Eloquence Classics

In May 1946, when Milan’s venerable La Scala theatre reopened after World War II, conductor Arturo Toscanini selected Renata Tebaldi then 24, to sing music by Rossini and Verdi for that watershed concert. ‘Ah, la voce d’angelo’ – the voice of an angel – was Toscanini’s reported verdict. In her heyday, she was known as ‘La Superba’. At the Metropolitan Opera where she was utterly adored, she was, less poetically, ‘Miss Sold-Out’. Her stage career lasted some three decades and she retired in 1976 at the comparatively early age of 54.

The items on the 1949 recital were first issued by Decca on 78rpm, later collected on LP. The 1955 recital was issued on two ten-inch discs in February and May 1956 then issued collectively on an LP in November 1958.

Giulietta Simionato, the great mezzo-soprano, commented, ‘Hers was a voice we shall never hear again and none shall ever equal – and all thanks to Decca’, the record label with which she had an almost exclusive relationship. Her first studio recordings (tracks 1–6 here) were made in Geneva near the end of 1949. These were released on 78 rpm, and then on a long-playing record. Her first recordings of complete operas came in 1951, with ‘Tosca’, ‘Madama Butterfly’ and ‘La Bohème’. Her conductor, for all of these sessions, was Alberto Erede who, although only thirteen years older than Tebaldi, was experienced on the international scene. These signature roles which also included Desdemona in Verdi’s ‘Otello’, were recorded twice (the second time in stereo), with little or no deterioration in her voice. The studio recitals from 1949 and 1955 are particularly valuable for their inclusion of arias from operas that Tebaldi never recorded in their entirety (‘Faust’, ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, ‘Lodoletta’, ‘Guglielmo Tell’ and ‘Cecilia’), although she sang all of these roles on stage.

Those who heard Tebaldi live remarked that her studio recordings did not do her full justice but they were best-sellers for Decca and continue to remain artistically and commercially viable today.