The Romanian soprano, Virginia Zeani made only two studio recordings with a major label: these recordings for Decca of coloratura arias conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, and Puccini arias conducted by Franco Patanè. Generally, she favoured the spontaneity of live recordings. She did not have an agent and was not an active self-promoter which may account for the fact that she is less well known today than other great singers. However, there was never any doubt as to her mastery. Richard Bonynge once remarked: ‘Apart from Joan [Sutherland] who will always be number one on my list, the voices I most remember are Flagstad, Virginia Zeani and Renata Tebaldi. Zeani, whom I heard in the early fifties, had, at that time, a voice that was very beautiful all the way up to the E-flat and the low register was phenomenal, Ponsellian in a way.’ Now, her two Decca recitals are available coupled as a 2CD set.
CD1
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Lucia di Lammermoor: Regnava nel silenzio
Lucia di Lammermoor: Il dolce suono … Ardon gl’incensi
VINCENZO BELLINI
La sonnambula: Ah, non credea mirarti
La sonnambula: Qui la voce sua soave
GIUSEPPE VERDI
La traviata: E strano! … Ah, fors’è lui
La traviata: Addio del passato
GIACOMO PUCCINI
La bohème: Sì, mi chiamano Mimì
La bohème: Donde lieta
Virginia Zeani, soprano
Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Gianandrea Gavazzeni
CD2
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Gianni Schicchi: O, mio babbino caro
Turandot: Signora ascolta
Turandot: Tu che di gel sei cinta
La bohème: Sì, mi chiamano Mimì
La bohème: Donde lieta
Madama Butterfly: Un bel dì vedremo
Madama Butterfly: Tu, tu piccolo iddio!
Suor Angelica: Senza mamma
Manon Lescaut: In quelle trine morbide
Manon Lescaut: Sola, perduta, abbandonata
Tosca: Vissi d’arte
La rondine: Chi il bel sogno di Doretta
La bohème: Quando m’en vo’
Virginia Zeani, soprano
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Franco Patanè
Recording Producers: James Walker (CD1); Christopher Raeburn (CD2)
Balance Engineers: Cyril Windebank (CD1); Roy Wallace (CD2)
Recording Locations: Teatro Pergola, Florence, Italy, 8, 9 & 13–15 September 1956 (CD1); Santa Cecilia, Rome, Italy, 25, 27 & 31 July 1958 (CD2)
Remastering Engineer: Chris Bernauer
‘… above all, with a dark, warm, chesty quality throughout its range … she phrases meaningfully; she has an excellent sense of rhythm (witness the finale to the ‘Traviata’ Act I) and she has what all too few sopranos even attempt on more than an occasional phrase: a steady legato’ (CD1) Gramophone