February 23rd, 2022 - I have just read of the death of the Italian soprano Antonietta Stella; she passed away on this date at the age of 92.
In 1950, she made her operatic debut at Spoleto as Leonora in TROVATORE and soon after was singing at the opera houses of Rome, Florence, Naples, Parma, Turin, Catania, Venice, and the Arena di Verona.
Above: Antonietta Stella as Leonora in TROVATORE
In 1954, Ms. Stella debuted at the Teatro alla La Scala in Milan as Desdemona in OTELLO; she continued to sing at La Scala thru 1963 in the great soprano roles of Verdi and Puccini, and as Maddalena in ANDREA CHENIER. In 1955, she made debuts at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House in London, the Paris Opera, La Monnaie, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
She came to the Metropolitan Opera in 1956 as Aida, and went on to sing there thru 1960 as Cio-Cio-San, Violetta, Tosca, Elisabetta in DON CARLO, Leonora in TROVATORE,and Amelia in BALLO IN MASCHERA.
Above: Antonietta Stella and Eugenio Fernandi in the Aoyama BUTTERFLY at The Met
In 1958, Ms. Stella portrayed the title-character in Yoshio Aoyama's classic production of MADAMA BUTTERFLY; the production remained in the Met repertoire thru the 1990s.
Antonietta Stella - Un bel di - BUTTERFLY - Met bcast 1958
Among Antonietta Stella's commercial recordings, her DON CARLO (with Flaviano Labo, Fiorenza Cossotto, and Boris Christoff), her TROVATORE (with Cossotto and Carlo Bergonzi), and especially her ANDREA CHENIER (with Franco Corelliand Mario Sereni) are my special favorites. She is also heard on several "pirate" recordings.
Ms. Stella sang Minnie in the televised Japanese premiere performance of Puccini's FANCIULLA DEL WEST (The Girl of the Golden West) given at Tokyo on November 2nd, 1963. The NHK Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Oliviero De Fabritiis.
Watch and listen here.
CAST:
Minnie: Antonietta Stella
Dick Johnson: Gastone Limarilli
Jack Rance: Anselmo Colzani
Nick: Mario Guggia
Ashby/Jake Wallace: Bruno Marangoni
Sonora: Arturo La Porta
Wowkle: Anna Di Stasio
Sid/Billy Jackrabbit/Jose Castro: Giorgio Onesti
Trin: Antonio Saba
Bello: Marco Scotti
Harry: Augusto Pedroni
Joe: Antonio Pirino
Happy: Paolo Mazzotta
Larkens: Mario Rinaudo
Postman: Takeshi Nakamura
And here is part of the Act II duet of Violetta and Germont from TRAVIATA with Ms. Stella and Tito Gobbi:
Antonietta Stella & Tito Gobbi - Dite alla giovine ~ TRAVIATA