Soprano Licia Albanese has passed away. Beloved by the public for her interpretations of the great Puccini roles, Albanese (who was born in Bari, Italy in 1909) essentially stopped performing when the Old Met closed in 1966. Her Met career spanned a quarter-century (debut 1940) with approximately 425 performances at the Old House; her last performance with the Met company took place at Newport, Rhode Island in July 1966 where she sang Mimi in a concert performance of LA BOHEME.
Although her voice was never one of my favorites, Albanese played an important role in my early affinity for opera: she was one of the singers on the first opera recording I ever owned - a two-LP compilation of Verdi and Puccini arias which my parents gave me on my eleventh birthday. Her sole track on the set was "In quelle trine morbide" from Puccini's MANON LESCAUT which I must have played a thousand times, her interpretation implanted in my soul.
In the summer of 1963, my parents took me for the second time to the Cincinnati Zoo Opera where Licia Albanese was appearing in her 100th performance of LA TRAVIATA. Thus she was my first Violetta - something no opera-lover ever forgets. She was fifty-four years old at the time; her colleagues Barry Morell and Frank Guarrera were several years younger. I can still see the red velvet curtains parting and Albanese, in a gorgeous white ball gown with her jet black hair set off by jewels and camellias, moving among her party guests. Though I was a young and still rather inexperienced opera-lover, her performance seemed rather shaky to me. During "Sempre libera" the woman next to me sang along and her coloratura seemed more fluent than the diva's.
But then, as the opera progressed, Albanese delved deeply into the words, and the expressive nuances of her singing as she drew us into Violetta's tragic destiny. Her reading of Germont's letter in the final scene had a ghostly resonance. The evening ended in triumph, of course.
In 1965 I was present at what was to be Albanese's last BUTTERFLY at the Old Met; of course, at the time no one knew this was to be her final performance of her signature role. Her voice was pallid, like an echo from some long ago time, but she again managed to overcome her vocal frailty with canny use of the text. I remember that late in Act II her kimono caught on a nail in the stage floor; she gestured calmly to Joann Grillo, the Suzuki, who knelt and released the silken cloth.
Metropolitan Opera House
November 26, 1965
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Cio-Cio-San.............Licia Albanese
Pinkerton...............Barry Morell
Suzuki..................Joann Grillo
Sharpless...............John Robert Dunlap
Goro....................Robert Schmorr
Bonze...................Norman Scott
Yamadori................Russell Christopher
Dolore..................Joyce Goldstein
Kate Pinkerton..........Shirley Love
Commissioner............Gene Boucher
Registrar...............William Stanz
Conductor...............Fausto Cleva
At the closing night gala of the Old Met on April 16th, 1966, Licia Albanese sang Butterfly's "Un bel di" and during the applause, she knelt and placed a kiss on the beloved stage (above). She campaigned tirelessly in an effort to save the Old House but once the inevitable demolition had started, she again donned her kimono and sang "Un bel di" amidst the rubble.
But Albanese had a second career: she ran the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation which for many years provided prize money and study grants to deserving young singers. The Foundation's annual gala - where the year's winners performed alongside beloved veteran artists - was always a gathering place for New York's most rabid opera fans.
In 1999, my late friend the Japanese contralto Makiko Narumi was a Puccini Foundation winner; at the dinner party after the gala, Makiko was photographed with Madame Albanese, Giulietta Simionato, and Mary Costa (above).
Although I have very little Albanese in my collection of recordings, two unlikely items that I find very enjoyable are her "Depuis le jour" from LOUISE and Tatyana's Letter Scene from EUGENE ONEGIN which the soprano recorded in Russian.
I did meet Madame Albanese once; it must have been in the year 2000. I was working at Tower Records and she came in one afternoon with a companion and spent some time browsing in the opera room. I greeted her, kissed her hand, and she was very gracious. When I told her I had seen her Violetta at the Cincinnati Zoo Opera, she began making animal noises: bird calls and lion roars. Such a nice memory for me.