were made under bad circumstances at opera houses where the artists didn’t
receive any copyright fees. Rumour has it that, there are many recordings of
Gencer such as Manon (1958 San Francisco), Rigoletto (1958
San Francisco/Los Angeles), Lucia di Lammermoor (1957 San
Francisco/Los Angeles), Aida (1963, 1966 La Scala
Milan), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (1957 Palermo), Mefistofele (1958
La Scala Milan), Tosca (1961 Vienna), La Traviata (1957
Vienna/San Francisco/Los Angeles/San Diego/Sacramento, 1958
Philadelphia), Francesca da Rimini (1956 San Francisco/Los
Angeles), Otello (1962 Genova) and La Sonnambula (1959
Naples) which are still hidden in archives. The role of Elsa in Tannhauser is
also in Gencer’s repertoire but due to a strike at the opera house, the
performances were postponed to further dates on which Gencer had other opera
engagements. Consequently, she couldn’t sing the role. BBC Television also
broadcast her Glyndebourne Figaro on 29 August 1963.
Despite her declaration of
“British and American critics never liked me”, England’s biggest opera festival
Glyndebourne released the recording of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro of
1963 through its own record label. Gencer’s brilliant Contessa performance
is worth listening. Again, through its own recording label, Covent Garden Opera
of London released the recording of the mythical Don Giovanni production
conducted by Georg Solti and directed by Franco Zeffirelli in which Gencer
sang Donna Anna. Speaking of Mozart, one must mention Idomeneo premiered
at La Scala in 1968. Gencer’s performance under the baton of Wolfgang
Sawallisch was undoubtedly one of Gencer’s most powerful Mozart
interpretations. Gencer’s interpretation of the role Elettra in
the Italian style received the best reviews from Italian opera critics. This
performance can be found in La Scala’s 1968 recording.
Among Gencer’s recordings
there are also DVDs in black and white. Verdi’s Il Trovatore in
which she sang with legendary tenor Mario del Monaco is a masterpiece. And two
DVDs of Verdi’s Aida recorded in 1963 and 1966 at Arena di
Verona are some of Gencer’s best performances. Her interpretation of Donna
Elvira in Don Giovanni DVD which was recorded for Rai
TV in 1960 is remarkable. Despite her great success as Charlotte, Werther was
unfortunately performed in Italian as it was very common at that time, but this
recording didn’t become popular because of today’s opera standards.
Q U E E N
O F P I R A T E S - II
Renato Caccamo: A
judge, a music lover, a collector, or a pirate?
 |
| Renato Caccamo, Leyla Gencer, Pier Luigi Pizzi, n/a |
If you’re not interested in the Italian politics, you haven’t probably heard of Renato Caccamo. Apart from being a serious prosecutor, he’s also a great music lover, a collector who possesses thousands of records, but he’s also a person that made pirate recordings. But he never sold any of those recordings; he just gave them to his friends and companions as gifts.
I first heard of Renato Caccamo from Leyla Gencer during one of our
conversations in the 90’s when I met her. She hadn’t said his name, she’d just
mentioned that the “Milan Prosecutor” was a fan of hers. And after many
years, I found out about the importance of the Prosecutor Renato Caccamo on
Leyla Gencer’s career.
As far as I remember, I first met Renato Caccamo in Istanbul, when we were at Leyla Gencer’s apartment (I guess it was in 2006) and when he found out that I was a fan of hers as well, he took a DVD out of his pocket and gave it to me hastily. It was the video recording of Gencer’s Paris recital in 1985 (cover on the left) and I was extremely happy about acquiring that record which was rare.
Gencer had mentioned Caccamo only a few times as “The Milan Prosecutor” but
she’d never talked about their friendship or shared information about him. As I
later found out from Gencer’s friends, Caccamo had a major importance on Leyla
Gencer’s career.
Caccamo recorded all Gencer’s performances. By the way, Renato Caccamo didn’t
record only Gencer’s concerts; his hobby was to record almost all the concerts
that he attended, make collections, and then give those recordings to his
friends as gifts. Thereby, most of Leyla Gencer’s concerts that weren’t
broadcasted in radio or television were somehow passed on and consequently,
those recordings were released by the labels, later giving Leyla Gencer the
nickname: “The Queen of the Pirates”.
Certainly, the mentioned pirate recordings have poor sound quality, but they
are critically important since they’re the evidence of Gencer’s long and successful
career.
Recently, I saw this recording in Youtube whilst doing research on Gencer,
which I’m also sharing in the below.
It’s an extremely interesting recording and it also contains information about
Leyla Gencer. Especially, it’s thrilling to know that Domingo, Gencer,
Caccamo, Pollini and Dino Ciani interpreted the whole La Traviata all together
after a concert, until morning. There’s also a short audio recording available.
Of course, I suggest you listen to it considering that it was recorded after
midnight.
Apart from his relationship with Leyla Gencer, I find Renato Caccamo’s life and
personality quite interesting, and I suggest you watch the related Youtube link
that I’m sharing with you.
JEFFREY SWAN REMEMBERS RENATO CACCAMO
2018.01.18
Presented by
Jeffrey Swann
ARSC New York / Chapter
January Meeting
The New York Chapter of the
Association for Recorded Sound Collections presents its January 2018 program:
Renato Caccamo was born 26
August 1934 in Siderno, Calabria in Italy's deep South. His love of music began
early and was centred on the piano. In Rome, he studied Law and studied piano
at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. He was he was in his mid-20's when he moved
to Milan in the late 50s. He became both a criminal judge and a devotee of that
city’s concert life, his interest focused on the Teatro alla Scala. Because of
unique opportunities stemming from his important social position, his
persistence, and an indefatigable energy, he became La Scala's de facto
archivist in the early 60s. For the next 20 years he recorded (or had recorded
for him on first class sound equipment) not only everything at La Scala —
operas and concerts — but also virtually everything of substance in all of
Italy's major venues: RAI, Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, various festivals,
etc. He recorded almost everything, but his chief interests were opera
(originally Wagner) and piano, his own instrument. He became close friends with
many major musical celebrities during this period, e.g., Abbado, Pollini, Muti,
Weissenberg, Leyla Gencer, Nikita Magaloff, Dino Ciani, and many others, due,
at least in part, because he was so useful to them in making copies of
performances from his ever-growing collection. I became his friend in 1975 when
I won the first Dino Ciani piano competition at La Scala. Ciani had tragically
died in an auto accident the year before at the age of 32, and for the next 36
years Renato's apartment in Piazza Borromeo was my chief European residence.
During the first part of this period, hardly a day passed without a call from
someone such as Abbado or Muti or Pollini or Accardo to request a copy of some
specific performance. And everyday recordings from Europe and America and,
occasionally, Japan would arrive in exchange for recordings that he had made.
So, the collection became gigantic (and rather out of control). In the
meantime, Renato had become an increasingly powerful and important judge. His
position at retirement was President of the Court of Appeals, Fourth District
(Milan). Due to the temporary liberalization of piracy laws in the late 80s,
many of Renato's tapes were becoming commercial records. With the loss of
exclusivity, Renato’s zeal to record substantially diminished. By the mid 90's
his passion for collecting was mostly in the realm of books, of which he
possessed 80-90,000 volumes. At his death, on 6 September 2011, Renato's
collection of recordings was in a sadly confused state. The catalogues were
long out of date, and not all the older recordings had been migrated to more
durable formats. The entire collection is now housed at La Scala, but
inaccessible because the lack of resolution of privacy and copyright issues.
The collection also includes something like 10,000 hours of video recordings
(many informal) made between 1995 and his death. There are extraordinary
treasures buried there, some of which I will describe.
 |
| Jeffrey Swann (winner of 1° Premio Dino Ciani 1975) Photo © Teatro alla Scala / ERIO PICCAGLIANI, Milano |
Jeffrey Swann is currently Artistic Director of the Dino Ciani
Festival & Academy in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; Professor of Piano at New
York University; and the President’s Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at
Northern Arizona University. Himself a native of Northern Arizona, he studied
with Alexander Uninsky at Southern Methodist University, and with Beveridge
Webster and Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, where he received the B.M.,
M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees. He won first prize in the Dino Ciani Competition
sponsored by Milan’s La Scala; a gold medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition
in Brussels; and top honours at the Warsaw Chopin, Van Cliburn, Vianna da Motta
and Montreal Competitions, as well as the Young Concert Artists auditions in
New York City. His large and varied repertoire embraces more than 60 concertos
and solo works ranging from Bach to Boulez. His performing career has taken him
throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, appearing with
major orchestras and conductors. He lectures regularly at the Bayreuth
Festival, and at Wagner Societies in the United States and Italy and is a
frequent judge at competitions. He has recorded for DG, RCA Italiana,
Fonit-Cetra, Replica, Agorà, and Music and Arts.
 |
| with Renato Caccamo, 2006 at her home in İstanbul |
RECORDING
2018.01.18
Presented by Jeffrey Swann
ARSC New York / Chapter Januaary Meeting
Leyla Gencer Violetta
Valery
Placido Domingo Alfredo
Germont
Maurizio Pollini Giorgio
Germont
Dino Ciani Piano and
chorus
Renato Caccamo who was a big fan of Leyla Gencer
recorded almost all ll of her performances. In addition to being a prosecuting
attorney in Milan, he was also a close friend of renowned artists of that era.
In November 1970 (it’s indicated as December 1969 in the video above), the
Milan prosecuter Renato Caccamo was at the concert of La Scala Philharmonic
Orchestra directed by Riccardo Muti along with his friends. Some of those
friends were: Leyla Gencer, Placido Domingo and Maurizio Pollini. The pianist
Dino Ciani was the soloist of the concert. When the concert ended, Muti left
and Gencer, Domingo, Ciani, Pollini, Caccamo got together (probably at Gencer’s
apartment) and they sang whole La Traviata from the beginning until the end.
And that midnight concert was recorded by Caccamo. You can listen to Gencer’s
interpretation Addio del passato in the video above (from 21:30). This video is also very interesting since it also contains some
information about Gencer.
MORTO CACCAMO, IL MELOMANE CHE CONDANNO CRAXI
2011.09.07
L’uomo che ha condannato Bettino Craxi a un decennio di reclusione nei processi Eni-Sai e per le mazzette della metropolitana milanese si è spento a Milano la mattina di martedì 6 settembre, al termine di una lunga malattia. Renato Caccamo, presidente della quarta sezione della Corte d’Appello di Milano negli anni di Tangentopoli, si era costruito, condanna dopo condanna, una fama di inflessibilità, sempre rivendicata con orgoglio contro il “generale lassismo”. Pochissimo incline a dichiarazioni, Caccamo aveva comunque raccontato alla stampa di aver fatto parte dei giovani socialisti e di aver sempre votato Psi prima di trasformarsi nell’incubo della classe dirigente del partito.
Di lui si diceva che si vantasse
di non aver mai assolto nessuno: leggenda smentita dalla discussa sentenza
del 2006 sulla strage di Linate a favore dei direttori degli aeroporti milanesi
e anche, anni prima, dall’assoluzione di Berlusconi per la compravendita dei
terreni di Macherio. Alle costanti, inevitabili critiche di chi gli contestava
di ragionare come un pubblico ministero più che come un giudice o lo liquidava
come “talebano” opponeva le numerose conferme ottenute in Cassazione e la
certezza che nessuno avrebbe mai contestato la limpidezza delle sue
motivazioni.
La vita di Caccamo, però, era
un’altra. Trascinato da una passione musicale insaziabile, ha frequentato per
decenni tutti i concerti e tutte le serate d’opera non solo milanesi stringendo
amicizie profonde con gli artisti che spesso, finiti gli applausi, si
intrattenevano a cena a casa sua. E lui, un po’ ossessivamente, registrava,
riprendeva tutto: la musica, ma anche la calca in camerino, le discussioni. Le
sue registrazioni, autorizzate o no (alla Scala era stato Paolo Grassi a
fornirgli un lasciapassare), nell’ultimo periodo erano spesso solo un doppione
di quelle realizzate dai teatri. Ma in anni non troppo remoti costituivano
l’unica documentazione esistente di esecuzioni anche eccelse. Basta ricordare
Leyla Gencer, il grande soprano che nessuna major discografica aveva messo
sotto contratto.
Anche nella passione e nella
sacrosanta partigianeria musicale Caccamo conservava un giudizio
indipendente e aggiornato sera per sera: apprezzava una buona esecuzione anche
se veniva da un artista di cui aveva poca stima e riservava stroncature sprezzanti
alle “serate no” dei suoi prediletti. Vita pubblica e passione musicale si sono
intrecciate nel 2004, quando Caccamo ha vigorosamente preso le parti del
Sovrintendente scaligero Carlo Fontana nel conflitto con il Direttore musicale
Riccardo Muti raccogliendo un dossier sull’operato di Mauro Meli, fortemente
voluto dal Maestro alla Sovrintendenza, nelle precedenti esperienze di
gestione. Negli ultimi anni la lotta contro la malattia è stata soprattutto una
lotta per continuare ad essere ai concerti: nel 2007 a Philadelphia Riccardo
Chailly dovette spiegare personalmente alla security della Verizon Hall che
“sì, questo signore può registrare”. Solo pochi mesi fa l’ultima trasferta, al
Festival Mahler di Lipsia.
