RECORDINGS &
REVIEWS
Anna
Bolena – Donizetti
11.07.1958
[Studio Recording]
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della RAI di Milano
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Leyla Gencer (Anna Bolena); Giulietta Simionato (Giovanna Seymour); Plinio
Clabassi (Enrico VIII)
Werther – Massenet
20.01.1959
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale G. Verdi di Trieste
Carlo Felice Cilario
Ferruccio Tagliavini (Werther); Leyla Gencer (Charlotte); Giuliana Tavolaccini
(Sophie)
In Italian
Simon Boccanegra – Verdi
19.08.1961
Wiener Philharmoniker und Chor der Wiener Staatsoper
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Tito Gobbi (Simon Boccangera); Leyla Gencer (Maria Boccanegra); Giorgio Tozzi
(Jacopo Fiesco); Giuseppe Zampieri (Gabriele Adorno); Rolando Panerai (Paolo
Albiani)
Roberto Devereux – Donizetti
02.05.1964
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli
Marino Rossi
Leyla Gencer (Elisabetta I); Ruggero Bondino (Roberto Devereux); Anna-Maria
Rota (Sara, duchessa di Nottingham); Piero Cappuccilli (Charles, duca di
Nottingham)
Alceste – Gluck
07.03.1967
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Vittorio Gui
Leyla Gencer (Alceste); Mirto Picchi (Admeto); Giuseppe Baratti (Evandro);
Renza Iotti (Ismene)
Saffo – Paccini
07.04.1967
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli
Franco Capuana
Leyla Gencer (Saffo); Franca Mattiucci (Climene); Tito del Bianco (Faone);
Louis Quilico (Alcandro)
Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra - Rossini
24.11.1970
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Massimo di Palermo
Nino Sanzogno
Leyla Gencer (Elisabetta); Umberto Grilli (Leicester); Sylvia Geszty (Matilde);
Pietro Bottazzo (Norfolk)
Bravissimo – 14 CDs
FROM CD BOOKLET
Legendary performances of Leyla Gencer
In a world dominated by singers from the countries with the most deep-rooted operatic cultures, Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer (b. 1928) seemed an exotic quantity to many Western audiences, and her career remained somewhat at the fringes; but a cadre of fans has always rooted for her devotedly, and their numbers have only been growing as more people are exposed to her passionate artistry through recordings.
Gencer was born to a wealthy Turkish father and a Polish Catholic mother in Istanbul on October 10, 1928 (not 1924, as stated in some references). She studied first at the Istanbul Conservatory, and later with two eminent Italian singers of the previous generation, soprano Apollo Granforte. She made her debut in Istanbul (by then renamed Ankara) in 1950 as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana. Three years later, in Naples, she made her first Italian appearance in the same role.
Early on she became a considerable celebrity in her native country, being called out to sing for visiting dignitaries such as President Eisenhower, but the Italian connection stood her in good stead throughout her career, and despite engagements elsewhere in Europe, and in America, Italy remained her principal operatic home. She began singing at La Scala in 1957, taking part in the world premieres of both Pou|enc’s Dialogues des carmélites and Pizzetti’s Assassinio nella cattedrale. She was especially popular at La Scala for fifteen seasons, during which she sang nineteen different roles with great success.
She did sing outside Italy, appearing in San Francisco in 1956, and at Covent Garden in England in 1962. Although she sang in several U.S. cities, she never appeared at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, although she had been considered for a production of Puccini’s Tosca in 1956.
Her repertoire encompassed 72 roles from Mozart to Prokofiev, but she was most famous for championing neglected repertoire such as Gluck’s Alceste, Rossini’s Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra, or Pacini’s Saffo; and especially for reviving the less famous operas of Donizetti, such as Anna Bolena, Belisario, and Caterina Cornaro. Of her many Donizetti successes, however, the most famous was the spectacular production of Roberto Devereux in Naples in 1964, included in this box set. Many live recordings in the catalogues over the years have featured her in the leading roles of slightly offbeat repertoire, in which she carved a special niche for herself.
Gencer retired from opera in 1985 but continued to sing in concerts for several years. Later still, she was appointed by Riccardo Muti to run the school for young artists at La Scala and she was still active well into her 70s. ln 2002, the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation at Lincoln Centre, New York City, presented her with the coveted Puccini Honour Award. She continued to be honoured in her native land: in 2004 the Turkish mint issued a silver commemorative coin bearing her likeness and valued at US $10.
Her voice was not large, nor her production even; but she compensated for these liabilities with many other talents: her voice was flexible in coloratura, she was able to float exquisitely soft high notes, she adhered closely to the score, she could vary her vocal colour, her phrasing was minutely nuanced, and above all she was an intelligent and passionate interpreter of superior dramatic insights.
Le Tre Regine / Gaetano
Donizetti
Anna Bolena
11.07.1958
[Studio Recording]
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della RAI di Milano
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Leyla Gencer (Anna Bolena); Giulietta Simionato (Giovanna Seymour); Plinio Clabassi (Enrico VIII); Aldo Bertocci (Lord Riccardo Percy); Silvio Majonica (Lord Rochefort); Anna-Maria Rota (Smeton); Mario Carlin (Sir Hervey)
Roberto Devereux
02.05.1964
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli
Marino Rossi
Leyla Gencer (Elisabetta I); Ruggero Bondino (Roberto Devereux); Anna-Maria
Rota (Sara, duchessa di Nottingham); Piero Cappuccilli (Charles, duca di
Nottingham); Gabriele de Julis (Lord Cecil); Silvano Pagliuca (Sir Gualtiero
Raleigh); Bruno Grella (un paggio); Bruno Grella (un famigliare di Nottingham)
Maria Stuarda
02.05.1967
Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Leyla Gencer (Maria Stuarda); Shirley Verrett (Elisabetta I); Franco Tagliavini
(Roberto, conte di Leicester); Agostino Ferrin (Sir Giorgio Talbot); Giulio
Fioravanti (Lord Cecil); Mafalda Masini (Anna Kennedy); Mario Frosini (un
araldo)
Hardy – 6 CDs
Anna Bolena
11.07.1958
[Studio Recording]
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della RAI di Milano
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Leyla Gencer (Anna Bolena); Giulietta Simionato (Giovanna Seymour); Plinio Clabassi (Enrico VIII); Aldo Bertocci (Lord Riccardo Percy); Silvio Majonica (Lord Rochefort); Anna-Maria Rota (Smeton); Mario Carlin (Sir Hervey)
Roberto Devereux
02.05.1964
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli
Marino Rossi
Leyla Gencer (Elisabetta I); Ruggero Bondino (Roberto Devereux); Anna-Maria
Rota (Sara, duchessa di Nottingham); Piero Cappuccilli (Charles, duca di
Nottingham); Gabriele de Julis (Lord Cecil); Silvano Pagliuca (Sir Gualtiero
Raleigh); Bruno Grella (un paggio); Bruno Grella (un famigliare di Nottingham)
Maria Stuarda
02.05.1967
Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
Leyla Gencer (Maria Stuarda); Shirley Verrett (Elisabetta I); Franco Tagliavini
(Roberto, conte di Leicester); Agostino Ferrin (Sir Giorgio Talbot); Giulio
Fioravanti (Lord Cecil); Mafalda Masini (Anna Kennedy); Mario Frosini (un
araldo)
Ak Müzik – 6 CDs
Belisario
14.05.1969
Orchestra e Coro del Grande Teatro La Fenice
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Giuseppe Taddei (Belisario); Leyla Gencer (Antonina); Mirna Pecile (Irene);
Umberto Grilli (Alamiro); Nicola Zaccaria (Giustiniano); Rina Pallini (Eudora);
Bruno Sebastian (Eutropio); Augusto Veronese (Ottavio); Giovanni Antonini
(Eusebio)
Collection
includes Lucia di Lammermoor (Callas), Maria Stuarda, Gemma di Vergy (Caballé),
L'Elisir d'Amore (Scotto).
Artists
Janet Baker (Alceste), Robert Tear (Admète), John Shirley-Quirk (Grand Prêtre d'Apollon), Maldwyn Davies (Evandre), Jonathan Summers (Hercule), Phillip Gelling (Un Héraut/Apollon), Matthew Best (La voix de l'Oracle), John Shirley-Quirk (Dieu infernal), Stuart Burrows (Ferrando), Thomas Allen (Guglielmo), Richard Van Allan (Don Alfonso), Kiri Te Kanawa (Fiordiligi), Agnes Baltsa (Dorabella), Daniela Mazzucato (Despina), Ann Murray (Octavian), Anna Tomowa-Sintow (Marschallin), Kurt Moll (Baron Ochs), Alan Opie (Herr von Faninal), Barbara Bonney (Sophie), Jennifer Rhys-Davies (Marianne Leitmetzerin), John Dobson (Major-domo to the Marschallin), Gordon Sandison (Notary), Paul Crook (Valzacchi) & Leah-Marian Jones (Annina), John Tomlinson (Hans Sachs), Thomas Allen (Beckmesser), Gosta Winbergh (Walther von Stolzing), Nancy Gustafson (Eva), Herbert Lippert (David), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Magdalena), Anthony Michaels-Moore (Kothner), Michael Druiett (Nachtwächter), Alasdair Elliot (Kunz Vogelgesang), Richard Lloyd-Morgan (Konrad Nachtigall), Paul Crook (Ulrich Eisslinger), Robin Leggate (Balthasar Zorn), John Dobson (Augustin Moser), Grant Dickson (Hermann Ortel), Geoffrey Moses (Hans Schwarz), Simon Wilding (Hans Foltz), Jon Vickers (Don Carlo), Gre Brouwenstijn (Elisabetta di Valois), Tito Gobbi (Rodrigo), Fedora Barbieri (La Principessa Eboli), Boris Christoff (Filippo II), Michael Langdon (Il Grande Inquisitore), Cesare Siepi (Don Giovanni), Leyla Gencer (Donna Anna), Richard Lewis (Don Ottavio), Sena Jurinac (Donna Elvira), Geraint Evans (Leporello), Robert Savoie (Masetto), Mirella Freni (Zerlina), David Ward (Il Commendatore), Joan Sutherland (Lucia), João Gibin (Edgardo), John Shaw (Enrico), Joseph Rouleau (Raimondo), Kenneth MacDonald (Arturo), Margreta Elkins (Alisa), Robert Bowman (Normanno), Victoria de los Ángeles (Cio Cio San), John Lanigan (Pinkerton), Geraint Evans (Sharpless), Barbara Howitt (Suzuki), Joyce Livingston (Kate Pinkerton), David Tree (Goro), David Allen (Il principe Yamadori), Michael Langdon (Lo zio Bonzo), Ronald Firmager (Il commissario imperiale), Harry Gawler (L'ufficiale del Registro), Ramón Vinay (Otello), Gré Brouwenstijn (Desdemona), Otakar Kraus (Iago), John Lanigan (Cassio), Raymond Nilsson (Rodrigo), Marian Nowakowski (Lodovico), Michael Langdon (Montano), Noreen Berry (Emilia), Forbes Robinson (Un Araldo), Jon Vickers (Parsifal), Norman Bailey (Amfortas), Amy Shuard (Kundry), Louis Hendrikx (Gurnemanz), Donald McIntyre (Klingsor), Michael Langdon (Titurel), Zinka Milanov (Tosca), Franco Corelli (Cavaradossi), Giangiacomo Guelfi (Scarpia), Forbes Robinson (Il Sagristano), Michael Langdon (Angelotti), David Tree (Spoletta), Ronald Lewis (Sciarrone), Noreen Berry (Un pastore), Rhoderick Davies (Un carceriere), Jon Vickers (Riccardo), Ettore Bastianini (Renato), Amy Shuard (Amelia), Regina Resnik (Ulrica), Joan Carlyle (Oscar), Victor Godfrey (Silvano), David Kelly (Samuele), Michael Langdon (Tom), John Kollmann (Un Giudice), George Barker (Un servo)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Charles
Mackerras, Colin Davis, Andrew Davis, Bernard Haitink, Carlo Maria
Giulini, Georg Solti, Tullio Serafin, Rudolf Kempe, Rafael
Kubelik, Reginald Goodall, Alexander Gibson, Edward Downes.
